Download PDF Abstract This technical report details the architecture and implementation of the BSIC Quant Library, a Python-based infrastructure designed to centralize and optimize financial data retrieval for the BSIC members. The system is designed to facilitate access to financial data from the association’s members by providing a robust pipeline Read more…
Download PDF Abstract This project develops a coherent framework for modelling the implied volatility surface by combining stochastic volatility, local volatility, and smile-consistent interpolation techniques. Starting from market conventions, risk-neutral valuation, and vanilla option pricing, the work introduces the volatility surface as a mapping from strikes and maturities to implied Read more…
Download PDF Abstract This research presents a Time Series Momentum (TSMOM) trading strategy implemented on highly liquid exchange-traded funds (SPY and GLD), enhanced with a novel macro-instrumented regime switching framework for state-dependent de-risking. Our approach addresses the well-documented momentum crash problem—sudden reversals that can wipe out months of accumulated gains Read more…
Download PDF USA It’s been a short week on Wall Street because of Thanksgiving Day, but enough to allow stock markets to close the recent “misstep” and return to near all-time highs. If just a few days ago hopes for a December rate cut seemed to be crumbling under the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Business Development Companies (BDCs) have recently experienced a boom, representing a major expansion in the US middle-market lending and private credit markets. In fact, BDCs now manage approximately $478bn and provide about a quarter of all “direct lending” to US companies. Their growth has bridged the gap Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Venezuela is going through one of the worst political and economic crises in the world. The currency is crashing again, inflation is returning to triple digits, and the president is thought to be the head of a narco-trafficking cartel. Moreover, the United States is increasing sanctions and Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Recent discourse on the US economy has centered on a supposed AI-driven bubble. Nearly $1.5tn is being poured into data centers, microchips, and R&D in 2025, despite vague, circular business models. This has led regulators and experts (e.g., Michael Burry betting against Nvidia [NASDAQ: NVDA] and Palantir Read more…
Download PDF Recently, long-time investor and market sceptic Michael Burry deregistered his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, effectively stepping away from managing outside capital while remaining active in markets. Almost simultaneously, he re-emerged publicly with a series of posts and a Substack focused on what he characterizes as an AI-driven Read more…
Download PDF USA Following significant increases in stock market enthusiasm, particularly in technology and AI sectors, over the past few weeks, concerns have emerged regarding the sustainability of this growth. Consequently, the market cooled down this week, with the sell-off from the end of last week continuing. Not even Nvidia’s Read more…
Download PDF An Introduction to HFT High-frequency traders (HFTs) account for a large proportion of the trading volume in security markets today. Despite this, there is very little understanding of the overall industry. We believe that you, the reader, should be made aware of this little-known yet massively impactful industry Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The creator of Ozempic, the American pharma giant, biotech start-up, bid after bid, boardrooms and courtrooms… Yes, as you’ve probably guessed already, this article will be talking about the unprecedented takeover battle in pharma sector. Novo Nordisk and Pfizer have put everything on the table in their Read more…
Download PDF Introduction ITV’s [LSE: ITV] future has been the subject of much speculation, having attracted interest from potential buyers such as CVC Capital Partners [AMS: CVC]. However, ITV’s silence was finally broken on November 7, 2025, in a 70-word statement. ITV told shareholders that Comcast-owned [NASDAQ: CMCSA] Sky has Read more…
Download PDF Introduction to Stochastic Volatility Models The distributions of many assets’ price returns tend to show time-varying variance. While returns show little to no persistence in large samples, squared returns exhibit high persistence. Additionally, empirical return distributions tend to show fatter tails than a normal distribution would imply, which Read more…
Download PDF Origins and Historical Growth Beginning in the 1980s, Asian private equity (PE) was still in its infancy. It was supported only by a few hundred million dollars in AUM and had a heavy reliance on public funding. Private limited partners (LPs) were rare, and capital originated mostly from Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Over the past years wearable devices have moved from simple fitness trackers to essential tools to gain data related to health and lifestyle. Driven by an increasing trend in health consciousness, platforms like Garmin and Strava have reached tens of millions of monthly users, while new devices, Read more…