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Making two correlated normals from independent ones

Question

You have a routine that outputs independent standard normal draws. Using it, how would you construct a pair of N(0,1)N(0,1) random variables whose correlation equals a given ρ∈[−1,1]\rho \in [-1,1]?

Short answer

Take X=Z1X=Z_1 and Y=ρZ1+1−ρ2 Z2Y=\rho Z_1+\sqrt{1-\rho^2}\,Z_2 with Z1,Z2Z_1,Z_2 independent standard normals. Then Var⁡(Y)=ρ2+(1−ρ2)=1\operatorname{Var}(Y)=\rho^2+(1-\rho^2)=1 and Cov⁡(X,Y)=ρ\operatorname{Cov}(X,Y)=\rho. This is the 2×22\times 2 Cholesky factor of the correlation matrix; the same idea extends to nn variables via X=LZX=LZ with LL⊤=ΣLL^\top=\Sigma.

Adapted from Zhou, A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews, sec. 3.6 Linear Algebra, 'LU and Cholesky decomposition', p.56; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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