NOVEMBER 3, 2015 - KENT, OHIO
Kent State College of Business Administration will host a debate on Friday, Nov. 13, as part of the Firestone Lecture Series in Finance featuring Kent State Associate Finance Professor Jay Muthuswamy, Ph.D., and Chief Investment Officer for the Olympian Group of Investment Management Companies, Mike Levas.
The debate, titled "A Debate on the Merits of High Frequency Trading: Good or Bad for Markets and the Economy?" is focused on high-frequency trading, in which Muthuswamy and Levas hold opposing opinions. Muthuswamy is in favor of the platform, considering it good for the markets and economy, whereas Levas believes the opposite.
High frequency trading is a platform using powerful computers and complex algorithms to analyze several markets and create orders at high speeds. In the past five years, this system of trading has been the subject of public focus and debate. Many argue that high frequency trading poses new types of challenges to the financial system.
Levas’ investment firm does not participate in high frequency trading, but the Olympian Group of Investment Management could not execute its global macro strategy without a wealth of fast, accurate market data each day. He stresses depending on multiple sources of data. “We get our market data from our prime brokers in the various platforms to which we have access, “ said Levas in an interview with Advanced Trading Magazine. “We have a prime broker and then four other platforms that we utilize as well.”
Prior to working for the Olympian Group of Investment Management, Levas was vice president and portfolio manager in the private client group at Lehman Brothers, Inc. Levas completed investment management studies at Harvard Business School and the Hedge Fund Program at The London Business School.
Levas is a member of the CFA Institute and the Securities Traders Association of Florida, and formerly served on the board of directors of the Hedge Fund Association. He has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets including BusinessWeek, Dow Jones Newswires, Fund Manager Week, Reuters, Advanced Trading and many more. Levas has been in the investment management business for more than 20 years and currently manages about $1 billion in assets.
Muthuswamy is an associate professor of finance at Kent State University, teaching classes such as Financial Risk Management and International Business Finance. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago, a Master of Science in statistics from Stanford, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Muthuswamy has experience at Singapore Management University, Griffith University, Duke University, University of Sydney and National University of Singapore. He is the deputy managing editor of the Journal of Algorithmic Finance and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Future Markets. Muthuswamy has published research and contributed commentary in more than 20 journals and books and has regularly spoken at finance workshops and seminars since 1991.
The Firestone Lecture Series in Finance is sponsored by the college’s finance department with the goal to feature innovative finance research that provides real-world industry applications. The series is also funded by a generous gift given by the Bridgestone Trust Fund, formerly known as the Firestone Trust Fund, dedicated to advancing financial education through research and innovative teaching.