Xavier Initialization
Xavier initialization, also known as Glorot initialization, is a method for setting the initial weights of a neural network to keep the variance of activations and gradients consistent across layers. By drawing weights from a distribution with a variance that depends on the number of input and output units, it prevents the signal from dying out or exploding during the forward and backward passes.
This is particularly useful for deep networks using sigmoid or tanh activation functions. In the context of financial derivatives pricing, this initialization ensures that the model can start learning immediately without needing a long burn-in period.
It provides a balanced starting point that is essential for the convergence of complex, multi-layered models. By stabilizing the early stages of training, Xavier initialization significantly improves the overall performance and reliability of the resulting model.
It is a standard best practice in the design of neural network architectures for quantitative finance.