{"id":28230,"date":"2020-01-31T21:46:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T01:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/?p=28230"},"modified":"2021-08-16T21:57:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T01:57:35","slug":"kash-balachandran-jp-morgan-chase-leads-inspiring-wide-ranging-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/kash-balachandran-jp-morgan-chase-leads-inspiring-wide-ranging-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Kash Balachandran (JP Morgan Chase) leads inspiring, wide-ranging discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Align Personal and Professional Goals Advises\u00a0<\/em>CISE Industry Roundtable Speaker Dr. Balachandran\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Kash Balachandran, Vice President at JP Morgan Chase, Central Risk, Cash Equities<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Kash Balachandran<\/strong>, Vice President at JP Morgan Chase, Central Risk, Cash Equities, was the invited speaker for the Fall 2019 CISE Industry Roundtable at Boston University. With over a decade of experience in Mathematics and its applications, Kash applies modern data science techniques to help solve real-world problems arising in financial markets.\u00a0 He received his BA in Mathematics and Physics from Cornell University in 2006, and his PhD from Duke University in Mathematics in 2011.\u00a0 Until 2014, his postdoctoral fellow was at Boston University in the statistical analysis of network data, after which he joined Morgan Stanley\u2019s FX e-trading desk helping formulate the bank\u2019s quantitative market making and execution strategies before becoming head of execution in 2017.\u00a0 In 2018, he transitioned into cash equities at JP Morgan as a systematic trader where he remains today.<\/p>\n

At the CISE roundtable, Kash was introduced by his former BU advisor, Eric Kolaczyk<\/strong>, Director, Hariri Institute for Computing at Boston University, Professor of Statistics,\u00a0Data Science Faculty Fellow, and CISE faculty affiliate<\/span>.\u00a0 Kash led an inspiring, wide-ranging discussion spanning data science trends and issues, from transitioning from academia to industry, to the importance of aligning personal and professional goals, and insightful recommendations for career building.<\/p>\n

As a quantitative trader, analyst, and developer at JP Morgan Chase, Kash is involved in every stage of the trading lifecycle, from quantitatively formulating objective functions and the best approach to solve them, to performing the real-time implementation and post-trade analysis. At the roundtable, he presented emerging trends and issues in financial data science sector<\/a>, and emphasized that automation and machine learning are not substituting people, but rather that big data and the speed of processing are reshaping novel trading strategies that are being leveraged by people.<\/p>\n

For students interested in pursuing careers in industry, Kash had three recommendations, the first of which was to \u201cidentify five concrete things that you want in the next 3-5 years\u201d. Kash explained that although hobbies can be entertaining, sometimes it takes real-world experience to figure out if hobbies are what you want permanently. Secondly, he recommended that students understand the sector that they are in and identify opportunities that provide the most exposure to meet their goal. Lastly, Kash emphasized the importance of determining not only accomplishments but transferrable skills that make you different. He added that teaching, public speaking, and organizational skills can set you apart from your competition.<\/p>\n

Kash also recommended that students \u201calways try different things because you never know where it might lead and it keeps you interesting.\u201d For him \u2013 it was while he was taking a finance course during \u00a0the financial crisis of 2008 that tuned him into finance.<\/p>\n

R&D with good business alignment is very important for students interviewing with companies, says Kash. To ensure students are well aligned with the business, they need to look at whether a potential employer appreciates technology. \u201cA good machine learning algorithm is only as good at the data quality that you put into it.\u00a0 At the end of an interview, ask the interviewer: where is your data coming from? How do you validate it?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cBlack box methods are becoming more common but getting good results from F tests are not how the world works. Candidates with experience in data munging and platform maintenance show they are willing to get hands dirty and solve problems.\u201d \u00a0Students should ensure they are aligned with prospective employers: \u201cIf you\u2019re interested in systems engineering and the company isn\u2019t \u2013 it\u2019s probably not the best fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kash also advocated finding the right mentors and maintaining those relationships throughout your career.\u00a0 \u201cI never would have gone to BU and done my postdoc research had I not met Eric (Kolaczyk) at a complex networks SAMSI program. I did my best work with him.\u201d Kash says he pursued the postdoc because he loves to apply math to different, interesting areas, and a postdoc allows you to look at very high-level problems. \u201cEric gave me a year of my life to explore and be creative.\u00a0 I got to choose what and when I wanted to do work on. It was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kash fielded numerous questions from students.\u00a0 Responding to the question of whether or not a postdoctoral track was a good path to industry, he recommended introspection.\u00a0 \u201cYou need to ask yourself what about a postdoctoral track interests you.\u00a0 Publications are good ways to structure your mind and communicate; do you love publishing? If you are interested in industry, identify why. A startup can give you the creativity of a postdoc, but it can be stressful because you have to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aligning personal and professional goals was a key part of the talk.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you love about what you do? Making money is not the answer.\u00a0 Do what makes you feel good, then find the factors that give you exposure to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Center for Information & Systems Engineering (CISE) Industry Roundtables are a forum to connect CISE students with CISE alumni to facilitate sharing information, insights, and experiences about post-graduation experiences and opportunities in an informal, dynamic atmosphere. Learn more about CISE Industry Roundtables here<\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eliza Shaw, CISE Staff<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Align Personal and Professional Goals Advises\u00a0CISE Industry Roundtable Speaker Dr. Balachandran\u00a0 Kash Balachandran, Vice President at JP Morgan Chase, Central Risk, Cash Equities, was the invited speaker for the Fall 2019 CISE Industry Roundtable at Boston University. With over a decade of experience in Mathematics and its applications, Kash applies modern data science techniques to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18605,"featured_media":30135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245,244],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28232,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28230\/revisions\/28232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}