Practitioners' Lecture Series
The Practitioners' Lecture Series is aimed at engaging students (MSc and PhD) in a wide range of up-to-date topics and trends with direct industry relevance, reaching beyond the core contents of the MSc.
It consists of short lectures (1-2 hrs length) given by practitioners working in the field with contents ranging from technical to more hands-on, or overviews, with a strong emphasis on the everyday applications and challenges. Topics include Algorithmic Differentiation, Regulation, Stress testing, Block Chain, Impact of Brexit, FinTech, Big Data and many more.
Upcoming events

29 JANUARY, 7-8 PM
(Practitioner in Stress Methodology and Model Risk)
Counterparty Credit Risk Stress Testing
(Room: Huxley 139)

5 FEBRUARY, 6-8 PM
Mickael Rouillere and Ali Pichvai
(Quod Financial)
Machine Learning in the financial technology space
(Room: Huxley 139)

12 February, 6-8 pm
Joaquin Narro, Managing Director,
Alcazar Investment Management Limited
Forecasting Prices of Electricity Futures
Room: Huxley 139)
Upcoming events

19 FEBRUARY, 6-8PM
University of Milan
Who will rescue finance? The role of academics, bankers, politicians, regulators
(Room: Huxley 139)

26 FEBRUARY, 6-8 PM
Marc Henrard, Managing Partner at muRisQ Advisory and visiting professor at University College London.
The future of LIBOR: A quantitative perspective
(Room: Huxley 139)

5 March, 6-8 pm
Morini Massimo, Head of Interest rate and Credit models
(Room: Huxley 130)
Upcoming lectures:


19 March, 6-8 pm
Henrik Rasmussen, Founder, Hibrium
Ex global head of quant at SCB, ex global head of rates quants at BAML, ex co-head of xasset quant at JPM
Volatility smile modelling for interest rates: a surprisingly hard problem of consequence
(Room: Huxley 139)

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Archive
Lectures
2018 Lectures
2018 Lectures
16 October, 6-8pm
Shri Rengasamy
(DC Innovation Leader, Mercer)
Investing for Retirement
23 October, 6-8pm
Tiziano Bellini
(Senior Manager, BlackRock)
Tiziano Bellini Presentation
30 October, 6-8pm
Ben Wood
(Quantitative Analyst, JP Morgan)
Deep Statistical Hedging
6 November, 6-8pm
Gordon Lee
(Executive Director, Portfolio Quantitative Analytics, UBS)
The Importance of Being (Earnestly) Collateralised
13 November, 6-8pm
Leonardo Marroni and Irene Perdomo
(Devet Capital)
Commodity markets and commodity indexes: a practitioners’ introduction
4 December, 6-8 pm
Roel Oomen
(Managing Director, electronic FX Spot Trading, Deutsche Bank)
FX OTC market structure
2017-18
- 22 March, 17:00-18:00 Clore Lecture Theatre (Huxley 213): Patrick McGuire (LMR Partners) on Practical Volatility and Credit Trading
Abstract: Discussion of several topics relating to the practical challenges in the research and implementation of trading strategies in the volatility and credit asset classes.
- 21 March, 16:30-17:30 Huxley 139: Claude Martini (Zeliade Systems Paris) on Robust Calibration and No Arbitrage Interpolation of eSSVI Slices
Abstract: We describe a robust calibration algorithm of a set of SSVI slices (i.e., a set of 3 SSVI parameters θ,ρ,φ attached to each option maturity available on the market), which grants that these slices are free of But- terfly and Calendar-Spread arbitrage. Given such a set of consistent SSVI parameters, we show that the most natural interpolation/extrapolation of the parameters povides a full continuous volatility surface free of arbitrage. The numerical implementation is straightforward, robust and quick, yielding an effective, parsimonious benchmark solution to the smile problem.
- 13 March, 17:00-18:00 Weeks Hall Lecture Theatre: Gordon Lee (UBS) on The Importance of Being (Earnestly) Collateralised
Abstract: This talk gives an introduction to the increasing important that collateral agreements plays in various XVA and Credit Risk Exposure computation in finance. We will go through the interplay between collateral agreements and pricing, also looking at the future problems that need to take these issues into account.
- 13 February, 17:00-18:00 Weeks Hall Lecture Theatre: Leonardo Marroni and Irene Perdomo (Devet Capital) on February 5th: Black Monday for VIX, and VIX products
Abstract: In this lecture we will look at what happened on 5th Feb to VIX markets and VIX Exchange Traded Products. We will consider how the VIX futures can be used to build tradable VIX Indexes, such as the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index. We will then analyse the most common VIX ETNs. For example, for the short ones, we will consider the necessary adjustments that have to be made in order to make them replicable, like daily rebalancing, termination thresholds and the risks that they may trigger. We will then review the events of 5th Feb that culminated in the withdrawal of some of the short VIX ETNs, after they experienced sudden losses in excess of 90% of the investments. We will consider where it all went wrong and the key points which need to have been learnt from the extreme events of last week.
- 14 December, 17:00-18:00 Huxley LT 144: Ben Wood (JP Morgan Chase) on Deep Statistical Hedging
- 7 December, 17:30-18:30, Huxley LT 139: Eric Schaanning (Norges Bank and ETH Zurich) on Next generation stress testing
Abstract: We give an overview of the current regulatory stress tests that are conducted to assess financial stability. A key assumption in the current framework is that of “static balance sheets”, i.e. banks do not react to the stress scenario, but keep their portfolios unchanged during the stressed episode. Intense research efforts are trying to (i) introduce dynamic balance sheets for banks, (ii) include feedback effects between the financial sector and the real economy, (iii) model solvency – liquidity feedbacks, (iv) develop system-wide stress testing that includes other sectors beyond banks (asset managers, insurance companies, …) in order to develop “next generation stress tests”.
- 2 November, 17:30-18:30, Huxley LT 139: Joaquin Narro (Alcazar Investment Management Ltd / Bainbridge Partners LLP) on Commodity markets and commodity indexes: a practitioners’ introduction
Abstract: In the first part of this lecture we will start introducing the most common commodity markets (energy, soft & grains, metals) and the concept of term structure of forward commodity prices as well as the typical commodity markets participants. We will then introduce the key concepts of contango and backwardation and their most common drivers, including examples of what may happen in certain extreme cases (such as strong demand/supply disruption or spikes) and the comparison with non-commodity assets. In particular we will discuss that:
i. for low supply / supply disruptions / demand spikes, it may be impossible to arbitrage a curve even when it is in extreme backwardation;
ii. for low demand / demand disruptions / excessive supply, traditional “cash and carry” arbitrage strategies may be implemented but they require access to the physical market and they may still fail if / when storage facilities become unavailable.
We will conclude the first part giving plenty of examples of the most common shapes a commodity curve may take depending on the nature of the commodity itself (for instance curves showing a strong seasonality, such as refined products or natural gas) as well as examples of commodity curve behaviour in extreme market conditions.
In the second part of the lecture, we will introduce the simplest examples of commodity indexes (such as trackers for individual commodities) and the reasons for their strong popularity among different types of investors; after comparing them with the most traditional equity indexes we will focus on the way they are constructed and we will make a clear distinction between the so called “spot” and “excess return” indexes; we will show that, due to the different rolling mechanism of the underlying futures contracts, “spot indexes” are not self-financing strategies and therefore they’re not suitable to be used as benchmarks for commodity investment products (such as ETFs), whereas “excess return” indexes are.
We will conclude showing that, by construction, “excess return” commodity indexes enjoy a flat forward term structure which makes them particularly tractable from and analytical point of view as well as easy to replicate in practice.
- 5 October, 16:30-18:00, Huxley LT 340: Tiziano Bellini on Stress testing and risk integration in banks
Contents:
-The Need for Electricity: understanding how 45% of the world’s energy supply is processed through electricity plants
-The Cost-Price Conundrum: exploring the complexities of estimating the cost of production
-A Balancing Act: learning how supply and demand of electricity should be matched at all times
-The Power Market: analysing the building blocks of the wholesale market
-Pricing Futures: researching the uncertainties of pricing electricity futures