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Archived Webinar Library 

Webinars | Webinar Library |

We welcome you to review our previous webinar presentations to add to your knowledge base. Have a recommendation for an industry related topic, an author we should invite, an article you want to learn more about? Contact us: info@fdpinstitute.org.

Corrective AI and Conditional Portfolio Optimization

Date: December 12,2022

Asset managers have struggled to apply machine learning to generate trading signals successfully. Instead, applying machine learning to determine the probability of profit of existing trading signals is very fruitful - this is Corrective AI. Taking this one step further, we developed Conditional Portfolio Optimization, a portfolio optimization technique that adapts to market regimes via machine learning. Applications on portfolios in vastly different markets suggest that CPO can outperform traditional optimization methods under varying market regimes. Dr. Hossein Kazemi of the FDP Institute will share details with Ernest Chan, Founder & CEO, Predictnow.ai Inc.

Slide Deck


Perspectives on the Korean Asset Management Industry

Date: Dec 7, 2022 

Based on a survey of industry leaders, this webinar discusses recent trends in Korea’s financial markets and the asset management firms’ reactions to those trends. In particular, this webinar discusses how asset management firms can adapt to changes in the behavior of retail investors since 2020.

Retail investors increasingly rely on new media to form their investment views, but asset management firms could provide added value to individuals by offering personalized products and services. Dr. Jang Ho Kim discusses the recent movement by retail investors in Korea, its possible causes, its effect on the Korean asset management industry, and how asset management firms can adapt to these changes.  Moderated by CAIA Korea Chapter Head, Minjun Kim.

Slide Deck


Explainable AI: Exploring Unsupervised Learning

Date: November 16 ,2022

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a great buzzword in scientific and business communities and even the popular press. This webinar is designed to explore the technology underlying AI, known as “unsupervised learning.” Unsupervised learning allows us to hear the data speak for itself, reducing reliance on researchers’ potentially biased frameworks and sometimes discovering unexpected factors. In the course of the webinar, we will consider AI applications in Finance and contrast those with traditional machine learning (ML) models. Dr. Hossein Kazemi of the FDP Institute is delighted to share details from Irene Aldridge, President, Head of Research, AbleMarkets.

Slide Deck

Know Faster & Invest Better Through Nowcasting of Macro Economic Indicators

Date: October 26 ,2022

First Friday of each month, at 8:30 am EST, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases one of the most important macroeconomic indicators - the jobs report or non-farm payrolls (NFP) that makes headlines and moves financial markets worldwide. What is the value of knowing NFP 2 to 3 weeks in advance and 10% more accurately than the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Wall Street analysts? Instead of waiting months to know key economic concepts like the GDP, sophisticated investors are leveraging the science of nowcasting to open a clearer window into the future. Nowcasting or real-time measurement using alternative ("Big") data and machine learning is particularly impactful in emerging economies and also has the potential for driving positive social impact. Dr. Hossein Kazemi of the FDP Institute is delighted to share details from Apurv Jain, CEO, and Founder at MacroXStudio, about this exciting new area of data analytics. Apurv will be providing a quick demonstration of their Nowcasting platform, so please join us.

Webinar attendees can also download a preprint copy of Apurv’s book chapter on “Alternative Data and Machine Learning for Macro Nowcasting” appearing in Machine Learning And Data Sciences For Financial Markets - published by Cambridge University Press in 2023.

Candidate Orientation Q4-2022 Exam 

Date: September 21 ,2022

How to prepare for your exam day!  

This webinar features members of the FDP Curriculum Team as well as Candidate Relations. The following topics are discussed: Curriculum materials, exam format, and available resources. For each topic we discuss the required readings, keywords, learning objectives and sample questions. 

Slide Deck

Reimagining the Science of Prediction

Date: September 14, 2022

Today's investors face daunting prediction challenges, and it is more critical than ever to blend intuition with data-driven rigor. Dr. Hossein Kazemi of the FDP Institute will host a discussion with coauthors of the new book “Prediction Revisited”, David Turkington and Megan Czasonis. Focus of the discussion will be the building blocks of data-driven prediction from a fresh perspective whereby data represents “experiences” rather than variables, revealing the link between linear regression and information theory and how the concept of relevance leads to more intuitive and effective predictions.

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Understanding the Landscape of Quantitative Investing

Date: August 30, 2022

Join Albourne Partners, AIMA, and FDP Institute for a discussion on quantitative investing. What types of managers and strategies use quantitative techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, regression, and backtesting? What do investors need to understand before making allocations to these strategies? What due diligence considerations are specifically helpful when evaluating quantitative managers?

Dr. Keith Black, Senior Advisor for the FDP Institute will be discussing the landscape of quantitative investing with Michelle Noyes, AIMA and Michael Ide, Albourne Partners.

AIMA is a valued Association Partner of the FDP Institute.  Employees of AIMA member companies are eligible for a 20% discount on first-time FDP exam registration fees. Click here to learn more about the AIMA Member Discount.


Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Financial Services (US/EMEA)

Date: August 16, 2022 (PM Session)

Language is one of the great untapped resources of information. Today’s NLP field covers the full cycle of recognizing and understanding speech, processing natural language and generating text including automatic coding. NLP is everywhere – when you dictate a text message to Siri, ask Alexa for the weather, search on Google, use email services that filter out spam, check out spelling and grammar, and even autocomplete an entire message.

Adoption in financial services is wide and high impact with applications such as – sentiment analysis, tracking relationships, legal and compliance, speech recognition and advanced chatbots, information retrieval, and ESG. Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association along with Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute will discuss the current state of NLP and implications for financial services with Julia Bonafede, Co-Founder of Rosetta Analytics and Dan Joldzic, CEO, Alexandria Technology.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Financial Services (US/EMEA)

Date: August 16, 2022 (AM Session)

Language is one of the great untapped resources of information. Today’s NLP field covers the full cycle of recognizing and understanding speech, processing natural language and generating text including automatic coding. NLP is everywhere – when you dictate a text message to Siri, ask Alexa for the weather, search on Google, use email services that filter out spam, check out spelling and grammar, and even autocomplete an entire message.

Adoption in financial services is wide and high impact with applications such as – sentiment analysis, tracking relationships, legal and compliance, speech recognition and advanced chatbots, information retrieval, and ESG. Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association along with Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute will discuss the current state of NLP and implications for financial services with Julia Bonafede, Co-Founder of Rosetta Analytics and Dan Joldzic, CEO, Alexandria Technology.

Expanded Conversation on Algorithmic Trading and Machine Learning for Cryptoassets 

Date: July 21, 2022

During this session we took a more in depth view with additional examples and questions answered.  Due to the transparent nature of public blockchains, substantial data is available to traders. Join us to discuss algorithmic trading powered by machine learning, as well as delving into some interesting and unexpected findings. Algorithmic trading using non-deterministic methods will also be discussed.

Slide Deck


Algorithmic Trading and Machine Learning for Cryptoassets

Date: July 14, 2022

Due to the transparent nature of public blockchains, substantial data is available to traders. Join us to discuss algorithmic trading powered by machine learning, as well as delving into some interesting and unexpected findings. Algorithmic trading using non-deterministic methods will also be discussed.

Slide Deck


FDP Exam Prep: Kaplan Schweser Course

Date: July 11, 2022

Master the Financial Data Professional® curriculum and take the risk out of exam day with Kaplan Schweser’s FDP Review Package. This package features an OnDemand review course, which is delivered 100% online and led by Dr. Greg Filbeck.

FDPI Senior Advisor, Hossein Kazemi will be joined by Dr. Greg Filbeck, a professor of finance with more than 20 years of teaching experience and Eric Smith, Director, Product Development from Kaplan. Together they will share how Kaplan Schweser's OnDemand Review Package can help you obtain your Financial Data Professional credential.

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FDP Q4-2022 Charter Information Session

Date: July 6, 2022

Learn more about the curriculum and the roadmap to prepare for the upcoming FDP exam. 

The Financial Data Professional Institute (FDPI) has designed a self-study program to provide financial professionals with an efficient path to learn the essential aspects of financial data science.  The Financial Data Professional (FDP) is a global designation for investment professionals with data science skills.

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FDP Q4-2022 In-Depth Review of Prometric Test Center and Remote Proctor Testing

Date: June 22, 2022 

Map out your learning journey to obtain the FDP Charter. FDP managing Director Keith Black shares the value add of the FDP Charter, the updated curriculum, hiring trends, and how you can leverage your FDP learnings as you advance your career.

The FDP team answered questions about the FDP program, where to obtain your curriculum, and our testing options.

Slide Deck


Deep Reinforcement Learning for Asset Allocation in US Equities

Date: June 15, 2022

This paper demonstrates the application of reinforcement learning to create a financial model-free solution to the asset allocation problem, learning to solve the problem using time series and deep neural networks. We demonstrate this on daily data for the top 24 stocks in the US equities universe with daily rebalancing. We use a deep reinforcement model on US stocks using different deep learning architectures. We use Long Short Term Memory networks, Convolutional Neural Networks, and Recurrent Neural Networks and compare them with more traditional portfolio management approaches like mean-variance, minimum variance, risk parity, and equally weighted. The Deep Reinforcement Learning approach shows better results than traditional approaches using a simple reward function and only being given the time series of stocks. In Finance, no training to test error generalization results come guaranteed. We can say that the modeling framework can deal with time series prediction and asset allocation, including transaction costs.

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FDP Q4-2022 Charter Information Session

Date: June 6, 2022

Learn more about the curriculum and the roadmap to prepare for the upcoming FDP exam. 

The Financial Data Professional Institute (FDPI) has designed a self-study program to provide financial professionals with an efficient path to learn the essential aspects of financial data science.  The Financial Data Professional (FDP) is a global designation for investment professionals with data science skills.

Slide Deck


How to Make Data Resonate for Your Business

Date: May 26, 2022

Join us as Olus Kayacan discusses how efficient data analysis provides solid predictive power for Investment Management. Data can also be cumbersome and generate chaos if not handled properly. Learn how to use data to maximize the impact on your business!

Slide Deck


FDP Q2-2022 Info Session

Date: January 12, 2022

Learn more about the curriculum and the roadmap to prepare for the upcoming FDP exam. 

The Financial Data Professional Institute (FDPI) has designed a self-study program to provide financial professionals with an efficient path to learn the essential aspects of financial data science.  The Financial Data Professional (FDP) is a global designation for investment professionals with data science skills.

slide deck


FDP Q2-2022 Learn more about your test options: At a Prometric Test Center or via Remote Proctor Testing

Date: January 27, 2022 

Map out your learning journey to obtain the FDP Charter. FDP managing Director Keith Black shares the value add of the FDP Charter, the updated curriculum, hiring trends, and how you can leverage your FDP learnings as you advance your career.

The FDP team answered questions about the FDP program, where to obtain your curriculum, and our testing options.

slide deck


Candidate Orientation Q2-2022 Exam 

Date: March 2, 2022 

How to prepare for your exam day!

This webinar features members of the FDP Curriculum Team as well as Candidate Relations. The following topics are discussed: Curriculum materials, exam format, and available resources. For each topic we discussed the required readings, keywords, learning objectives and sample questions. 

slide deck


Turn Text To Alpha part II

Date: February 10, 2022

Join Dan Joldzic, CEO of Alexandria Technology and Keith Black, PhD, CFA, CAIA, FDP for Part II as they discuss natural language processing (NLP) in investment management. NLP techniques can be used to analyze a variety of data sources, including company news, earnings calls, and social media posts. The output from these models can be used for stock selection with varying time horizons and degrees of alpha capture. In this webinar we will discuss generating alpha from company news and social media sentiment.   

Slide deck

Using Alternative Data in Financial Markets

Date: February 9, 2022

Quantitative investors have long used traditional data sources, such as income statements and balance sheets of public firms, to drive stock selection models. With the explosion in the amount and diversity of data in the last five years, alternative data sources are quickly revolutionizing quantitative investing. Alternative data sources can include natural language processing of news and social media content, review of credit card transactions and consumer emails, and geolocation data using cell phone signals and satellite images. 

Turn Text To Alpha part I 

Date: December 9, 2021

Join Dan Joldzic, CFA, FRM, CEO & Quantitative Research, from Alexandria Technology for a discussion of natural language processing (NLP). #NLP techniques can be used to analyze a variety of data sources, including news reports, company regulatory filings and earnings calls, as well as posts on social media sites such as Reddit. The output from these models can be used for stock selection with varying time horizons and degrees of alpha capture. This data can also be used to analyze sentiment regarding the ESG footprint of both public and private companies.

Slide deck 

Practical Machine Learning in Asset Management: Manager selection and valuing the secondary sale of  private assets

Date: November 2021

Join Lydia Ofori, CFA, CAIA, Adam Duncan, and Keith Black, PhD, CFA, CAIA, FDP as they discuss how machines are interfacing with humans to effect manager selection and private asset secondary sales.

• Can machines actually uncover hidden patterns that escape the human eye and emotions?
• How would the interface between technology applications enhance our ability to pick the best managers and companies?
• What are the limitations on artificial intelligence and other machine learning based models that are most likely to hinder or interrupt results?
• Can AI be used to expedite the secondary sale of private assets?

Slide deck 


Introducing a New Hedge Fund Dataset

Date: May 6, 2021 

Description: How to use a hedge fund database, based on open-sourced hedge fund return and how to gain access to the data and a slew of interesting examples. How do you efficiently clean and manage semi-structured data? Alex and Linus will demonstrate with examples based on factor analysis, correlations, and dispersions and explain why they probably should have picked a different programming language.

Panelists: Linus Nilsson, Founder NilssonHedge; Alex Lostado, Quant Analyst, NilssonHedge; and Brandon Kremer CFA, CAIA, CIPM, FDP, Portfolio Manager Heximer Investment Management 

Slidedeck + Research Project
(available to anyone with an FDP Profile number)


The Evolution of Machine learning in Investment Strategies

Date: February 9, 2021

Description: "The Evolution of Machine Learning (ML) in Investment Strategies" is an insider’s look into the opaque world of AI/ML-powered investing strategies. The presenter will separate fact from fiction and hype from reality. After a cursory Overview of AI/ML origins and widespread adoption, you'll hear how leading-edge asset managers are deploying machine learner algorithms and alternative investment data (Alt-Data) to monetize differentiated sources of potential alpha.

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Scaling AI Deployments: Opportunities and Challenges

Date: October 16, 2020

Description: Nicolaus Henke, Sr. Partner, McKinsey & Co; Jane Buchan, CEO of Martlet Asset Management; and Bill Kelly, CEO of CAIA speak with Dr. Mehrzad Mahdavi about the explosive growth of AI and its impact on the financial services.

Panelists: Jane Buchan, CEO, Martlet Asset Management; Nicolaus Henke, Senior Partner at McKinsey, Founder McKinsey Analytics, Chair QuantumBlack; William J. Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association; and Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute. 

Ethical Use of Machine Learning in Financial Markets – Myth or Miracle?

Date: October 2, 2020

Our discussion will focus on the ethical use of AI released by financial services regulators can be operationalized to help industry professionals and executive teams alike think about opportunities, risks as well as required actions to strive ethically in our data-driven world.

Industry experts have divergent views on our topic: Some say that machines will never behave ethically - even human experts fail to do so. Others suggest the only chance for financial markets to become more ethical are intelligent machines. 

Tags: FDP, Machine learning, AI, Ethics, Finance, Data, Data Science, CAIA

Integrating Disruptive Innovation Into an Organization's DNA

Date: September 9, 2020

Description: CAIA CEO Bill Kelly and  Cathie Wood, Founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management, discus

  • Investing at the pace of innovation,
  • Identifying long term growth,
  • Bringing together a talented, agile, diverse team.
  • Learn why Purple is the New Gray!

“Innovation is the Key to Growth” – ARK Investment

Panelists: Cathie Woods, CEO & Found Ark Investment and William J. Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association

Eagle Alpha Discusses Alternative Data for Investment Strategies

Date: September 2, 2020

Description: Ronan Crosson (data strategy) and Thomas Combes (data science) of Eagle Alpha will review what is Alt Data and share market trends and adoption. They will discuss ROI on alt data and show use cases for the most popular datasets for both discretionary funds and quants funds. While highlighting the importance of getting the processes right they will touch upon the end-to-end process: Discovery, Prioritization, Evaluation, Procurement & Integration. The session will also include a deep dive on quality testing for alternative datasets.

Panelists: Ronan Crosson, Director, Data Strategy & Analytics, Eagle Alpha; Thomas Combes, Head of Data Science, Eagle Alpha and Keith Black, Ph.D, CAIA, CFA, FDP, Managing Director, Content Development, CAIA Association.

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Making Sense of Machine Learning

Date: August 19, 2020

Description: Machine learning (ML) enables powerful algorithms to analyze financial data in new and exciting ways. But this excitement is often tempered by fear that investors don’t really understand why a model behaves the way it does. We need to move beyond this “black box” stigma. We propose a framework that demystifies the predictions from any ML algorithm. Our approach computes what we call a “fingerprint” for a given model’s linear, nonlinear, and interaction effects that drive its predictions — and ultimately its investment performance. In a real-world case study applied to currency return predictions, we find that popular ML models like neural network and random forest think in ways that do indeed make sense, and which we can begin to understand. These fingerprints empower investors to describe and probe the similarities and differences across ML models, and to extract genuine insight from machine-learned rules.

Panelists: David Turkington, Senior Managing Director and Head of Portfolio and Risk Research, State Street Associates;  Yimou Li, Assistant Vice President and Machine Learning Researcher, State Street Associates; and Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, FDP, Director, Global Content Development, CAIA Association.

Recording + white paper discussed

Data Science in Production 

Date: August 6, 2020

Description: Nigel Noyes will reference architectures for using Data Science in production.

Panelists: Nigel Noyes, Director, Automation, Data Science at Quicken Loans and Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute.

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Challenges of Algorithmic Fairness in Financial Services

Date: July 29, 2020

As financial services sector increasingly adopts advanced algorithms, including machine learning and AI, there has been greater regulatory and public scrutiny on the potential for algorithms to replicate unfair bias and discrimination against disadvantaged groups, exacerbating existing inequalities. This webinar will walk through use cases in mortgage lending and in peer-to-peer lending to discuss the complex challenges of trying to make the algorithms "fair" in evaluating credit risk of minority groups.

Slide deck

Factor and Asset Allocation: The Role of Networks and LASSO

Date: July 16, 2020

Description: Dr. Gueorgui Konstantinov spoke about the financial Industry needs for new Methods to model and explain the complex market behavior. The industry is in a state of transition. The Asset Management Industry must avoid over-fitting, and adjust findings for false discoveries. Using machine learning and predictive models, investors can find asset and factor allocation solutions. Implementing LASSO regressions help to derive asset and factor allocation. Network theory and predictive models help to derive portfolio allocation in a new way, which successfully captures economic relationships. However, it is inevitable to evaluate the new strategies in a manner consistent with the requirements in the brave new financial world. Adjusting the Sharpe Ratios and t-Statistics become inevitable in the new set up. The focus in the webinar is in the application of new tools in Investment Management.

Slide Deck

Machine Learning Models in Credit Risk Analysis 

Date: April 29, 2020

Description: Mr. Arifi demonstrated ensemble models in DataRobot and showed why FDP is important. That is, knowing the models and model parameters are more important than knowing how to program in python.

Slide Deck

Data Supply Chain Management

Date: April 7, 2020

Description: Data Supply Chain Management is the collection, organization, flow and streamlining of data – including any pre-processing and normalization steps - to make it usable, guided by domain knowledge, for the next downstream process. Typically, this next step involves analysis via traditional statistical or contemporary machine learning tools. The end goal of the exercise is to generate insights that can imply customer value, inform revenue or pricing metrics, optimize costs and help gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Slide Deck

Quantitative ESG Investing

Date: April 1, 2020 

Description: ESG investing is an area of active interest for both the investment and academic communities. Despite the intense interest, there currently is no agreed upon definition of ESG investing, or how to best build investment portfolios that incorporate both return and sustainability dimensions. (Both are important for sustainability-minded investors.) In this article, the authors categorize the broad types of ESG investing currently in the market and introduce an ESG investment framework. This results in a portfolio that optimally combines the dual objectives of alpha and sustainability outperformance. TOPICS: Portfolio theory, portfolio construction, ESG investing

Slide Deck

Machine Learning Prediction of Recessions: An Imbalanced Classification Approach

Date: July 8, 2020 

Panelists: Al Yazdani, Chief Data Scientists & Founder, Calcolo Analytics, LLC and Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute. 

Recording + Slide Deck

The Art and Science of Big Data in Quantitative Investing

Date: May 21, 2020

Panelists: Elene Khoziaeva, CFA, Head of US Equity, Bridgeway Capital Management and Mehrzad Mahdavi, Executive Director, FDP Institute.

Recording + Transcript 

Computational Drug Discovery

Date: May 6, 2020 

Description: The role of AI/ML and High-Performance Computing in Drug Discovery

Panelist: Woody Sherman, CSO, Silicon Therapeutics & Adjunct Professor, UMass 

Recording + Slide Deck

Usage of Alternative Data and ML in Asset Classes 

Date: March 25th, 2020 

Panelists: Michael Oliver Weinberg, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, APG; Peter Strikwerda, Global Head of Digital Innovation, APG; Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, FDP, Director, Global Content Development, CAIA Association.

Slide Deck

Long Term Machine Learning Predictions for US Equity

Date: March 5, 2020

Description: Tony Guida co-wrote and edited the book "Big Data and Machine Learning in Quantitative Investment", one of the required readings for the upcoming exam. This webinar is titled "Long Term Machine Learning Predictions for US equity" and is a user case study of Chapter 7 of the book which Tony co-wrote with Guillaume Coqueret.

Slide Deck

A Machine Learning Approach to Risk Factors: A Case Study Using the Fama-French-Carhart Model

Date: February 27, 2020

Panelists: Joe Simonian, Ph.D., CIO Autonomous Investment Technologies, LLC, Mehrzad Mahdavi, Ph.D., Executive Director, FDP Institute 

Slide Deck 

Analyzing Text to Detect Risk

Date: February 19, 2020 

Description: NLP is a fast-growing area of data science for the finance industry. Recent advances in financial technology (FinTech) have dramatically transformed the financial landscape with respect to the way we access, invest, and transfer financial capital. In this article, the authors explore a promising avenue for the use of natural-language processing in an effective yet non-invasive method by which to monitor the health and integrity of financial institutions and corporations in general by analyzing corporate emails and news.

Slide Deck 

Big Data is a Big Deal

Date: January 29, 2020 

Description: Gene Getman is a Client Portfolio Manager for the 1798 Alternatives group, focused on Investor Relations for the Hedge Fund business. He is the Product Specialist for the 1798 Q Strategy and other innovative or capacity constrained alternative investment strategies based in New York. More importantly: Gene is the co-author of "Big Data is a Big Deal: An investor’s guide to the applications and challenges of alternative data" 

Slide Deck

Data Ethics in Machine Learning and Finance

Date: January 22, 2020

Description: Our conversation with Guen Dondé, head of Research at the Institute of Business Ethics. Co-researcher of "IBE Ethics at Work" and "Implications of AI on Business Ethics". Thought provoking, engaging, and great learning overall!

Recording  + Slide Deck 

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