The Quant / Financial Engineering Podcast

As the market is heading down, we bring in Aidan Oster who is top ranked amongst 500+ entrants in the 2025 United States Investing Championship to give us his views on the stock market. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-oster/

Professor Salas, a Lehigh University professor and tariff expert, dives into the notable impacts of the Trump tariffs on trade relations. He discusses the legal justifications surrounding recent tariff changes, focusing on China while addressing market reactions from Canada and Mexico. The conversation highlights the shifts from NAFTA to the USMCA, and the broader economic implications, including potential GDP effects and inflation concerns. Salas also explores how U.S. foreign policy decisions are reshaping alliances and affecting global trade dynamics.

Discussion with Professor Salas on the impending "Trump" Tariffs. Salas is the author of peer reviewed research on Tariffs. The discussion starts with the previous Trump Tariffs on China, then the impending Tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada are addressed in a lively discussion.

Professor zoro’s guests discussed the project they have been working on since 2024: Corporate Material Event Sequences with LLMs3 and associated sentiment scores (Historical and Real-Time with Forecasts). https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-z-08bb5b5a/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/lehigh-master-in-financial-engineering/ Lehigh MFEs shared their experience and views on LLMs and Deepseek with Professor Zoro who manages Lehigh MFE program: https://business.lehigh.edu/academics/graduate/masters-programs/ms-financial-engineering Fathmat Bakayoko is a MFE, working on extracting insights from SEC 8-K filings using language models and exploring crypto compliance. www.linkedin.com/in/fathmat-samira-bakayoko-30715024a." Nicholas Wagner is a MFE co-founded lab automation company Opentrons Labworks and works on blending quantitative finance with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). He sees these emerging technologies as catalysts for data-driven breakthroughs in capital markets. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-wagner-b7b743229/ Hariom Tastat is an MFE and Experienced quant and leader with expertise in the areas of quantitative research, financial AI/machine learning and derivative pricing. Co-author of the book “Machine Learning and Data Science Blueprints for Finance”. Website: https://htatsat.com/

Professor Zoro speaks with the CEO of Safebooks AI about accounting and AI. https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-z-08bb5b5a/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/lehigh-master-in-financial-engineering/ Safebooks.ai is the first AI-powered financial data governance platform built for finance teams who demand accuracy, trust, and speed. It seamlessly integrates with all systems in the Office of the CFO such as ERPs, CRMs, billing systems, banks, AP systems, payroll, and more, unifying data from these sources into a centralized financial data warehouse. By ensuring 100% financial data coverage without sampling, Safebooks delivers real-time insights, automated controls and cross systems reconciliations, and fraud detection to help organizations eliminate errors, accelerate month end close, and stay audit ready. With seamless integration and complete visibility, Safebooks empowers finance teams to reduce manual workloads, ensure compliance, and make confident, data-driven decisions.

3 Lehigh MFEs shared their experience and views on LLMs and Deepseek with Professor Zoro who manages Lehigh MFE program: https://business.lehigh.edu/academics/graduate/masters-programs/ms-financial-engineering Fathmat Bakayoko is a MFE, working on extracting insights from SEC 8-K filings using language models and exploring crypto compliance. www.linkedin.com/in/fathmat-samira-bakayoko-30715024a." Nicholas Wagner co-founded lab automation company Opentrons Labworks and works on blending quantitative finance with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). He sees these emerging technologies as catalysts for data-driven breakthroughs in capital markets. Rish Kumar works on innovative projects in finance and blockchain analytics. He analyzes and labels swap transactions to enrich data, builds algorithms to classify blockchain accounts. He maintains and optimizes Python-based systems to track top publicly traded companies in Pennsylvania and creates dynamic data visualizations https://www.linkedin.com/in/riskumar/linkedin.com

Edris Loftpouri, a recent graduate from Lehigh University’s Master of Financial Engineering program, dives into his research on Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs). He discusses their innovative applications for macroeconomic forecasting and catastrophe modeling. Edris highlights how BNNs tackle the challenges of limited data and complex relationships, showcasing their advantages over traditional models. He also emphasizes the growing importance of catastrophe bonds in managing risks linked to climate change and natural disasters, stressing the need for advanced predictive techniques.

Join Rob Navin, founder of Real Time Risk Systems and expert in options strategies, alongside Estifanos Shekour, a Lehigh MFE student focused on option design. They discuss a groundbreaking method for estimating realized volatility through P&L from constant gamma positions. The conversation highlights the challenges of measuring market volatility, the advantages of dynamic hedging strategies, and the evolution of algorithmic trading. Delve into their insights on intraday trading, the significance of gamma capture, and innovative approaches to enhancing volatility analysis.

Professor Zoro speaks with Garrettt DeSimone about Options. Various aspects of the Option environment are discussed including OptionMetrics, The Vix on August 5th, 2024, Blogs by Garrett Garret is Head of Quant Research at OptionMetrics www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-desim…e-ph-d-4ab7ba68/ www.reuters.com/business/media-te…oubts-2023-07-28/ OptionMetrics optionmetrics.com www.businesswire.com/news/home/2023…ic-Researchers www.barchart.com/story/news/19307…roeconomic-risks Patrick Zoro www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-z-08bb5b5a/ Lehigh Master in Financial Engineeringhttps://business.lehigh.edu/academics/gradu…ial-engineering

Professor Zoro speaks with Joseph Furlong about the inverted Yield Curve and its implications. They get to talk about the $35 trillion national debt, the stock market and other salient topics. With over three decades of dedicated experience in banking, Joe's expertise lies in loan portfolio management and risk analytics. Patrick Zoro www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-z-08bb5b5a/Lehigh Master in Financial Engineeringhttps://business.lehigh.edu/academics/gradu…ial-engineering