03

Post-Earnings Announcement Drift in the 21st Century

This project investigates whether earnings surprises still lead to predictable stock returns in US equity markets from 2000 to 2023. Using an event study framework, it shows that the PEAD anomaly has significantly weakened and is largely explained by standard risk factors like size, value, and momentum. Statistical tests and cross-sectional regressions also confirm that earnings surprises lose their predictive power once key firm-level factors are accounted for.

  • Asset pricing
  • Event study
  • Python

04

Volatility and Risk Modelling in Currency Markets

This project evaluates volatility and Value-at-Risk (VaR) models to forecast risk in two portfolios: one with nine developed market currencies and another including the Argentine peso. The results show that standard models often underestimate extreme risks in emerging markets. Backtesting confirms the importance of using flexible, adaptive models to better capture unexpected market movements.

  • Risk
  • FX
  • R

05

Empirical Finance: Mutual Fund Performance & Predictability

This project explores return predictability using volatility measures and evaluates mutual fund performance through Fama-French factor models. It also includes a custom portfolio analysis of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, comparing their performance with selected funds across key financial metrics.

  • Asset pricing
  • Mutual funds
  • Python
  • Stata

06

Asset Pricing Models in the Corporate Bond Market

Building on the extensive body of research exploring risk factors in equity markets, this project evaluates multiple factor models to identify the determinants of corporate bond risk premia. While the traditional CAPM is relevant, multi-factor models that include duration-adjusted market risk (MKTDB) and momentum offer a superior fit for accurate bond market specific pricing.

  • Asset pricing
  • Fixed income
  • R
  • Stata

07

Ethics in Finance: Incentives, Misconduct & Culture

  • This project maps the ethical risks within the wholesale green bond market, identifying key challenges such as greenwashing, the absence of a universal “green” standard, and insufficient financial incentives for issuers.

  • During a Summer School in Lisbon, my group critically assessed a shareholder motion at JPMorgan regarding its financing of projects linked to Indigenous rights violations. Our improved, evidence-based resolution reframed the issue as a material financial risk rather than a purely ethical concern, advocating for measurable performance indicators to enhance accountability.

  • Ethics
  • ESG

08

Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Payment Protocol (OpenBridge)

In this project, I propose OpenBridge - a hybrid blockchain protocol designed to address the high costs, slow settlement times, and lack of transparency in traditional cross-border payments. The proposed prototype uses a permissioned architecture, Layer-2 rollups, and zero-knowledge proofs to enable fast, secure, and compliant foreign exchange settlement.

  • Fintech
  • Blockchain

09

Equity Market Neutral Strategies

As part of the Alternative Investments course, my group delivered a presentation on Equity Market Neutral (EMN) strategies. The presentation made the case for allocating capital to EMN funds, highlighting their potential to generate consistent, low-volatility returns with minimal correlation to broader equity markets.

  • Alternative investments

10

Financial Statement Analysis: Marks & Spencer Equity Valuation

This equity research report analyzes Marks & Spencer’s successful operational turnaround, driven by improved profitability and asset turnover, but concludes that a valuation based on core fundamentals suggests this recovery is already fully priced into the current stock.

  • Equity valuation
  • Excel