Just ran into this article that I first dismissed as non-interesting until I actually started to read it. The stress testing described is not the type of stress testing that we usually talk about, but there are very interesting parallels. Stress testing is used as a complementary approach to value-at-risk (VaR) and is being increasingly used as a risk management technique. There are two types of stress tests being deployed: Sensitivity testing. This typically involves "shocking" risk parameters such as short-term interest rates. Scenario testing.Typically, this involves analyzing portfolio performance during risk manager-defined scenarios in which portfolios "encounter" significant problems. That approach sure sounds familiar to me!