We propose a new set of formal backtests for VaR-forecasts that significantly improve upon existing backtesting procedures. Our new test of unconditional coverage can be used for both one-sided and two-sided testing, which leads to a significantly increased power. Second, we stress the...

We propose to forecast the Value-at-Risk of bivariate portfolios using copulas which are calibrated on the basis of nonparametric sample estimates of the coefficient of lower tail dependence. We compare our proposed method to a conventional copula-GARCH model where the parameter of a Clayton...