Before revision:  We establish the consistency of the estimator and we analyse its finite sample performance in the presence of microstructure noise contamination. When applying our methodology to real data, our results provide evidence of the presence of the stochastic leverage effect  .
After revision:  We establish the consistency of the estimator and we analyse its finite sample performance in the presence of microstructure noise effects. The Fourier methodology is applied to S\&P500 futures prices to investigate the magnitude of the stochastic leverage effect .