04/07/2019

At IMPA, researchers discuss the financial market.

Investments, quantitative methods, corporate finance and derivatives are among the topics under discussion at the XIX Brazilian Finance Meeting, which opened on Thursday morning (4) at IMPA.

Promoted by the Brazilian Finance Society (SBFin), with sponsorship from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the event brings together important foreign and national researchers, such as economist José Alexandre Scheinkman, who holds a master's degree from IMPA and is a professor at Columbia University (United States), and Sebastian Jaimungal, from the University of Toronto (Canada).

Despite the presence of professionals from the financial market, the meeting is predominantly academic, with a greater focus on applied articles, noted Rodrigo de Losso, president of SBFin. According to him, the highlight is the discussions with leading researchers in the field.

"Although, with the internet, we already have a way of knowing what is being produced abroad, here there is a closer connection between people."

Jorge Zubelli, coordinator of the Laboratory for Computational Analysis and Modeling in Applied Sciences (Lamca) at IMPA, participated in the opening. He highlighted the relevance of mathematics in financial markets.

"The use of sophisticated techniques and computational algorithms is increasingly fundamental for professionals in the market. IMPA has been developing cutting-edge research and training new generations prepared to face the challenges in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management."

The program, which runs until Saturday (6), includes lectures on bitcoin, financial sustainability of Social Security, speculation in financial assets and behavioral changes. De Losso cites as an example a common and contradictory situation observed in the financial market.

“Investors tend to buy an asset and then sell it after it becomes profitable. If the asset's price falls, they hold on instead of selling quickly because they imagine the price will rise again. On the other hand, we observe that in the market, assets with negative returns continue to have negative returns. So, if an individual behaves in a way that contradicts the market, they lose a lot of money. We don't know why this happens. We are trying to find out the reasons.”

Check out the full schedule of the event here .