The purpose of this article is to show how the multivariate structure (the “shape” of the distribution) can be separated from
the marginal distributions when generating scenarios. To do this we use the copula. As a result, we can define combined approaches
that capture shape with one method and handle margins with another. In some cases the combined approach is exact, in other
cases, the result is an approximation. This new approach is particularly useful if the shape is somewhat peculiar, and substantially
different from the standard normal elliptic shape. But it can also be used to obtain the shape of the normal but with margins
from different distribution families, or normal margins with for example tail dependence in the multivariate structure. We
provide an example from portfolio management. Only one-period problems are discussed.
Keywords Stochastic programming – Scenario generation – Copulas