Limit theorems for nondegenerate U-statistics of continuous semimartingales

This paper presents the asymptotic theory for nondegenerate $U$-statistics of high frequency observations of continuous It\^{o} semimartingales. We prove uniform convergence in probability and show a functional stable central limit theorem for the standardized version of the $U$-statistic. The limiting process in the central limit theorem turns out to be conditionally Gaussian with mean zero. Finally, we indicate potential statistical applications of our probabilistic results.