Program for Financial Studies at Columbia Business School

How are ETFs like appetizer samplers? Think of an ETF like ordering an appetizer sampler at a restaurant; instead of choosing one appetizer and hoping you’ll enjoy it, you get a mix of appetizers, increasing the likelihood of having something you’ll like. The iShares audio series takes listeners on an investment journey – from the basics of investing to a deep dive into the potential benefits of ETFs. Listen to our very own thematic strategist, Anna Nerys, in episode 2 as she explains why ETFs are like appetizer samplers…and sports teams…and picnic baskets. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eG6b8iUC

What is Equities Research? What does a day in the life look like? What is the difference between Buy-Side and Sell-Side Research? How does the skill set differ between Buy-Side and Sell-Side Research? What exit opportunities are there out of Sell-Side Research? We answer all of these questions in our interview with Stephen Haggerty, former head of Equities Research in both New York and Hong Kong at Bank of America Merrill Lynch here: https://lnkd.in/gP58aDrE

This evening, Columbia Business School held a Recognition Ceremony to celebrate the MS Class of 2024, comprised of graduates specializing in Accounting, Marketing Science, and MSFE. “This is a time of enormous change and a great time to put into work all that you have learned,” Dean Costis Maglaras told the graduating class. "The future is what you will help sculpt." During the ceremony, faculty members advised graduates that while technological, geopolitical, and environmental uncertainty were ever present, so too was the opportunity for impact. Congratulations to this year's graduates, and come back to campus soon!?

As the asset class of private debt has become sizable and scalable on a stand-alone basis, the “addressable market” overlap with the syndicated markets has increased. We expect the “mix-shift” between public and private corporate credit markets to continue to ebb and flow, over time. More broadly, for corporate credit investors, we continue to expect an environment of heightened dispersion, but not widespread market disruption. Please see here for more: https://1blk.co/49o3h2G

It was great to Participate at Quant Strats 2024 this past week. I was on a panel with Edward Tong, PhD (moderator), Conor Twomey (picture below courtesy of Conor), and Yuyu Fan. We were discussing how to use AI to extract useful information from text data, something that I've been working on at Columbia for the last several years. Nevertheless, I learned a ton from my co-panelists who really know their stuff! After the panel, I gave a talk on the pitfalls of using voluminous amounts of data for financial forecasting. As AI tools allow more unstructured data to become structured, researchers have access to tens or hundreds of thousands of new numerical data series. More data means more potential signals, but also much greater scope for data mining and spurious correlations. I argue that traditional machine learning tools can help. You can see my talk slides here: https://lnkd.in/eK9Q4f4H. #ai #machinelearning #nlp #quantitativefinance