Modeling and Generating Multivariate Time Series with Arbitrary Marginals Using a Vector Autoregressive Technique

We present a model for representing stationary multivariate time series with arbitrary marginal distributions and autocorrelation structures and describe how to generate data quickly and accurately to drive computer simulations. The central idea is to transform a Gaussian vector autoregressive process into the desired multivariate time-series input process that we presume as having a VARTA (Vector-Autoregressive-To-Anything) distribution. We manipulate the correlation structure of the Gaussian vector autoregressive process so that we achieve the desired correlation structure for the simulation input process. For the purpose of computational efficiency, we provide a numerical method, which incorporates a numerical-search procedure and a numerical-integration technique, for solving this correlation-matching problem.