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 random variables whose correlation equals a given ?
Short answer
Take and with independent standard normals. Then and . This is the Cholesky factor of the correlation matrix; the same idea extends to variables via with .
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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