Students from the Cornell Master in Financial Engineering (Cornell MFE) program have emerged victorious at Alphathon 2024, which took place in September.
A team of five Cornell MFE students and one NYU graduate student proposed a winning solution in competition with 77 other teams. Their topic was sponsored by AllianceBernstein, and they were tasked with answering the question, "Can We Use LLMs and Alternative Data to Outperform the S&P500?"
The students had three weeks to submit a five-page paper detailing their approach in applying Large Language Models to the analysis of market regimes. The data sources came from Eagle Alpha, Quant Connect, Data Bento, and more. Expounding upon their winning research, Shun Wang (MFE '24) noted, "This competition enabled me to explore the practical application of machine learning techniques...These insights allowed me to optimize the security selection process, ultimately improving investment performance." Teammate Hudson Chen (MFE '24) concurs, "Participating in the Alphathon deepened my understanding of market uncertainty and dynamics and taught me how to choose the most suitable tools for analysis." As the winners for their specific topic, the Cornell/NYU Team presented their work in a conference presentation on Oct. 9th.
Andrew Chin, the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at AllianceBernstein and current visiting faculty at Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM), praised the team for their hard work. "The emergence of LLMs has opened up new opportunities for systematic investors. The team developed a pioneering approach that combines Gaussian mixture models with LLM-derived sentiment to identify market regimes and implemented a successful sector rotation strategy. Their research and results were innovative and as a result, we are inviting the team to present their findings at AB."
Elina Zhuang (MFE '24) stated, "I had the opportunity to apply my academic knowledge in a practical setting, making it an invaluable experience as I prepare to transition from school to the industry."
Students at Cornell's Financial Engineering program have many opportunities to engage in quantitative finance research and to expand their knowledge through collaborations with industry practitioners... Read more about CFEM Student Recognized by INFORMS 2024 Winter Simulation Conference
For the past 27 years, Andrew Chin '93 MBA '94 has worked at AllianceBernstein in a variety of executive positions. His most recent role prior to the announcement was AB's Head of Investment Solutions... Read more about Andrew Chin is named AllianceBernstein's Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer
Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM) student Tashae Bowes recently received the Prime Minister’s National Youth Award for Excellence from Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Bowes is one... Read more about M.Eng. student honored by Jamaican Prime Minister
