For Griffith Business School PhD graduateJohn Fan completing a doctorate is just part of his impressive list of achievements at university.
While researching his thesis, he worked with the Sydney-based hedge fund, H3 Global Advisors, to test new investment strategies for large institutional investors such as pension funds and hedge funds.
“Basically, the strategy is to offer low correlation with traditional investments which helps with portfolio diversification,’’ he said.
“These strategies appear to be highly profitable on paper even after accounting for trading costs and I hope they may be implemented in the future.”
John also established the popular Griffith University Accounting, Finance & Economics Research Student Society (GUAFERSS)and was its inaugural president.
“I started the group in 2013 as I felt there was a need to enhance the research culture for quantitative-oriented research students,’’ he said.
To date, the society has 60 members and has held 15 workshops with speakers coming from the Department of AFE and external universities including Professor Pravin Trivedi from Indiana University, a global leader in the field of limited dependent econometrics.
“GUAFERSS provides a range of academic and informal workshops that focus on quantitative data analysis and professional developments for our members. The workshops have been well received with positive feedback from all who attended.”
In late 2013 John led a team of three Gold Coast-based undergraduate students in the CFA (Chartered Financial Analysts) Institute Research Challenge in Sydney which they won.
The commerce students Andrew L’Estrelle, Euan Orsini, Jason Rayment, and John then competed in the Asia-Pacific Regional in Singapore.
While they didn’t win the top award they put in a tremendous effort and were commended by Griffith Business School Dean (Academic) Professor Linda Trenbath who thanked them for helping to put Griffith on the global map.
“We look forward to taking the big prize next year,’’ Professor Trenbath said.
The CFA Challenge is a global educational initiative that promotes best practice in equity research among burgeoning financial analysts through mentoring and training in company analysis and presentation skills.
Adding to his achievements John was recently appointed a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Personal Finance and Superannuation.
He is also a popular lecturer, this year receiving an unprecedented 100% rating in every category of the student evaluation of teaching in a postgraduate finance course.
John’s honours thesis, which examined the hedging effectiveness of futures contracts on carbon emissions in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) – was published in the Australian Journal of Management, one of the leading finance journals in Australia.
