Estimating value-at-risk: a point process approach

We consider the modelling of extreme returns in financial time series, and introduce a marked point process model for the exceedances of a high threshold. This model has a self-exciting, Hawkes-process structure in which recent events affect the current intensity of threshold exceedances more than distant ones. Estimates of value-at-risk are derived for real datasets and the success of the estimation method is evaluated in backtests.