Conference: 7th Eastern Conference on Mathematical Finance

The 7th Eastern Conference In Mathematical Finance (ECMF), hosted at North Carolina State University in October 20-22, 2023, contributes toward the ongoing research and education goals in the field of financial mathematics. The meeting is conducted with a workshop-type atmosphere to encourage interaction between junior and senior researchers. This is a 3-day program with presentations on recent developments in the field and offering structured discussion for possible new research directions. This conference will emphasize teaching and the role of financial mathematics in North Carolina, with the program including a special session for student talks and posters. Support for this conference will enhance participation from junior faculty and under-represented groups, with the goal of contributing toward their career visibility and providing an opportunity for interaction with a broader group of researchers. The scientific focus is on financial risk management, system risk, applications of machine learning, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and financial data science. The post-2008 regulatory measures for counteracting systemic risk, such as centralized clearing counterparties and increased capital requirements, are perhaps being circumvented by financial innovation in blockchain databases for cryptocurrencies and decentralized exchanges. Understanding of risks posed by decentralized finance is of critical importance as the role of cryptocurrency expands globally. In general, quantitative finance in that past decade has seen a seismic shift away from parsimonious models toward the larger, more complex models of machine learning. For example, the computational power of deep neural networks has proven to be very effective in the development of data-driven methods for computing financial benchmarks. The questions and analyses of these types of quantitative finance technologies are the main theme for this 7th ECMF. The conference website address is https://sites.google.com/view/ecmf7/homeThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.