Finance Made Difficult: Opportunities And Challenges In Quantitative Finance

Professor Andrew W. Lo

Harris & Harris Group Professor

Sloan School of Management

Massachusett Institute of Technology

Recent breakthroughs in financial technology, coupled with similar breakthroughs in computing power, data services, and systems infrastructure, have created several new academic disciplines and industries. The mathematics of Brownian motion, the statistics of massively large datasets, and the psychology of risk preferences have coalesced into a common body of knowledge that is both intellectually challenging and extremely relevant in practice. In this "perspectives" talk, Professor Lo will review some of the most important developments in financial engineering, computational finance, and related areas, and then discuss career opportunities in both academia and industry.