Skip to content
All library documents

Sequential Conditional Sampling for Multivariate Clayton Copulas

Article Quant Q&A · Author: simzoor

Summary

The document describes how to extend conditional sampling from a bivariate Clayton copula to an n-dimensional one. Starting with independent uniform draws, it uses successive conditional distributions derived from the copula generator and its derivatives. Each new uniform value is obtained by solving the corresponding conditional cumulative distribution equation, given the values already sampled.

The post also includes code examples for simulating bivariate Clayton and Gaussian copulas, but does not present validation results for the multivariate procedure. The method is stated through equations rather than a complete implementation, and solving each conditional equation may require numerical methods. The discussion does not cover parameter estimation, calibration, or how to transform the simulated uniforms into specific financial marginals, so those steps must be handled separately for a practical application.

Key ideas

  • The described multivariate method builds samples one variable at a time using conditional distributions.
  • Independent uniform draws supply the inputs to successive conditional cumulative distribution equations.
  • The conditional equations use derivatives of the Clayton generator and previously sampled values.
  • The document provides bivariate code examples but no empirical validation of its n-dimensional method.
  • Financial marginal distributions and parameter calibration are outside the discussion.

Tags

Full text
# Simulating from a multivariate clayton copula


# Simulating from a multivariate clayton copula












I am recently into copulas for finance, I've read several examples of how to generate dependent random variables with most kind of copulas. The problem for me is that all the books describe the case with 2 random variables $(X_1,X_2)$ but I want to generate $n$ dependent r.v. $(X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_n)$.

I find the case easy for gaussian copulas, since we just have to expand the correlation matrix, apply cholesky decomposition and calculate matrix multiplication.

But I couldn't find a way to apply this for the case of a clayton copula, since the book examples always use the conditional copula density of r.v. #1 to generate r.v. #2. This seems not like a practical approach for multi r.v.

Is there some approach like the one for the gaussian copula?

Best regards

## Answer by simzoor (score 5, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/46387

Since I think this is of interest for other people, I will post the approach I found:

First, let $C_n(u_1,\ldots,u_n)$ be a $n$ - dimensional Clayton copula with generator function $F$ and inverse $F^{-1}$. Then,

- Generate $n$ independent r.v. from $U (0,1)$

- Calculate $n-1$ derivatives of $F$, where $F_{n-1}$ denotes the $n-1$-th - order derivative of $F$

- Set $v_1 = u_1$

- Set $u_2 = C_2(v_2|v_1) = \frac{F_1(F^{-1}(v_1)+F^{-1}(v_2))}{F_1(F^{-1}(v_1)}$ and solve for $v_2$

- Repeat until $u_n = C_n(v_n|v_1,v_2,\ldots,v_{n-1)} = \frac{F_{n-1}(F^{-1}(v_1)+F^{-1}(v_2)+\ldots+F^{-1}(v_n))}{F_{n-1}(F^{-1}(v_1)+F^{-1}(v_2)+\ldots+F^{-1}(v_{n-1}))}$ and solve for $v_n$.

For the question regarding matlab code for simulating from gaussian copula, here some quick coding:

```
%% Simulations of bivariate Gaussian copulas 

%Example for rho=0.5
n=30000;
rho=0.5;
x1=norminv(rand(1,n));
x2=norminv(rand(1,n));
X = [x1; x2];

C = [1, rho; rho,1]; %2x2 Correlation matrix

cholesky = chol(C,'lower'); %lower triangular matrix of C using Cholesky decomposition

Copsims = cholesky*X;

c1 = Copsims(1,:);
c2 = Copsims(2,:);

plot(c1,c2,'.') %correlated standard normals

corrcoef(c1,c2) %check for empirical rho, not on point the initial rho because of sampling error
```

## Answer by Frankova T (score 3)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/48678

Clayton Copula-Matlab Code

```
    %% Simulations of Clayton copulas using conditional cdf

%Example for theta=4
n=3000;
theta=5;
u=rand(1,n);
y=rand(1,n);
v=((y.^(1/(1+theta)).*u).^(-theta)+1-u.^(-theta)).^(-1/theta);

x1=norminv(u);
x2=norminv(v);

plot(x1,x2,'.')
```

Though for me, Gaussian seems uneasy, can you share a code, on how to do Gaussian Copula in Matlab?

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.