401-3916-25L  Machine Learning for Finance and Complex Systems

SemesterSpring Semester 2025
LecturersN. Antulov-Fantulin, P. Cheridito
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish
CommentMaximal number of participants: 42


AbstractThis course introduces machine learning methods and frameworks that can be used for modelling and analysing complex systems with a particular focus on financial time series.
Learning objectiveThe course has two main objectives: (i) theoretical - to provide an overview of machine learning methods with a focus on complex systems and financial time series; (ii) practical - to allow students to gain practical experience by working on a coding project based on a theoretical topic of part (i).
ContentIntroduction to complex systems, empirical facts in finance, introduction to PyTorch, ensemble learning, neural networks, clustering, GraphCuts, matrix factorisation, reinforcement learning, MCMC, LSTM, attention mechanism, neural ODEs, PINNs, transformers, Black–Litterman model.
Literature[1] Paszke, Adam, et al. "Pytorch: An imperative style, high-performance deep learning library." Advances in neural information processing systems 32 (2019).
[2] Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio and Aaron Courville (2020). Deep Learning. MIT Press.
[3] Mehta, Pankaj, et al. "A high-bias, low-variance introduction to machine
learning for physicists." Physics reports 810 (2019): 1-124.
[4] Tsay, Ruey S. Analysis of financial time series. John wiley & sons, 2005.
[5] Richmond, Peter, Jürgen Mimkes, and Stefan Hutzler. Econophysics and
physical economics. Oxford University Press, USA, 2013.
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisites: Machine Learning in Finance and Insurance. Max 40 students, due to guided projects. Topics are defined at the beginning of the course. They consist of different research papers that have to be analyzed, reproduced and potentially extended.
CompetenciesCompetencies
Subject-specific CompetenciesConcepts and Theoriesassessed
Techniques and Technologiesassessed
Method-specific CompetenciesAnalytical Competenciesassessed
Decision-makingassessed
Problem-solvingassessed
Project Managementassessed
Social CompetenciesCommunicationassessed
Cooperation and Teamworkassessed
Self-presentation and Social Influence assessed
Sensitivity to Diversityassessed
Personal CompetenciesAdaptability and Flexibilityassessed
Creative Thinkingassessed
Critical Thinkingassessed
Integrity and Work Ethicsassessed
Self-awareness and Self-reflection assessed
Self-direction and Self-management assessed