CFEM Faculty Marcos Lopez de Prado Receives Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award

Lopez de Prado's article, published in The Journal of Portfolio Management, identifies a significant logical inconsistency within the factor investing literature. He argues that while factor models are intended to have a causal interpretation, researchers virtually never justify their model specification choices in causal terms, hence the question “where are the factors in factor investing?” This oversight leads to misspecified models and the publication of false positives. Furthermore, through Monte Carlo experiments, he shows that misspecified factor models may be so biased as to estimate... Read more

A New Semester is Underway at Cornell MFE

Ayumi Sakamoto, CFEM Associate Director of Career Development, reflected on the new faces at Bootcamp. "We are thrilled to welcome our new first-year students, as well as catch up with our returning second-year students! Our collaborative and supportive culture is stronger than ever!" CFEM Director Victoria Averbukh echoed the enthusiasm for a promising start to the semester. "We welcomed our students in Ithaca and at Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan with new courses, new Career Bootcamps, and new networking opportunities. The year started with practical career development workshops and... Read more

"CFEM and UBS AI & Data Research Seminars" - A Second Year of Collaboration!

Today's world of new technologies, the abundance of data, and alacrity to deliver quicker, cheaper and at scale is fueling digitalization (and increasing/changing expectations of Financial Services providers). At UBS, we are focused on harnessing the power of AI to enhance our client services and streamline our workflows — with safety and regulations on center stage — bringing together data science and analytics experts from across the bank to harmonize and unify our group efforts. Find out more about opportunities at UBS. UBS Investment Bank provides corporate, institutional and wealth... Read more

A Springtime Reunion for Cornell MFE

Over 50 guests discussed their latest milestones with drinks and hors d’oeuvres. A few current students also joined the party as their peers freely shared professional and life advice. CFEM Associate Director Ayumi Sakamoto, who joined us in 2021, was a new face to many of our alumni who met her in-person for the first time. CFEM Director Victoria Averbukh briefly addressed the crowd to express gratitude for their continued support. Our alumni remain committed to the program and are a big part of why we have maintained excellence over the years. This was another reunion for the books! We are... Read more

CFEM celebrates 15th anniversary by hosting Future of Finance Conference

“While I had no doubts this would be a successful forum, I could never imagine the level of positive response. Comments from attendees surpassed any expectation that our panelists or our sponsor envisioned,” Victoria Averbukh, Director of CFEM, said. The conference brought together senior academics, Wall Street practitioners, finance entrepreneurs, and some non-finance people to discuss the future of quant finance. There were 15 wide-ranging panel discussions and a keynote address delivered by retired US Navy Admiral Scott Sanders on “The Geopolitical Risk of Tomorrow.” The sheer number and... Read more

Future of Finance Conference This September Is Not to Be Missed

With the support of our sponsor, Rebellion Research , this event is shaping up to be a one-of-a-kind meeting of a broad range of experts in quant finance. From senior academics to seasoned Wall Streeters and Fintech founders, we are bringing together amazing talent to exchange ideas and share opinions. See the full agenda as it is being finalized. Do not miss this unique event! Join us on September 16th on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. Click here to reserve your spot (capacity is limited). Read more

New Announcement! UBS and CFEM Partner for AI, Data & Analytics Speaker Series

Today's world of new technologies, the abundance of data, and alacrity to deliver quicker, cheaper and at scale is fueling digitalization [and increasing/changing expectations of Financial Services providers]. At UBS, we are reimagining how we approach our workflow challenges to harness the power of artificial intelligence, data and analytics (ADA) with the newly launched center of expertise being just one example, bringing together data scientists and analytics experts from across the bank to harmonize and unify our group efforts. UBS Investment Bank provides corporate, institutional and... Read more

Leadership in Ukraine: A Spotlight on Cornell MFE '22 Ivan Kosyuk

"From the first day of the war in Ukraine, I searched for an opportunity to help my country. At first, I participated in a volunteer group of engineers to create useful software for the cause. Tech in Ukraine is a promising and rapidly growing sector, but after I learned about the scale of job loss among skilled engineers, I realized that this is where I could help the most. "Together with a few members of our community, we formed UA IT HUB—an organization of engineers open to working for clients abroad. By organizing teams within the country, we realized that we could foster expertise in... Read more

CFEM Goes Global: An International Collaboration with Covario

Covario will collaborate with a team of CFEM students to answer the relevant industry question of "How Might We Use Order Limit Book Data on Centralized Crypto Exchanges to Make Short-Term Price Predictions"? Spearheading this project are Luis Fernández, Covario's Head of Quantitative Research, and Prof. Sasha Stoikov , CFEM Head of Research. Mr. Fernández and his team are first-time sponsors, and he noted, "We look forward to helping students experience first-hand the positive impact of when traditional mathematical and scientific skills are applied in the crypto space." To learn more about... Read more

CFEM Class of 2021 Present Final Projects

Capstone Projects: The Hallmark of a Cornell Financial Engineering Education

By: Roselle Bajet

CFEM Senior Research Associate Sasha Stoikov is a faculty advisor who has spent over a decade in guiding students throughout the process of conducting research and gathering data. He notes that CFEM selects a diverse set of companies looking for innovative solutions to financial data science problems. Some projects proposed by Fintech companies in 2021 were related to cryptocurrencies and ESG impact investing. Banks and brokers in our lineup of companies have continued their interest in Machine Learning applications to include factor timing, portfolio allocation, and market making. For example... Read more