Join us for the 2024 State Street Foundations of Investing Seminar Series
This year we reviewed the fundamentals of finance and investing! Even the most sophisticated investors can benefit from an occasional tune-up. For our fourth annual State Street Foundations of Investing Seminar Series, our team of academic and industry experts went back to basics, covering the core principles of modern investing.
Connecting theory to practice, our Global Markets research experts and academic partners covered topics such as inflation, liquidity, private markets, and much more.
To view our NA/EMEA Summer Sessions, click here.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
9am HK
The Limits of Diversification
Will Kinlaw, Senior Managing Director, Head of Global Markets Research, State Street Global Markets | Replay Available
To diversify is one of the fundamental tenets of investing. Yet what seems straightforward in theory is complex in practice. Correlations can be asymmetric and unstable through time. Moreover, correlations measured over shorter intervals do not necessarily extrapolate to longer intervals. This presentation will synthesize more than 10 years of published research into these questions, analyze the challenge from a new perspective, and propose actionable solutions to help investors construct more resilient portfolios.
Thursday, August 1, 2024
9am HK
Understanding Chinese Policies and Cross Asset Implications
Ben Luk and Yuting Shao, State Street Global Markets Research | Replay Available
China’s increasing importance not only in emerging markets but also globally means investors are closely following every move out of Beijing. Meanwhile, with China’s post-Covid pent-up demand start to run out of steam, continued weak prices and property sector slump underpin concerns on whether China is able to turn the macro economy around. What’s more, the 3rd Plenum and upcoming US general elections add another layer of policy and geopolitical uncertainty. In this summer session, Ben Luk and Yuting Shao take a deep dive into China’s macro economy and asset classes to try to understand the dynamics of underlying drivers and implications for emerging markets and broader global economy.
Thursday, August 8, 2024
9am HK
Quant Strategies and Backtests: Building Blocks and Best Practices
Andrew Li and Alex Cheema-Fox, State Street Associates| Replay Available
We explore the philosophy, mechanisms, and logistics of quantitative strategies and backtesting. This includes how and why to formulate a backtest, modes of testing (e.g. cross-sectional relative value vs market timing), signal construction (simple linear vs machine learning), data wrangling considerations (e.g. ensuring data are point-in-time), and performance evaluation (e.g. risk-adjusted returns, turnover). Illustrative examples from various asset classes are presented.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
9am HK
Machine Learning Interpretation and Model Fingerprint
David Turkington and Huili Song, State Street Associates| Replay Available
Machine learning brings exciting opportunities to investing by utilizing advanced models capable of processing complex nonlinearity and interaction patterns that are powerful for statistical predictions. However, applying machine learning to investing also faces challenges that differ from other disciplines where machine learning has excelled. The primary challenge is the black box problem – the lack of trust and transparency in understanding the models. In this summer session, we will discuss both the opportunities and challenges of applying machine learning to investing, and presenting our solutions that help human users comprehend how a machine learning model arrives at a prediction.
Thursday, August 22, 2024
9am HK
Geopolitics and Markets
Daniel Drezner, Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, State Street Associates Academic Partner | Replay Available
The past few years have highlighted a sea change in how governments approach their own economies and the global economy, adding an additional layer of uncertainty to markets. Geopolitical hotspots have the potential to generate significant economic fallouts. The year of elections is only half over, and the biggest votes are coming soon. Political analyst Daniel Drezner dissects the role that politics will be playing in the months to come.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
9am HK
Theory and Practice of Sentiment Analysis Using AI
Gideon Ozik, CFA, PhD, MKT MediaStats, State Street Associates Academic Partner | Replay Available
Analysis of textual information pertaining to stocks, bonds, and currencies can provide investors with valuable insights into market trends and investor behaviors, as well as improve their ability to predict future fluctuations of asset prices.
In this session, we will cover various textual analysis methodologies, review advancements in AI and Large Language Models (LLM), and demonstrate practical applications such as prediction of stock returns using LLMs applied to media coverage, short squeezes using social media, treasury yields using media coverage of monetary policy, and introduce analysis of local media to forecast election outcomes.
