Generally speaking when you are numerically evaluating and integral, say in MATLAB do I just pick a large number for the bounds or is there a way to tell MATLAB to “take the limit?”
I am assuming that you just use the large number because different machines would be able to handle numbers of different magnitudes.
I am just wondering if their is a way to improve my code. I am doing lots of expected value calculations via Monte Carlo and often use the trapezoid method to check my self of my degrees of freedom are small enough.
Strictly speaking, it’s impossible to evaluate a numerical integral out to infinity. In most cases, if the integral in question is finite, you can simply integrate over a reasonably large range. To converge at a stable value, the integral of the normal error has to be less than 10 sigma — this value is, for better or worse, as equal as you are going to get to evaluating the same integral all the way out to infinity.