Taken from my MSc — Inspired by Bijl, Laurens, et al. “Google searches and stock returns.” International Review of Financial Analysis 45 (2016): 150–156

Stock return forecasting is arguably one of the most studied topics in finance. However, analysts cannot agree on two points: whether it is possible to forecast stock market fluctuations and, if not, what consequences that predictability has for our knowledge of financial markets. Researchers’ interests and perspectives have changed over time. Early studies were focused on the efficient market theory, which states that stock markets are influenced by new information and thus take a random direction…

This article is a bit more of a round up of news articles that this week have pointed towards the rise of ESG’s — especially as the ‘ARK Effect’

And just incase you don’t know what an ESG is, it’s kind of an environmental, social and governance rating system.

Citigroup Inc. currently forecasts that ESG portfolio ETFs in the United States alone would have more than $1 trillion in reserves by 2030, while the worldwide pandemic intensifies the surge in ethical investment.

According to analysts at the bank, the global pandemic has sparked investor demand for good businesses, especially those…

Back in 2018, while studying my undergraduate degree, I co-founded a technology start-up to help independent venues increase their revenue. This is the story so far, en-route to our first million!

February 2018

A couple of weeks before Michael Loney and I entered our first ever pitching competition at University. At the time I was studying Human Geography, and would take the role of non-technical co-founder, while Michael was a Computer Science student and therefore the technical co-founder.

We entered the pitching competition, run by Santander, hoping to get feedback and validate our idea for the business. We ended up winning all…

Since 2008, the number of new virtual currencies, as well as the customer base and transaction volume, have all risen significantly. This is a remarkable achievement because there was no virtual currency outside of online gaming communities. However, policymakers, analysts, and businesses face significant threats and prospects as a result of the monetary business disruption. The growth also forces stakeholders to reconsider their basic assumptions about the capabilities that money can possess.

Another of my MSc papers, removing the boring parts!

The first step in any analysis is to determine what kind of financial asset bitcoin is, since this will…

I’ve always enjoyed watching F1, for as long as I can remember. But, I was never able to tell anyone why! That was until I studied for my MSc in Big Data and then it all came clear, I loved the analysis, the technicalities and the data-led strategies from information in real-time during races — and being able to see how this translated to final position on the grid or in the race.

GET READY FOR SOME FRESHLY GOOGLED FACTS, AND LOTS OF DATA TALK!!

Formula 1 cars are data-driven, intelligent systems that can reach speeds of over 200 mph…

Also known as a “blank check company,” SPACs are companies with no operating history whose sole purpose is to raise money to acquire another company.

SPACs are founded by investors or sponsors who have a specific interest or expertise in a specific industry or business sector, but they do not specify what their target acquisition is at the time of formation. As a result, investors in a SPAC don’t know what business they’ll end up investing in; instead, they’re investing in the folks who run the SPAC. …

Shariah-compliant funds (SCFs) and Socially responsible funds (SRFs) have experienced explosive growth following a decree from the Islamic Fiqh academy endorsing the permissibility of these equity investments.

Despite the double-digit growth of these funds in the last decade, the mixed evidence on performance is not equally encouraging for investors. It is highly probable that the performance is affected by the selection and market-timing skills of managers that have to deal with a constrained investment universe carved by restrictive filters. Most of the previous studies did not control for managerial skills, especially for SCFs. There is also no clear differentiation between…

This research explores the day of the week on which large stock market indices were affected by fluctuations between 1988 and 2002. Using a conditional variance system, we find that both return, and volatility equations present the day-of-the-week effect. The highest volatility is seen in Germany and Japan on Mondays, in Canada and the United States on Fridays, and in the United Kingdom on Thursdays. For certain stocks, the days with the greatest volatility often correspond with the lowest trading volume in that market. …