We propose a nonparametric estimator of the empirical distribution function (EDF) of the latent spot variance of the log-price of a financial asset. We show that over a fixed time span our realized EDF (or REDF)-inferred from noisy high-frequency data-is consistent as the mesh of the observation...

Properties of a specification test for the parametric form of the variance function in diffusion processes dXt = b (t,Xt) dt + sigma (t,Xt) dWt are discussed. The test is based on the estimation of certain integrals of the volatility function. If the volatility function does not depend on the...