The Brownian bridge does not offer a consistent advantage in quasi-Monte Carlo integration

Abstract

The Brownian bridge has been suggested as an effective method for reducing the quasi-Monte Carlo error for problems in finance. We give an example of a digital option where the Brownian bridge performs worse than the standard discretization. Hence, the Brownian bridge does not offer a consistent advantage in quasi-Monte Carlo integration. We consider integrals of functions of d variables with Gaussian weights such as the ones encountered in the valuation of financial derivatives and in risk management. Under weak assumptions on the class of functions, we study quasi-Monte Carlo methods that are based on different covariance matrix decompositions. We show that different covariance matrix decompositions lead to the same worst case quasi-Monte Carlo error and are, therefore, equivalent. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).