PORTFOLIO ANALYTICS/HIGH DIMENSIONAL STATISTICS/HIGH FREQUENCY DATA/STATISTICAL LEARNING

FinStaR

Financial Statistics Research


ABOUT US

ABOUT US


We provide answers to questions like the following, in portfolio optimization, risk management, trading, and other related fields.

• Why mathematically accurate formulas lead to poor out-of-sample performance? (Such as Markowitz mean-variance optimal portfolio, minimum variance portfolio, etc).
• How high-dimensionality affects our understanding of the population from sample, on such aspects as covariance structure, eigenvalues, principle components etc? -- “curse of dimensionality”
• How high-frequency data may lead to terribly biased estimates of parameters (volatilities/covolatilities etc) and affect further decision making? -- “curse of frequency”
• How to make better use of high-frequency and high-dimensional data, changing “curse of dimensionality” and “curse of frequency” into “bless of dimensionality and frequency”?
• How to make use of statistical machine learning to reach optimal individualized wealth management decisions?

Focus 1: Large Portfolio Optimization

High-Dimension, Mean-Variance Efficiency, Factor Investing, Index Enhancement, Machine Learning Return Forecast...

Focus 2: High Frequency Data

Co-jump networks, Jump Intensity, Volatility Co-movement, Market Microstructure Modeling, Leverage Effect, Volatility Estimation and Prediction...

Focus 3: Empirical Asset Pricing

Stochastic Discount Factor, Factor Zoo, Inference, Return Predictability...

Focus 4: Statistical Learning

Statistical Learning, Individualized Asset Allocation, Reinforcement Learning, Utility Optimization...

PEOPLE


PROFESSORS

Prof Yingying Li

Dept of FINA and Dept of ISOM, HKUST

   yyli at ust.hk

Prof Xinghua Zheng

Dept of ISOM, HKUST

   xhzheng at ust.hk

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

Leheng Chen

Postdoc

   lchencg at connect.ust.hk

Qi (Alfred) Fan

Postdoc

   alfredfan at ust.hk

Yingwen Tan

Postdoc

   tanyingwen at ust.hk

Zhuoxi Li

Postdoc

   lizhuoxi at ust.hk

Yimeng Ren

Postdoc

   ymren at ust.hk

Rohan Sen

Postdoc

   rohansen at ust.hk

STUDENTS

Shiman Hu

PhD Candidate

   shuan at connect.ust.hk

Chun Hui

PhD Candidate

   chuiab at connect.ust.hk

Ruizhao Huang

PhD Candidate

   rhuangbb at connect.ust.hk

Hao Kong

MPhil Student

   hkongab at connect.ust.hk

Shaokun Liang

MPhil Student

   sliangas at connect.ust.hk

Haoxuan Lu

PhD Student

   hlubo at connect.ust.hk

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Junkun Yang

Research Assistant

   jyanged at connect.ust.hk

Jiawei Wu

Research Assistant

   jiawei at ust.hk

Hongbao Zhang

RA/Predoc

   zhanghongbao at ust.hk

Yuheng Wu

Research Assistant

   yuheng.wu at connect.ust.hk

Zhang Zhang

Research Assistant

   zzhanggs at connect.ust.hk

Yurong Huang

RA/Lab Manager

   yuronghuang at ust.hk

FORMER MEMBERS

Dachuan Chen

Visiting Scholar (2023/09-11, 2024/04-06)

Assistant Professor of Economics and Statistics at SMU

   dcchen at smu.edu.sg

Puxuan Zhao

Research Assistant

   pzhaoai at connect.ust.hk

Changlei Lyu

PhD (2018-2025)

SUFE-DAFI

   clyuaj at connect.ust.hk

Juncheng Li

PhD (2018-2025)

   jlicv at connect.ust.hk

Jian Yuan

PhD (2020-2025)

Postdoc at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

   jyuanan at connect.ust.hk

Yibin Zhang

PhD (2021-2025)

Boshi fund

   yizhangnq at connect.ust.hk

Chaoyang Lin

Research Assistant(2023-2025)

   linchy at ust.hk

Haiwen Wu

Research Assistant

   haiwwu at ust.hk

Bicheng Zhan

Research Assistant(2024-2025)

PhD Student at Wuhan University

   bzhanaa at connect.ust.hk

Keya Choudhury

Research Assistant(2025-2026)

   kchoudhury at connect.ust.hk

Guoli Liu

PhD (2018-2023)

Inno Asset Management

   gliuaj at ust.hk

Ka Chun Li

Research Assistant

   kcliap at connect.ust.hk

Qingsan Zhu

Postdoc (2020-2023)

Associate Research Fellow at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

   iaszhuqs at ust.hk

Qianyu Liu

Research Assistant (2022-2023)

PhD Student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

   qliubp at connect.ust.hk

Ziyi Xu

Research Assistant (2022-2023)

PhD Student at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

   ziyi at ust.hk

Fangyi Wei

Research Assistant (2022-2023)

PhD Student at The University of Hong Kong

   weify at ust.hk

Jiajun Ma

PhD (2020-2021)

PhD Student at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

   jmabh at connect.ust.hk

Yi Ding

PhD (2015-2020)

Assistant Professor at the University of Macau

   yiding at um.edu.mo

Lingling Zhao

Research Assistant (2018-2019)

   kellyzhao at ust.hk

Bo Zhou

Postdoc (2018-2019)

Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech

   bzhou at vt.edu

Wen Luo

Research Assistant (2018-2019)

FOF analyst, ZIAsset

   luowen at ziasset.com

Xinxin Yang

Postdoc (2017-2018)

PhD (2012-2017)

Assistant Professor at Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE)

   statxxy at outlook.com

Weiyang Wen

Research Assistant (2015-2018)

New York University

Cheng Zhou

Postdoc (2016-2017)

Senior Researcher, Tencent AI Lab

Mengmeng Ao

PhD (2016)

Assistant Professor at Xiamen University

   aomengmeng1 at gmail.com

Guangying Liu

Visiting Scholar (2015-2016)

Associate Professor at Nanjing Audit University(NAU)

   liugying at nau.edu.cn

Chengeng Qu

MPhil (2016)

Ningning Xia

Postdoc (2013-2015)

Associate Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SHUFE)

Jianchang Hu

Research Assistant (2013-2014)

PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Shangyu Xie

Visiting Scholar (2012)

Associate Professor University of International Business and Economics (UIBE)

Zhiyuan Zhang

Postdoc (2010-2012)

Associate Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SHUFE)

   zhang.zhiyuan at mail.shufe.edu.cn

Yichu Li (Bill)

MPhil (2011)

Quantitative Research Analyst, ITG

   yichuli at tepper.cmu.edu

Jiaqi Chen

Postdoc (2010-2011)

Associate Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology

SELECTED RESEARCH


  • Predictive Factor Model for Jump Intensities, Yi Ding, Shiman Hu, Yingying Li, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, submitted

  • Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes, Leheng Chen, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, submitted

  • Cross-Sectional Learning and Inference for the Stochastic Discount Factor, Zhanhui Chen, Yi Ding, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, submitted

  • Uncovering Stock Risk Linkages via Mixed Membership Co-jump Networks, Yingying Li, Guoli Liu, Changlei Lyu and Xinghua Zheng, submitted

  • Robust Large Portfolio Optimization with Heteroscedastic and Heavy-Tailed Returns, Mengmeng Ao, Leheng Chen, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, in revision

  • How to Dominate the Historical Average, Kai Li, Yingying Li, Changlei Lyu and Jialin Yu, Review of Financial Studies, available online

  • Tests for Principal Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, Jianqing Fan, Yingying Li, Ningning Xia and Xinghua Zheng, to appear in Journal of the American Statistical Association

  • Multiplicative Factor Modeling for Volatility, Yi Ding, Robert Engle, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, Journal of Econometrics, 249,2025,105959

  • Stock Co-Jump Networks, Yi Ding, Yingying Li, Guoli Liu and Xinghua Zheng, Journal of Econometrics, 239(2), 2024, 105420

  • Mining the Factor Zoo: Estimation of Latent Factor Models with Sufficient Proxies, Runzhe Wan, Yingying Li, Wenbin Lu and Rui Song, Journal of Econometrics, 239(2), 2024, 105386

  • Volatility Measurement with Pockets of Extreme Return Persistence, Torben G. Andersen, Yingying Li, Viktor Todorov and Bo Zhou, Journal of Econometrics, 237(2), 2023, 105048

  • High-dimensional Minimum Variance Portfolio Estimation Based on High-frequency Data, Tony Cai, Jianchang Hu, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, Journal of Econometrics, 214(2), 2020, 482-494

  • Approaching Mean-Variance Efficiency for Large Portfolios, Mengmeng Ao, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, Review of Financial Studies, 32(7), 2019, 2890–2919

    See here for a summary from CFA Digest

  • Estimating the Integrated Volatility with Tick Observations, Jean Jacod, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, Journal of Econometrics, 208(1), 2019, 80-100

  • Statistical Properties of Microstructure Noise, Jean Jacod, Yingying Li and Xinghua Zheng, Econometrica , 85, 2017, 1133-1174

  • Rounding Errors and Volatility Estimation, Yingying Li and Per A. Mykland, Journal of Financial Econometrics, 13(2), 2015, 478-504

  • Realized Volatility When Sampling Times are Possibly Endogenous, Yingying Li, Per Mykland, Eric Renault, Lan Zhang and Xinghua Zheng, Econometric Theory, 30, 2014, 580-605

  • The Leverage Effect Puzzle: Disentangling Sources of Bias at High Frequency, Yacine Ait-Sahalia, Jianqing Fan and Yingying Li, Journal of Financial Economics, 109, 2013, 224-249

  • Microstructure Noise in the Continuous Case: The Pre-Averaging Approach, Jean Jacod, Yingying Li, Per A. Mykland, Mark Podolskij and Mathias Vetter, Stochastic Processes and their Applications, 119(7), 2009, 2249-2276

  • Are Volatility Estimators Robust with Respect to Modeling Assumptions? , Yingying Li and Per A. Mykland, Bernoulli, 13(3), 2007, 601-622

    CONFERENCES


    NEWS & ACTIVITIES


    Aug 2026: THE THIRD IAS-SBM JOINT WORKSHOP Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era. - picture.

    Jun 2026: Prof. Yingying Li presented 'Site Percolation Network Models for Event-Driven Systems' at 18th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE 2026) in Macau. - picture.

    Jun 2026: Prof. Xinghua Zheng presented 'A Factor Hypergraph Model for Stock Co-jump Process' at 18th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE 2026) in Macau. - picture.

    Jun 2026: Rohan Sen presented 'Kernel-Based Nonparametric Tests For Shape Constraints' at 18th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE 2026) in Macau. - picture.

    Jun 2026: Prof. Yingying Li served as a lecturer and keynote speaker at QFFE 2026 - Quantitative Finance and Financial Econometrics in Marseille, France. - picture.

    May 2026: Prof. Xinghua Zheng was appointed as Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

    May 2026: Zhuoxi Li was awarded an RGC Junior Research Fellowship.

    May 2026: Junkun Yang received the HKPFS.

    May 2026: Ruizhao Huang received the Red Bird Academic Excellence Award.

    Mar 2026: Welcome new member Rohan Sen to the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher.

    Feb 2026: Prof. Yingying Li appointed as AE of Management Science.

    Jan 2026: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the CityU Workshop in Econometrics and Statistics (Hong Kong).

    Jan 2026: Welcome new member Yimeng Ren to the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher.

    Jan 2026: Prof. Xinghua Zheng appointed as AE of the Journal of Econometrics and Econometric Theory.

    Dec 2025: Prof. Yingying Li, Prof. Xinghua Zheng, and Prof. Carsten H. Chong organized the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group.

    Dec 2025: Shiman Hu presented 'Predicted Factor Model for Jump Intensities' at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Ruizhao Huang presented 'MAXSER-C' at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Qi Fan presented his research at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Yingwen Tan presented his research at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Zhuoxi Li presented his research at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Greater Bay Econometrics Study Group (Hong Kong).

    Dec 2025: Prof. Yingying Li was named a Fellow of the Journal of Econometrics.

    Nov 2025: Prof. Yingying Li was recognized as Fung Term Professor at HKUST's Eighth Inauguration Ceremony of Named Professorships. - picture.

    Sep 2025: Prof. Yingying Li awarded NSFC YSF Cat-A.

    Sep 2025: Welcome new members Jiawei Wu, Yuheng Wu, and Hongbao Zhang to the lab as Research Assistants.

    Aug 2025: Prof. Yingying Li, Prof. Xinghua Zheng, and Prof. Carsten H. Chong organized THE SECOND IAS-SBM JOINT WORKSHOP Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era. - picture 1 2.

    Aug 2025: Shiman Hu presented 'Predicted Factor Model for Jump Intensities' at the 2nd HKUST IAS-SBM Joint Workshop on Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era (Hong Kong).

    Aug 2025: Ruizhao Huang presented 'MAXSER-C' at the 2nd HKUST IAS-SBM Joint Workshop on Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era (Hong Kong).

    Aug 2025: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the 2nd HKUST IAS-SBM Joint Workshop on Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era (Hong Kong).

    Aug 2025: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the 2025 Random Matrix Theory and Applications Summer Workshop (Yunnan).

    Aug 2025: Welcome new member Haoxuan Lu to the lab as a PhD student.

    Aug 2025: Welcome new members Qi Fan, Yingwen Tan, and Zhuoxi Li to the lab as Postdoctoral Researchers.

    Aug 2025: Leheng Chen successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Chen. - picture.

    Jun 2025: Prof. Xinghua Zheng presented the paper 'Incorporating Return Prediction in High-dimensional Mean-Variance Portfolio Optimization' at the 17th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE 2025) in Paris.

    Jun 2025: Prof. Yingying Li presented the paper 'Predictive Factor Model for Jump Intensities' at the 17th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE 2025) in Paris.

    Jun 2025: Prof. Yingying Li served as a plenary speaker at the 19th International Symposium on Econometric Theory and Applications (SETA 2025) in Macau and gave the talk 'Learning the Stochastic Discount Factor'. - picture.

    Jun 2025: Shiman Hu presented 'Predicted Factor Model for Jump Intensities' at the 19th International Symposium on Econometric Theory and Applications (SETA 2025) (Macau).

    Jun 2025: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the 19th International Symposium on Econometric Theory and Applications (SETA 2025) (Macau).

    Jun 2025: Yibin Zhang successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Zhang.

    May 2025: Haoxuan Lu received the HKPFS.

    May 2025: Changlei Lyu successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Lyu. - picture.

    Feb 2025: Prof. Yingying Li was named Fung Term Professor. - picture.

    Jan 2025: Juncheng Li successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Li.

    2025: Prof. Xinghua Zheng named Lee Hang Fellow.

    Dec 2024: Bicheng Zhan and Junkun Yang joined FinStaR as Research Assistants in November and December.

    Dec 2024: Leheng Chen presented 'Efficient Portfolio Estimation in Large Risky Asset Universes' at the First Macau International Conference on Business Intelligence and Analytics (Macau).

    Nov 2024: Jian Yuan successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Yuan. - picture.

    Jun 2024: Prof. Yingying Li and Prof. Torben Andersen co-chaired the 16th Annual Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE) Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. - picture.

    Jun 2024: Leheng Chen presented 'Robust Large Portfolio Optimization with Heteroscedastic and Heavy-Tailed Returns' at the 16th Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE) Annual Conference (Rio de Janeiro).

    May 2024: Prof. Yingying Li, Prof. Xinghua Zheng, and Prof. Carsten H. Chong organized a workshop on Financial Econometrics in the Big Data Era. - picture.

    May 2024: Prof. Xinghua Zheng and Prof. Yingying Li spoke in the event "AI for Good" hosted by Chicago Booth. - picture 1 2 3 4.

    Aug 2023: Guoli Liu successfully defended his PhD thesis and became Dr. Liu. - picture 1 2.

    Jul 2023: Prof. Yingying Li was promoted to Chair Professor.

    Jul 2023: Prof. Yingying Li was named Senior Research Fellow by the Research Grants Council. - picture.

    Jun 2023: Prof. Xinghua Zheng elected as Fellow of the Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE). - picture.

    Jun 2022: Guoli Liu won the Redbird Academic Excellence Award.

    Jun 2022: Leheng Chen won the Redbird PhD Award.

    Sep 2021: Prof. Yingying Li gave a talk in the "Cutting-edge Research in Business Studies Series" Live Broadcast via HKUST MBA China, ifeng.com, sohu.com, Tencent (total 216,693 live stream views, watch replay). - picture.

    Sep 2021: Welcome new member Ruizhao Huang to the lab.

    Sep 2021: Welcome new PhD student Shiman Hu to the lab.

    Jul 2021: Prof. Yingying Li was recognized as one of the faculty members who made exceptional achievements in the past academic year. - picture.

    Apr 2021: Prof. Yingying Li gave a talk in the UBS Machine Learning & Advanced Portfolio Optimization in UBS Quant Insight Series (Watch replay).

    Oct 2020: FinStaR Lab was awarded a grant from HKUST-Kaisa Joint Research Institute on large portfolio optimization.

    Sep 2020: Welcome new members Chun Hui and Qingsan Zhu to the lab.

    Aug 2020: Welcome new member Jiajun Ma to the lab.

    Aug 2020: Dr. Yi Ding has been appointed Research Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

    Jul 2020: Prof. Yingying Li presented “Estimating Large Efficient Portfolios with Heteroscedastic Returns” in SoFiE Seminar.

    Feb 2020: Welcome new member Leheng Chen to the lab.

    Dec 2019: Yi Ding received Dean's PhD Fellowship for Research Excellence 2019-2020.

    Nov 2019: Prof. Yingying Li awarded 2019 Excellent Young Scholar, National Natural Science Foundation of China (News in BUSINESS INSIGHT@HKUST and XINHUANET).

    Aug 2019: Dr. Bo Zhou has been appointed assistant professor at Durham University.

    Jul 2019: Prof. Xinghua Zheng delivered a keynote speech at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Institute of Financial Econometrics and Risk Management of Chinese Society of Management Science and Engineering.

    Jul 2019: Prof. Yingying Li was promoted to Full Professor.

    Jun 2019: Prof. Yingying Li delivered an invited theme talk at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE 2019) in Shanghai. - picture.

    Jun 2019: Prof. Yingying Li elected as a Council member of SoFiE.

    Jun 2019: Yi Ding received SoFiE 2019 Shanghai Conference Travel Grant from New York University.

    May 2019: Wen Luo has been employed as a FOF analyst at ZIAsset.

    Dec 2018: Prof. Yingying Li was recognized as one of the faculty members who made exceptional achievements in the past academic year. - picture.

    Oct 2018: Welcome new members Changlei Lyu and Lingling Zhao to the lab.

    Sep 2018: Prof. Yingying Li has been appointed AE of Journal of Business & Economic Statistics.

    Aug 2018: Dr. Xinxin Yang has been appointed assistant professor in C.U.F.E.(中央财经大学).

    Aug 2018: Welcome new members Juncheng Li and Guoli Liu to the lab.

    Jul 2018: Welcome new member Wen Luo to the lab.

    Aug 2017: Welcome new member Bo Zhou to the lab.

    Aug 2017: Dr. Xinxin Yang successfully defended her PhD thesis.

    Aug 2017: Yi Ding successfully defended Master thesis.

    Aug 2017: Prof. Yingying Li served as a judge for the final round of HSBC Financial Dialogue FinTech Challenge.

    Jul 2017: Yi Ding received Research Travel Grant of HKUST 2016-17.

    Jun 2017: Prof. Yingying Li elected SoFiE Fellow.

    Jun 2017: Prof. Xinghua Zheng has been appointed AE of Statistica Sinica.

    Jan 2017: Prof. Yingying Li has been appointed AE of Journal of Econometrics.

    Jan 2017: Prof. Yingying Li has been appointed AE of Journal of Financial Econometrics.

    Oct 2016: Yi Ding obtained Dean’s PhD Fellowship for the academic year 2016-17.

    Jun 2016: HKUST IAS Quantitative Finance and Fintech Mini Workshop. - picture.

    Jun 2016: The Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE) Annual Conference 2016. - picture.

    Jun 2016: Dr. Mengmeng Ao has been appointed Assistant Professor in Xiamen University(厦门大学).

    Sep 2015: Welcome new member Yi Ding to the lab.

    Aug 2015: Welcome new member Cheng Zhou to the lab.

    Jul 2015: Welcome new member Weiyang Wen to the lab.

    Jun 2014: Dr. Ningning Xia has been appointed assistant professor in S.H.U.F.E.(上海财经大学).

    2013: The 2nd HKUST International Forum on Probability and Statistics. Watch the video. - picture.

    2013: The 1st HKUST International Forum on Probability and Statistics. - picture.

    Jun 2012: Dr. Zhiyuan Zhang has been appointed assistant professor in S.H.U.F.E.(上海财经大学).

    VISITORS


    HIRING


    Post-doctoral researcher and RA positions are available.

    Applications with a strong background in statistics and experience in coding are particularly welcomed. Interested applicants please send application letter and CV to   xhzheng at ust.hk and  yyli at ust.hk