MASSIMO GUIDOLIN

A recent short piece of mine (with Monia Magnani) on gold prices and overall stance of  monetary policy can be found here https://seekingalpha.com/article/4303741-gold-glitters-shadow

Want a quick but colorful review of recent economic history (with a US stock market's slant), please see here https://seekingalpha.com/article/4294489-fat-tails-fat-bear?ifp=0

One rich and well executed paper on machine larning applications to asset management and systematic trading strategies is here. Read it thinking about what the future is preparing for finance professionals and in case you wonder, why should I study quantitative subjects and/or econometrics?

Machine learning is an increasingly important and controversial topic in quantitative finance. A lively debate persists as to whether machine learning techniques can be practical investment tools. Although machine learning algorithms can uncover subtle, contextual, and nonlinear relationships, overfitting poses a major challenge when one is trying to extract signals from noisy historical data. We describe some of the basic concepts of machine learning and provide a simple example of how investors can use machine learning techniques to forecast the crosssection of stock returns while limiting the risk of overfitting.

One smart paper on how the new technologies are changing the balance between hard and soft information is here. Read it thiking of your career choices.

Information, which can arrive in multiple forms, is a fundamental component of all financial transactions and markets. We define hard and soft information and describe the relative advantages of each. Hard information is quantitative, is easy to store, and can be transmitted in impersonal ways. Its information content is independent of its collection. As technology changes, the way we collect, process, and communicate information, it changes the structure of markets, the design of financial  intermediaries, and the incentives to use or misuse information. We survey the literature to understand how information type influences the continued evolution of financial markets and institutions.