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Tom McCurdy

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Tom McCurdy

Tom McCurdy

Professor of Finance
Bonham Chair in International Finance
Founder and current Academic co-Director, BMO Financial Group Finance Research & Trading Lab

Degrees:

PhD, University of London (LSE)
MA, University of British Columbia
BA (Hons), University of Guelph

Email:

Send an email to Tom McCurdy

Personal Website:
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~tmccurdy

Bio

Tom McCurdy holds the Bonham Chair in International Finance and is a Professor of Finance at Rotman (with a cross-appointment to the Department of Economics). He founded the Financial Research and Trading Lab in 1999, funded by a research grant from the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF). In 2013, thanks to the financial support of BMO, the Lab was expanded and renamed the BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab. Tom has received best research paper and teaching awards, has been an invited and keynote speaker at international conferences, an Associate Fellow at the CIRANO Research Institute (Montreal), and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Financial Econometrics. Recent research publications include: textual analyses for linking jumps in stock returns to firm-specific news; probabilistic modeling of regime changes during the COVID-19 crisis; nonlinear pricing kernels for jump and crash risk; forecasting correlations; real-time identification of structural breaks; and the pedagogy of simulation-based learning. As the co-founder of the RIT Market Simulator package, his instructional development work includes co-authoring more than fifty simulation-based-learning cases designed to practice financial decision making.  These cases are being used by many universities and companies around the globe and for our extra-curricular events and competitions, including the annual international (RITC), European (RETC) and Korean (RUTC) competitions. Tom currently teaches in the MBA, Master of Finance, Master of Financial Risk Management and Commerce Programs.

Other Info

http://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/~tmccurdy

Academic Positions

  • 1980-1996

    Professor, Queen's University

  • 1999-present

    Founder & Academic Director, BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab, Rotman School of Management

  • 1996-present

    Professor of Finance, Rotman School of Management

  • 2002-present

    Bonham Chair in International Finance, Rotman School of Management

Selected Publications - Papers

Research and Teaching Interests

Teaches courses in Risk Modeling and Financial Trading Strategies, Forecasting Risks and Opportunities for Financial Securities, and Probabilistic Modeling for Risk-Informed Decisions. One theme of his research has been developing quantitative methods for forecasting the dynamics of asset return distributions. He has a particular interest in sources of volatility and skewness, as well as measuring and managing the risk that results from the changing shape of return distributions. Recent research publications include textual analyses for linking jumps in stock returns to firm-specific news; probabilistic modeling of regime changes e.g. applied to equity markets during the COVID-19 crisis; forecasting correlations; real-time identification of structural breaks; nonlinear pricing kernels for jump and crash risk; and the pedagogy of simulation-based learning.

Honors and Awards

  • Parliamentary Internship Fellowship, Canadian Political Science Association and House of Commons, Ottawa

  • Research Prize for best paper, Northern Finance Association Meetings

  • Roger Martin Award for Teaching Excellence, Rotman School of Management

Academic / Professional Service

  • Associate Editor, Journal of Financial Econometrics

  • Steering Committee, Mathematical Finance Symposia, Fields Institute

  • Extensive refereeing for thirty different international academic journals and granting agencies,