Calculation of VaR — Based on the Account Manager's Perspective

Abstract

Value at Risk (VaR) is one of the risk measurement methods used by international financial institutions, which can be applied to stock, bond, future, option, complex derivative and other financial markets. VaR is also a primary measure for quantifying market risk and has gradually become the main basis for banks to calculate their capital requirements for market risk using internal models. This paper attempts to use three methods (variance-covariance method, historical simulation method, Monte-Carlo simulation method) to calculate VaR in both single asset and multiple assets scenarios to help account managers manage portfolios and guard against various potential risks. In addition, it compares the advantages and disadvantages of three methods in different scenarios to assist account managers adopt algorithms flexibly.