No arbitrage and lead-lag relationships

Abstract The existence of time-lagged cross-correlations between the returns of a pair of assets, which is known as the lead–lag relationship, is a well-known stylized fact in financial econometrics. Recently some continuous-time models have been proposed to take account of the lead–lag relationship. Such a model does not follow a semimartingale as long as the lead–lag relationship is present, so it admits an arbitrage without market frictions. In this paper we show that they are free of arbitrage if we take account of market frictions such as the presence of minimal waiting time on subsequent transactions or transaction costs.