We have implemented a new optimization scheme "mnfb" in the
devel-version of fGarch
(https://svn.r-project.org/Rmetrics/trunk/fGarch). It is actually the
same fortran library as used in the R function nlminb(). But we have
implemented the whole optimization in fortran.
As you have noticed it, we are also working on the documentation and we
hope the new manual page is more readable.
AZ> Adrian's code comes with its own optimzer (Quasi-Newton) which
AZ> is not
AZ> available in garchFit() (I think) and provides both analytical
AZ> and
AZ> numerical gradients (Gaussian conditional distribution only).
In garchFit you can choose between 5 different optimizations
schemes : "nlminb" , "mnfb" (in devel-version), "sqp", "lbfgsb",
"nlminb+nm", "lbfgsb+nm". Please read the man page for more details.
Although the analytical gradient and hessian of ARMA-APARCH for
Gaussian conditional distribution can be calculated without too
much of effort, the analytical solutions for other
distribution are not trivial. Since garchFit can handle different
conditional distributions ("norm", "snorm", "ged", "sged", "std",
"sstd"), we decieded to use only numerical approximations.