Radin Ahmadian

I am a Juris Doctor degree candidate at Cornell Law School graduating in 2018. Previously, I recieved my Masters of Science degree from Imperial College London Business School in Risk Management and Financial Engineering and my Bachelors of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley. I am interested in the intersection of law, business, and quantitative finance. My interests and previous works span areas such as derivatives, credit options, structured products, securities law, and financial regulations.

Education

Cornell Law School

Candidate for Juris Doctor Degree

2015 - Present

Imperial College London

Masters of Science (MSc)

Risk Management and Financial Engineering

2014 - 2015

University of California, Berkeley

Bachelors of Science (B.S.)

Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

2012 - 2014

Working Papers

Predictability and Determinants of Commodity Markets

August 2015

Using historical data from 1990 to 2015 and based on economic and financial variables such as the yield of a three month T-Bill or the VIX, this study looks for predictability in both spot and futures commodity markets by testing theoretical models such as the efficient market hypothesis, theory of backwardation, and gradual information diffusion. The results show that commodity futures returns are predictable in the short term and that there is slow reaction of commodity markets to news and therefore that these markets exhibit momentum.

Complications in CDS-Bond Basis Analysis and Modelling

March 2015

This paper begins by introducing the historical aspects of the Credit Default Swap and the CDS bond basis. Next, the document introduce the arbitrage relationship between the CDS spread, the corporate bond yield and the risk free rate. Some factors that contribute to the failure of this relationship are addressed in addition to a discussion of the potential arbitrage opportunities. Numerical analysis was conducted on the basis of thirty firms for different term structures. Analysis included Vasicek modeling, time-series tests, and simple and logistic regression.

Publications

Gasoline price volatility and presidential elections in the United States: a linear model approach

Journal of Energy Markets - Sep 14 2011

Using historical data from 1919 to 2009 and based on economic and political variables such as the pattern and outcome of presidential elections, this study builds a model for predicting the price volatility of gasoline as a proxy for domestic energy value in the US. While the variability of energy tax policy, critical domestic and international events, and the crude oil market can account for around 72% of price fluctuations, the outcome and pattern of US presidential elections has also had a minor impact on the movement of gasoline price in the last ninety years. The impact of election politics is mainly related to power transfer from one party to another and whether the incumbent president was running for a second term.

Estimating the Impact of Dye Concentration on the Photoelectrochemical Performance of Anthocyanin-Sensitized Solar Cells: A Power Law Model

Journal of Photonic Energy - Jan 1 2011

This study investigated the relationship between the anthocyanin concentration in a series of organic fruit species and the photoelectrochemical performance of the TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) sensitized by these dyes. It was hypothesized that organic dyes with a greater anthocyanin concentration have higher fill factors (FFs) and maximum output power (PMAX), which would lead to higher energy conversion efficiency. Anthocyanin dye solution was extracted from eight test fruits using water as the extracting solvent. Using these test organic dyes, multiple DSSCs were assembled such that light entered through the TiO2 side of the cell. The full current-voltage (I-V) covariations were measured at various incremental resistance values. Defining PMAX as the dependent variable, a series of linear, semi-logarithmic, quadratic, and finally power law regression models were used to investigate the relationship between anthocyanin concentration and photoelectrochemical performance. Regression analysis demonstrated that the power law model (R2 = 0.86) was the best fit and experimentally sound model to predict the relationship between PMAX and anthocyanin concentration. Based on this model, anthocyanin content and PMAX relation approaches zero for zero concentration and follows a sublinear increase for higher concentration. Dyes extracted from blueberry and black raspberry with the highest anthocyanin content generated higher PMAX with better FF and conversion efficiency. Estimating these linear and power law models is the first step in finding organic anthocyanin sources in nature that have the highest dye content to efficiently generate energy.

Previous Research

Financial Market Returns and News on Federal Reserve Days: Understanding Macroeconomy Information and Uncertainty

Research Assistant to Professor Adair Morse of the Haas School of Business

We document that since 1994 the equity premium in the US and in the rest of the world is earned entirely in weeks 0, 2, 4 and 6 in FOMC cycle time, i.e. in time since the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting. This likely reflects a risk premium for news (about monetary policy or the macro economy) coming from the Federal Reserve: (1) The FOMC calendar is quite irregular and changes across sub-periods over which our finding is robust. (2) Even weeks in FOMC cycle time do not line up with important macro releases. (3) Volatility in the federal funds market peaks during even weeks in FOMC cycle time. (4) Information processing/decision making within the Fed tends to happen bi-weekly in FOMC cycle time: The bi-weekly cycle is driven mainly by even week observations that follow board meetings of the Board of Governors. Furthermore, before 1994, intermeeting target changes were common and disproportionately took place during even weeks in FOMC cycle time. High return weeks do not line up with public information releases from the Federal Reserve or with the frequency of speeches by Fed officials. Systematic informal communication of Federal Reserve officials with the media and the financial sector is a more plausible information transmission mechanism. We discuss the social costs and benefits of this method of communication.

Impact Investing

Research Assistant to Professor Adair Morse of the Haas School of Business

We are looking at the differences in internal rates of return of private equity and venture capital funds that invest socially responsibly. In this project, I researched with another student and three faculty members. I was responsible for finding and reading prospectuses of limited partnership funds and classifying funds as socially responsible or investing for solely financial gain. I also coded and ran text searches on news articles regarding general partnership funds in order to distinguish them between social and financial.

The Art of Bargaining, Negotiations, and Pricing

Research Assistant to Professor John Morgan of the Haas School of Business

As a first year undergraduate student, I enrolled in the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program and I div#researched on a research project with Dr. John Morgan of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley called “The Art of Bargaining.” In this project, I div#researched with four other students to find patterns of successful and unsuccessful bargaining and bidding. My tasks included experimental design, data collection, data analysis, and reporting results.