Multivariate mixed normal conditional heteroskedasticity

A new multivariate volatility model where the conditional distribution of a vector time series is given by a mixture of multivariate normal distributions is proposed. Each of these distributions is allowed to have a time-varying covariance matrix. The process can be globally covariance stationary even though some components are not covariance stationary. Some theoretical properties of the model such as the unconditional covariance matrix and autocorrelations of squared returns are derived. The complexity of the model requires a powerful estimation algorithm. A simulation study compares estimation by maximum likelihood with the EM algorithm. Finally, the model is applied to daily US stock returns.