POON, Ling

BSc in Risk Management Science
CASH Algo

Working at CASH Algo offered me a valuable opportunity to learn about trading, and particularly about algo trading. My supervisor, Dr Alfred Ma, provided the interns with an appropriate environment within which to absorb knowledge and grow. I was given tasks from the different stages of production so I could see the entire picture of algo trading. I am very thankful for Dr Ma’s guidance.

The first task I was given was to review hypothesis-testing methods. Monitoring strategic performance is an essential and major part of the work of algo trading. The profitability of a strategy may decay due to a fundamental change in the environment or increasing competition. My job was to search for appropriate methods, test for differences in backtesting and real trade returns and then implement them in Python. The experience of coding in Python and seeing examples of real data helped me quickly learn the data-handling procedures in Python.

Although I do not normally read the papers before internships, I learned that a lot of academic knowledge and trading ideas could be gained from doing so, and I learned how to search for the relevant papers.

Moreover, I was able to work with high-calibre colleagues who were very knowledgeable about trading and academia. I had many interactions and discussions with them and learned a lot of trading concepts. Although these results had no physical output, they were equally important to my development.

Overall, the internship was a fruitful experience that allowed me to gain practical knowledge in algo trading, improve my attitude towards work and establish networks within the industry.

Adrian WONG

BSc in Risk Management Science
University of Sussex, United Kingdom

In term one of the academic year 2017/2018, I had a fruitful experience studying at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. I studied three mathematics courses and one extra course related to film studies. I learned the difference between education at the host university and at CUHK. In addition, I made friends from the UK, US, Greece, Czech Republic, Japan and China who I learned a lot from.

Two out of the three mathematics courses I took were year four equivalent courses, and the remaining one was a graduate level course. I could see the cohesion among the courses the host university had tried to make. Many concepts or solutions were based on the knowledge obtained from previous courses. The teaching staff knew clearly what level of knowledge their students had. They did not spend much time reviewing the prerequisite knowledge. Instead, they skipped the explanations and taught the more difficult material. They explained things only when a student had a question, and if the explanation would take too much time, it would be explained after class. The students there were less conservative than the students at CUHK, where asking questions during the lesson is normal. In addition, the homework assignments were, surprisingly, marked by the teaching staff. They clearly understood the common mistakes of the class and each person’s progress. They also wrote comments on the assignments, pointing out the incorrect steps and concepts in the solutions.

I took the film studies course out of curiosity because this type of course is not provided at CUHK. I learned how to analyse a film from different aspects: mise-en-scène, editing, cinematography and music. The seminars in this course really provoked discussions of the film assigned each week.

I met people of different origins. Although they came from diverse backgrounds, they were generally very nice. Some were even interested in Chinese culture and cuisine. At the same time, I learned about their cultures. Unfortunately, even in a town as diversified as Sussex, racism still existed. There was a South Korean student at the host university who was beaten with glass bottles by a gang of local teenagers when he was walking back home, and he was sent to the hospital. Therefore, I would recommend that exchange students in the future be more cautious when walking alone on the streets at night.