Using theory on (conditionally) Gaussian processes with stationary increments developed in Barndorff-Nielsen et al. (2009, 2011), this paper presents a general semiparametric approach to conducting inference on the fractal index, $\alpha$, of a time series. Our setup encompasses a large class of Gaussian processes and we show how to extend it to a large class of non-Gaussian models as well. It is proved that the asymptotic distribution of the estimator of $\alpha$ does not depend on the specifics of the data generating process for the observations, but only on the value of $\alpha$ and a "heteroskedasticity" factor. Using this, we propose a simulation-based approach to inference, which is easily implemented and is valid more generally than asymptotic analysis. We detail how the methods can be applied to test whether a stochastic process is a non-semimartingale. Finally, the methods are illustrated in two empirical applications motivated from finance. We study time series of log-prices and log-volatility from $29$ individual US stocks; no evidence of non-semimartingality in asset prices is found, but we do find evidence of non-semimartingality in volatility. This confirms a recently proposed conjecture that stochastic volatility processes of financial assets are rough (Gatheral et al., 2014).
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