The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has created a research group to focus on Financial Market Innovation. The Shared Research Group (SRG), consisting of one professor and two research assistants, will identify driving forces in financial markets, analyse financial market innovations and evaluate their effects on the world of finance.
In addition to the KIT, who will be supporting the projects with funds from the Excellence Initiative, half of the research project will be sponsored by Boerse Stuttgart. "As the leading stock exchange for private investors, we consider academic research in this area to be absolutely essential so that we can continue to offer our customers innovative services in the future. By supporting the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology we also wish to promote the transfer of knowledge between the practical concerns of private enterprise and the stock exchange and university theory," emphasised Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of the Management Board of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH.
Professor Horst Hippler, President of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, also sees the close interlinking between research and private enterprise as being one of the key strengths of the SRGs: "In the Shared Research Groups we at KIT engage in a very innovative way in the direct exchange between our research and a partner outside the university. The SRG Financial Market Innovation, in cooperation with Boerse Stuttgart, focuses on the entire securities trading chain. The main interest is the fast processing and interpretation of trading data. At the same time it will also pinpoint and analyse the general trends and developments in the financial sector."
Dr Ryan Riordan from Canada has been appointed to head the research group. Dr Riordan, who is 35 years old, wrote his doctoral thesis at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where it was awarded a distinction. Its subject was the influences of automation and algorithmic trading on market quality. Dr Riordan has previously worked as a derivatives trader for HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt in Düsseldorf and as an IT consultant for various organisations.