Company News
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New Jersey Institute of Technology has announced the renaming of its College of Science and Liberal Arts to the Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts (JHCSLA) in recognition of a historic gift from Jordan Hu ’89, founder and chief executive officer of RiskVal Financial Solutions, LLC and a former member of the university’s Board of Trustees.
Hu’s contribution marks the single largest philanthropic commitment ever made by an NJIT graduate to the university, and will provide crucial funding to JHCSLA that will enhance STEM education and research across campus, and open a range of scholarship opportunities for students, both domestic and international.
“The entire university community is deeply grateful for Jordan’s extraordinary gift to NJIT,” said NJIT President Teik C. Lim. “This renaming celebrates his remarkable and exemplary investment in the foundation of this university, which will create new avenues for expanded education and research opportunities, profoundly impacting the lives and careers of NJIT students for many years to come.”
Hu, a native of Taiwan, earned his master’s degree in computer science from NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts as an international student in 1989. Hu’s career in finance began after he graduated, and he held senior roles at Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup before he founded RiskVal Financial Solutions in 2001 — which has become one of the world’s leading financial technology companies. Hu has also been a dedicated advocate for educational opportunities and cultural exchange between Taiwan and the U.S.
“My American dream started at NJIT. … NJIT has always tried to make higher education accessible to students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, and without that effort, my life would have been totally different,” said Hu. “I feel very touched to have had the experience I did at NJIT as a student from Taiwan, and this is my way of giving back to others who want to pursue their dreams here just as I did.”
Hu’s donation will create two separate endowments, including one establishing the Jordan Hu Taiwan Scholarship, which will support students from Taiwan who choose to pursue degrees at NJIT.
A separate endowment will support NJIT’s third-oldest college more broadly. It will fund the Hu Family scholarships and fellowships for undergraduates and graduate students, providing crucial assistance to those with financial need. The endowment will also support curricular development and innovation in the college and help fund enhancements to classrooms and world-class lab facilities, as well as bolster pioneering research efforts across JHCSLA’s diverse academic departments — from the humanities and social sciences, to mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics.
“This very significant gift by Jordan Hu represents an investment in the college’s future,” said Kevin Belfield, JHCSLA’s dean. “It will enable us to expand scholarships and student support, create new academic and research initiatives, and allow even more students to prosper from an NJIT education.”
Established in 1982, JHCSLA now delivers more than a third of the student credit hours offered and secures nearly 30% of all research grants at NJIT — a top-tier “R1” research institution since 2019.
“I hope this contribution helps strengthen the vital study of the fundamental sciences offered at the college. I also hope it encourages Taiwanese students to come to NJIT,” said Hu, who was recognized with the college’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018. “I want them to feel supported, as if there is a lighthouse waiting here to guide them if they are willing to venture out and pursue their dreams.”
NJIT will formally name the “Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts” at a dedication ceremony Friday, Sept. 6.
Original source: https://news.njit.edu/njit-renames-college-science-and-liberal-arts-honoring-historic-gift-alumnus-jordan-hu#:~:text=New%20Jersey%20Institute%20of%20Technology,a%20former%20member%20of%20the
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RiskVal Financial Solutions is a very special company in Manhattan, New York. Here are some things about the founder and CEO Jordan Hu:
• 30 years ago, Jordan Hu only sent one resume, found his first job and entered Salomon Brothers Inc. • Jordan Hu is a mathematics major, and has not studied finance for a day, but has a finance and finance-related career spanning 30 years. • RiskVal has not hired marketing personnel, and has not done a day's advertising • RiskVal has used the role of financial risk control “weapon supplier” to enter Wall Street • RiskVal was founded 19 years ago, and the world ’s largest financial transaction control strategy companies, world-class investment institutions know Jordan Hu and RiskVal.
Since the establishment of RiskVal, Jordan Hu has won dozens of important awards.
Among them, • Received the “Smart CEO FUTURE 50” in New York for three consecutive years (2016–2018) • Received the “Waters Rankings Awards Best Risk Management System” (Best Portfolio Management System Provider, 2016-2018) for three consecutive years. "Waters Technology" is a well-known financial information technology monthly magazine, specializing in the application of information technology in the capital market.
With a background in mathematics, how did Jordan Hu enter the field of financial engineering? What exactly does RiskVal do?
Before answering the above questions, understand Wall Street.
On Wall Street, investment bank transactions are divided into buyers and sellers. Buyers do pre-transaction analysis and strategy execution, and sellers sell goods to benefit. The buyer is divided into the front office, middle office, and back office. The front office should understand the trading strategy and do risk management; the middle office deals with the value at risk; the back office is to confirm the total amount, amount and payment of the transaction. For example, if there are 10 buyers in an investment bank, the main force is to do transactions at the front office, with at most 1 or 2 people in the middle stage and 2 or 3 people in the back office. Generally speaking, salaries are higher at the front office, but also more stressful.
In addition to traders at the front office, they also need quantitative analysts (Quant) to design trading models (mainly computer programming), perform derivative financial commodity pricing, risk valuation or predict market behavior. The middle and back-office staff will also use Quant's work to assist the business.
In 1989, Jordan Hu entered the Solomon Brothers and was a technician at the buyer's front office.
Sent one job application and successfully employed
Jordan Hu was born in Taiwan. After graduating from the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University in Hsinchu, and completing military service, he studied at the New Jersey Institute of Technology for a master's degree in computer science. After receiving the degree, a friend told Jordan Hu that Solomon Brothers was recruiting people. Jordan Hu sent his resume, entered the Solomon Brothers in 1989, and worked in the department of the fixed income market.
Established in 1910, the Solomon Brothers started with bond trading and once accounted for 60% of U.S. Treasury trading. At the time, they were the world's most profitable fixed-income company. The so-called fixed income is "the income obtained by investors at the best-predetermined interest rate". Investment projects such as bank time deposits, government bonds, financial bonds, corporate bonds, convertible bonds, bond funds, etc. At the end of the period, investors can receive the agreed interest.
There are 25 people in the Solomon Brothers' proprietary department. They study investment methods together and specialize in a certain transaction. Jordan Hu is responsible for computerizing transaction data and calculation models. A few years later, he entered the trading room.
The proprietary department needs to complete the annual investment amount and goals delivered by the company, and analyze which commodities can be profitable, how much risk is assumed, and how to avoid risks. Second, multiple transactions are executed every day, which can generate strategic results after accumulation. Third, once the external environment changes, such as the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, the trading strategy must be adjusted to optimize the use of funds.
Jordan Hu said that investment cannot guarantee a certain amount of money, but it can increase profit opportunities through scientific methods. He said, "I haven't studied finance. This job is very challenging for me." After staying with Solomon Brothers for four years, Jordan Hu joined Goldman Sachs for two years before returning to Solomon Brothers.
Decides to Start a Business after Losing the Job
However, after the acquisition of Solomon Brothers by Citigroup (formerly known as the Travelers Group), the focus on the proprietary model of Solomon Brothers was suspended. Jordan Hu was unemployed. It was 1998. He pondered whether to find another job in the financial industry and also saw the rise of the Internet, driving the need for risk assessment of real-time transactions.
Jordan Hu said, "I do trading strategies. My trading experience is valuable. Turn it into a commodity, and customers can grasp the opportunities that may make money." He thought that there is a market if a trading strategy system is to be sold to investment institutions through the Internet.
Jordan Hu is determined to start a business. But he also admits, "I'm a techie. I didn't know how to do business at first, but I had a good timing."
At that moment, Credit Suisse gave him a three-year contract and asked him to build an internal system. With this contract as the basis, Jordan Hu hired R & D personnel and established RiskVal Financial Strategy Company in 2001 and launched a "RiskVal Fixed-Income (RVFI)" trading strategy analysis system.
RVFI is a 24-hour platform that collects quotations of fixed income commodities such as fixed deposits, credits, loans, options, bonds, futures, and derivative commodities. Through mathematical model analysis, it quantifies various influencing factors and provides multiple transaction evaluations. Hoping that customers "under controllable risks" increase investment profits.
When Jordan Hu was looking for the investment agency business opportunities, his experience at Solomon Brothers' proprietary desk helped. The Solomon Brothers were Wall Street's best-performing proprietary units at the time, and these investment agencies want to know why Solomon could make so much money. This is the niche of RiskVal. RiskVal customers now come from institutional investors such as banks, securities dealers, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies and pension funds worldwide.
Build platforms to provide weapons
Jordan Hu said that investment institutions hold huge amounts of funds. The basic size of a hedge fund is 10 billion dollars and the transaction volume is large; the deposits, loans, and receivables of large banks are also huge. To maintain their size, these institutions must always generate profits, and they are looking for safe investment goods.
RiskVal provides a strategic platform for investors to pay a small amount of rent. Jordan Hu said, "To what extent? It is not enough for it to build the system itself." At the current market level, to build the system, computer talents need to be hired for research and development. The personnel cost is several hundred thousand dollars a year, and the solution can only be successfully built in a few years. These investment institutions will not do it by themselves, "this is my starting point."
Jordan Hu said: "I don't help clients operate or manage funds. I provide a platform to help them find profit opportunities. It's like they go to war and I supply weapons."
So why don't others enter this market? Jordan Hu said that there are not many people who know this technology, and those who does, want to trade by themselves. Those people will think that it is the easiest way to control profits and losses. Jordan Hu described that those who can fight want to be soldiers. "But my strategy is that I am willing to be a weapon supplier."
Weekly Enhancement Releases
RiskVal now has nearly 60 people, all of whom are R & D and technical personnel; six of them are PhDs, and all others have PhDs and master's degrees. Jordan Hu and Quants discuss new ideas and hand them over to technical staff. In RiskVal's Manhattan office, engineers concentrate on work or exchange ideas. There is a space for pool tables, fitness equipment and massage chairs, which employees can use freely.
In addition, from the first day of the company established to the present, Jordan Hu insists on publishing product update reports every week, allowing customers to know the latest trading strategies and new features as soon as possible. Jordan Hu said that innovation is the core value of RiskVal. It has been difficult to do this without interrupting the release of reports for 19 years, but it has also kept RiskVal ahead.
For most people, RiskVal's platform is difficult to understand, and Jordan Hu shared the company's operations. Work goals are set weekly, and acceptance checks begin on Thursday and preliminary assessments are made: some projects are not completed, should they be postponed to next week's completion, which projects should be fully completed, etc. By Friday, all the checks are done and released.
Jordan Hu did not have a finance background, nor did he has a Master of Business Administration (MBA); RiskVal has not hired a marketing staff, nor has it been advertising. Financial engineering is a field that has only existed since 2000. But Jordan Hu, starting with his math major, succeeded on Wall Street.
Inspired by a former colleague
Jordan Hu recalled that when he left Solomon Brothers, he was a little confused about the future: Looking for another job or starting a business? Finding another job is not difficult, and Wall Street is well paid, but starting a business is risky.
Jordan Hu's colleague Dr. Bruce Tuckman during the Solomon Brothers was his mentor. After leaving Solomon Brothers, Tuckman was hired as a senior trading strategy consultant for other companies and now works for a major think tank in the United States. Tuckman not only helped Jordan Hu start his business idea. Even before Jordan Hu started his business a few years ago, Tuckman invites Jordan Hu to have a meal together every year, and sometimes he invites the Nobel prize winner in economics to join.
They usually find a quiet restaurant, where three or four people spend an evening to have a meal and chat. Tuckman and his friends would ask Jordan Hu questions, some of them are very difficult to let him think. Jordan Hu said: "They hope that I can go my own way. This deep interaction has benefited me a lot."
Winning awards will definitely raise fame
Regarding winning the prize, Jordan Hu said, "Before winning the prize, I never knew it was important."
The first prize was from Fin Extra, a well-known European journal of derivative credit products. "Fin Extra" observes market trends, talks to traders about risk control, and knows RiskVal indirectly. "Fin Extra" wants to know what RiskVal is doing, and why companies like JPMorgan have so many talented people but did not build their own systems.
"Fin Extra" visited Jordan Hu. Afterwards, the "Finextra Innovation Award for the RVCredit Solution" was awarded to reward RiskVal's creativity.
After winning this award, RiskVal became well-known in the financial industry gradually. Starting in 2008, RiskVal has won many awards. Winning the award is the affirmation and has built up RiskVal's reputation.
From 2016 to 2018, Jordan Hu won 50 Smart CEOs in New York for three consecutive years. New York is a startup center. Many people want to start a business. This award is dedicated to discovering CEOs and how they realize their dreams. Jordan Hu is the only CEO who has won awards for three consecutive years. In the third year, he told the organizer, "Give this award to other outstanding people. Don't give it to me anymore."
In 2017, Jordan Hu won a model for overseas youth entrepreneurship in Taiwan, and in 2018 won the Rock Award for Taiwanese businessmen overseas. Today, RiskVal is the bull of the Wall Street risk control system, and Jordan Hu has proven his strength.
Management is simple and transparent
Regarding management, Jordan Hu emphasized that managing enterprises should be simplified, and things should be resolved quickly; followed by transparency. For example, everyone in RiskVal knows how much each contract worth.
RiskVal is self-funded by Jordan Hu, without other investors, he establishes tacit understanding and confidence with each employee. In terms of salary and benefits, Jordan Hu said, "I know what employees want, and I give it to them."
Jordan Hu values interpersonal relationships. When the company was founded 19 years ago, the turnover rate was almost zero. Jordan Hu said that natural talents will be useful. As long as you make good use of everyone's expertise, there is always a way to find a suitable position in the company.
Five years ago, Jordan Hu discovered that if the company wants to continue to grow, the biggest obstacle is to face the zero employee turnover rate, which is good and bad. The good thing is that the direction is clear, and the bad thing is that some habits cannot be changed. Jordan Hu said that after he started to adjust, some senior employees left, but they had a good outcome after they left.
Future goals - Automated Trading
Jordan Hu likes the Fibonacci Sequence very much. This is a well-known mathematical method. The evolution problem starts from 0 and 1. The Fibonacci coefficient is obtained by adding the previous two numbers. , 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. There are many phenomena in nature that can be explained by Fibonacci coefficients. In the fields of modern physics and chemistry, Fibonacci numbers have direct applications.
Jordan Hu's next goal is to hope that one day an automated transaction can be reached. Some financial engineers use the Fibonacci sequence to plan the transaction model, but there is no way to solve the problem he wants to solve. "I can vaguely see the answer, but I need someone who believes in this challenge to do it together."
As the company grew, RiskVal moved to its current office in 2011, and there is still plenty of space on the entire floor. Another office was opened in Princeton, New Jersey in 2019.
There is also a wall with patented design drawings of computer components, such as USB and Disk Storage System. Jordan Hu said that these important inventions that created modern science and technology are the core of technology and the crystallization of human wisdom in the computer era. He said, "We inherited the breakthrough innovations of our predecessors and stood on the waves and continued to move forward. These patterns are like photos of ancestors, which is very meaningful to me."
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On a Sunday morning in October, in the famous Mohonk Mountains of New York State, Jordan Hu hiked with friends who have been together for 40 years. October in New York has become more autumn, and Jordan used a drone to leave their two couples in the blue sky and green space.
Jordan Hu is from Taiwan, graduated from Tsinghua University, and obtained a master's degree in computer science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Jordan loves work and his family. Although he is very busy, he still meets with his friend for one year, which shows that he loves friends. Along the way, Jordan's life was full and fulfilling. The following is Jordan Hu talking about mathematics and life in the first person.
Math can train thinking
I have three children, two daughters and one son. They are all good at math, but only the son decided to go the math path. It was up to him. After my son majored in mathematics, I think his way of thinking and speaking is clearer than before.
I think it doesn't matter what your child learns, but be interested in what they're learning. In a highly competitive society, if children are not interested in what they do, they will lack creativity and enthusiasm. Even if the child is going to be a doctor or accountant in the future, he can still learn mathematics and train his thinking and working ability.
Parents inevitably have expectations for their children, and that expectation is very delicate. The child becomes a doctor, lawyer, or trader. If that is not what he wants to do, will he be happy? The dreams of parents are not the dreams of children. The happiness of parents should not be built on children. As long as the child's character is good, he can try anything, and parents should support it.
Learn mathematics trained you how to find the answer step by step in a scientific way without an answer, this process will make mistakes, but you can find methods to improve.
For example, there is a pile of colorful balls in a box. How fast can I reach the ball of the color I want. This is a mathematical problem, that is, finding the optimal solution. This is the value of mathematics. For another example, how did the stock market develop and will the results of yesterday continue to happen tomorrow? There is no absolute answer, only possible answers.
His passion to mathematics lead him to start his own business after losing job on Wall Street
Do things consistently
I suggest young people focus on three things: first, a healthy lifestyle. A healthy body, mind, and lifestyle can help you a lot. Second, stay productive. The meaning of productive is very broad, that is, to be fruitful. Third, stay persistent, that is, things must be sustained.
In modern society, the fields of electrical machinery, machinery, and chemical industry are developed, and there are many job opportunities, but the problem comes: this knowledge will innovate. For example, there were no chips 20 years ago, and now not only the chips handle everything, but they are also drawn by computers. That said, many jobs may disappear in the future.
So what is the last value left by a person? What cannot be replaced? That's your thinking. One can learn from mistakes, and this ability cannot be replaced. For example, the development of self-driving cars is the most difficult. There are hundreds of driving situations, but learning from mistakes, and finally developing self-driving cars. It is the deepest value of man.
The problems encountered in the future society can be solved by the mathematical problems passed down by human beings for two or three thousand years. It is not a dream to live until a hundred years old in the future. Therefore, young people may wish to postpone their career planning a little. It does not matter if they are not stereotyped before the age of 30. Today in the 21st century, there are various types of jobs, and there are many opportunities to generate income. As long as you study hard and find a direction, all walks of life can be the champions.
Feedback and mission drive forward
In March 2019, I was nominated by the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, and approved by the state legislature. I was elected a director of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I am very grateful to the New Jersey Institute of Technology for giving me a scholarship that year to study in the United States. In a future plan, RiskVal will work with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to study Data Science.
I offered a scholarship to Tsinghua University, my alma mater, and taught a course called "Finance Mathematics" in the Department of Mathematics, which was taught remotely by my colleagues and me to teach the use of mathematics in financial engineering. In addition, promote the establishment of the North American Foundation of Tsinghua University. RiskVal also set up an office in Taiwan to provide job opportunities. Life is too short, I have a strong sense of mission in life, driving me forward.
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As a true believer in continuous education, Jordan Hu is constantly on the lookout for opportunities that can help to empower new generations and provide them with tools to learn more and excel in their careers.
Mr. Hu was happy to partner up with Barron’s in Education, an American weekly magazine/newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp., to promote financial proficiency
With this partnership, NJIT Martin Tuchman School of Management students and faculty have complimentary access to Barron’s provided by Jordan Hu, the Class of ‘89 NJIT alumnus.
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RiskVal Pre-Trade Analytics platform now allows users to construct and send trades directly to MTS’s BondVision (BV), see MTS real-time and market depth data, and access a brand-new liquidity analysis.
RiskVal, the fixed income pre-trade analytics company, has integrated with MTS BondVision, part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), streaming MTS data directly into RiskVal’s Pre-Trade Analytics (RVFI) platform. Additionally, traders and portfolio managers will be able to send trades directly from the RVFI platform to MTS’s electronic RFQ venue, BondVision.
The new module in the RVFI platform places MTS real-time prices and market depth data right next to RiskVal’s proprietary Relative Value metrics as a response to demand in the hedge fund community for greater visibility into the European government bond market. One of the principal advantages of the new service is that it will allow funds to base their trading decisions on firm, executable prices in the MTS interdealer Cash market, drawing on trading from over 100 unique dealer counterparties. The new liquidity analysis also gives users a detailed summary of all executed trades, easily filtered by country, maturity sector and specific issue.
The new module enhances RVFI’s European bond roll sheet with live prices, yields and volume data from MTS Markets. The newly integrated real-time liquidity analysis as well as heat map for bought and sold ratios across Europe also allows users to optimize their trade execution levels. Acting upon these new insights in conjunction with RVFI’s proprietary relative value measures, users will be able to identify and construct trades directly on the RVFI platform and send them directly to MTS BondVision to be executed on the electronic RFQ venue which hosts an active community of 28 liquidity providers and more than 250 buy-side participants. The new enhanced trade blotter sheet also allows post trade analysis including tracking trades and comparing the executed and actual spread levels.
Jordan Hu, Chief Executive Officer, RiskVal, said:
“With its comprehensive interdealer market and active RFQ platform, MTS was the perfect partner to offer enhanced value to our hedge fund clients. Crucial to smart trading in today’s fast-moving and fractured markets is the ability to access the right pre-trade data and then take action based on it. With this partnership, we’re able to offer exactly that to RVFI users. Utilizing data from MTS, we can show firm metrics on market depth, pricing and liquidity and then allow clients to directly post orders to the BondVision market.”
Oliver Clark, Head of Product at MTS, said:
“With record trading volumes across MTS platforms, MTS has become a rich source of transparent data across a wide range of European fixed income markets. We’re always looking for new ways to make that data accessible and useful to sections of MTS’s broad community of participants. Over the past few years, MTS has seen significant growth in the number of hedge funds utilizing our BondVision platform. We understand that the price transparency of the MTS order book is a valuable tool for these market participants who want to be able to integrate our data with their trading strategies. By integrating with RiskVal, an established provider of pre-trade analytics to the hedge fund community, we’re pleased to be able to meet this need and continue to add value for our hedge fund clients.”
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RiskVal Financial Solutions is proud to announce its partnership with researchers at NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC). The objective is to use cutting-edge data science techniques to model fluctuations in the bond market.
The project is led by NJIT Professor Zhi Wei of the Department of Computer Science at Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC), whose research focuses on data analytics, statistical modeling, machine learning and data mining.
RiskVal’s CEO Jordan Hu is an NJIT alumnus, having earned a master’s degree in computer science from the university in 1989. During my time at NJIT, I was impressed by the breadth of the knowledge and the quality of the research done by the faculty, and have long wanted to take advantage of it in my company,” said Jordan Hu.
Craig Gotsman, dean of NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing, said partnering with the corporate world to develop actionable research is a key focus of the college. “This type of partnership allows our faculty to take their research beyond the lab and have real-world impact,” said Gotsman. “It also provides a tremendous opportunity for our graduate students who assist in the project, gaining first-hand experience in applying their work.”
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RiskVal Financial Solutions, a global supplier of Software as a Service (SaaS) for pre-trade analysis and risk management, is proud to announce a collaboration with National Tsing Hua University in an effort to nurture interest and advance the knowledge of students in fixed income securities. The goals of this course are to describe important fixed income securities and markets, and tools for valuation and risk management. The RiskVal team has developed a comprehensive curriculum for the online class and will teach and share its unique practical industry experience with the goal to better equip students to fulfill their potential and realize their professional goals. The course covers traditional bonds and term structure concepts as well as fixed income derivatives and interest rate modeling.
The collaboration is led by Dr. Wei-Cheng Wang, the Dean of the Department of Mathematics at NTHU. His research focuses on calculus, numerical analysis, and hydromechanics. Through these courses, the academic committee helps mathematics and finance-majored students develop 4 core abilities: 1) advance mathematical knowledge 2) discover, analyze and solve problems 3) apply mathematical concepts in other subjects 4) use mathematics for logical reasoning.
RiskVal’s CEO Jordan Hu is a National Tsing Hua University alumnus, having earned a degree in applied math from the university in 1984. Inspired by the summer courses at the NTHU, Jordan pursued his Master's degree in computer science at New Jersey Institute of Technology and launched his career in finance. In Mr. Hu's own words: “If it was not for the summer courses and rigorous quantitative training at NTHU, I would not dare to have the epiphany of combining computer science with mathematics. Further, landing a career in the fixed income trading company. Therefore, I would like to contribute my knowledge and my experience to inspire the young generation in NTHU.”
NTHU and RiskVal are looking forward to many years of fruitful collaboration and envision developing new educational projects throughout the life of the alliance.
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Jordan Hu, a Taiwanese entrepreneur, founded a startup, RiskVal Financial Solutions in New York in 2001. Seventeen years later, it’s still going strong. It provides international financial trading and risk management solutions to customers including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
With a 50-strong office in New York and a 10-strong office in Taipei, RiskVal provides on-demand software relating to analytics and trading systems in fixed-income, credit derivatives, equity and foreign exchange.
Hu recently shared his experiences of being a Taiwanese entrepreneur in the Wall Street financial district with Business Next at his firm’s New York headquarters.
Q: What do Taiwanese startup companies need to think about before launching a business in the U.S.?
A: You need to think about three things.
First of all, you need to identify a niche market that your startup business can tap into. The fundamental problem a startup founder faces is searching for solutions to small, specific problems that the market really needs.
Second, you need to understand your market and understand the value the market places on your products. It helps if you have worked in the industry before as this gives you an insight into whether your product is relevant or not.
Last, the timing of doing business with large corporate clients is very important. You need to be ready to present your best product whenever big investment banks ask for it.
Q: Why would large American banks be interested in investing in a Taiwanese startup?
A: The reason why large banks are interested in investing in a startup is because they dislike the idea of putting in a lot of manpower into tasks that are repetitive. Taiwanese entrepreneurs need to remember that large American banks already have highly-talented engineers and programmers working for them. It’s not like they don’t have top technology and engineering talents.
Q: Is it difficult for Taiwanese startups to do business with large financial companies in New York?
A: Yes, it’s a very competitive industry. It’s difficult for Taiwanese startup founders as non-American outsiders to break into the Wall Street market if they have no Wall Street experience. They wouldn’t have the advantage of word-of-mouth endorsements.
Startup companies need to prove that their products are ready to launch because it increases your chances of getting funding and the investment amounts that they’re dealing with are huge. We’re talking about investments of US$50 million to US$100 million. It’s like being a soldier fighting on the front line in a never-ending battle.
Q: You have built up more than 200 trading strategies since 2001. What’s your secret?
A: Our aim is to help companies make better decisions and help investors evaluate risks by quantifying various factors and then making decisions. It's like playing a game of chess. You have a variety of ways to play. You need to think of decisions as if they were a chess move.
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NEW YORK, August 24, 2018 — Jordan Hu, founder and CEO of RiskVal Financial Solutions, will speak at this year’s Bloomberg Enterprise Tech & Data Summit in New York. The conference will take place on September 12, 2018 and will showcase some of the most compelling ideas from indsutry leaders in enterprise technology and data today.
Hu will join the “Real-Time Cloud Strategy” panel at 11:45am to discuss how integrating data, infrastructure, and software services in the cloud is helping customers make faster decisions with increased confidence. The panel summary:
“It is no secret that capital markets firms have embraced the cloud. More surprising, may be how technology executives are encouraging development far beyond a “lift and shift” strategy. This evolution is creating a new application architecture across the front, middle, and back office; one that is not only more efficient but designed for reliable decision making. Bloomberg’s Enterprise Data offerings can serve as the foundation of this transformation.”
Other speakers on the panel include Cory Albert, Head of Cloud Strategy for Bloomberg Enterprise Data, and Peter Williams, Global Head of Financial Services, Partner Technology, for Amazon Web Services.
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WASHINGTON, DC—September 19, 2014— Jordan Hu addressed business leaders and academics on overall stress test design and its technological integration at a symposium in DC. The Stress Testing Symposium was organized by the Global Social Science Institute and sponsored by Integrated Financial Engineering Group. Mr. Hu was chosen to participate in a panel discussion on stress test policy. As the CEO and founder of RiskVal, a financial engineering company, Mr. Hu has extensive experience in risk valuation, adapting to new market regulations, and creating products to fill market needs. According to event organizers, “stress testing is currently a high priority concern for many financial institutions.” Mr. Hu stated this shift is a direct result to newly enacted portions of the Dodd-Frank Act.
According to Sections 165 and 166 of the Dodd-Frank Act, financial institutions with assets totaling between ten and fifty billion dollars are required to conduct annual self-administered stress tests. Under these rules, stress test results must be publically disclosed each year between June 15 and June 30, starting in 2015. The fundamental idea of stress testing is to run assets under a ‘what-if’ scenario, to satisfy Basel II & III value-at-risk (VaR) capital requirements for both interest rate and credit assets.
Mr. Hu indicated financial institutions have found it difficult to integrate stress testing strategies with regulatory compliance and capital planning. The current banking industry business model is missing: (1) an interface with existing silos for needed data, (2) the environment to run what-if scenarios, (3) proper computation capacity, and (4) result analysis and risk management. Therefore, financial institutions need a stress testing solution that resolves these technology gaps.
In addition, Mr. Hu outlined the stress testing solutions market, which consists of three sectors of solution providers: (1) vender solutions, (2) internal systems, (3) spread sheet utilization. It turned out that only 33% of companies chose to build internal systems because of the costs involved. Aside from this, most do not have sufficient experience in creating risk valuation solutions. About 21% use spreadsheets to perform stress testing, however, this is a tedious process that leaves room for human error. The remaining majority—46%—turn to vendor solutions, which are more efficient and cost sensitive.
“Not only must stress testing solutions be efficient at data management and address the aforementioned gaps in current banking infrastructure, but must also provide a unified data model that can access data across different platforms” states Jordan Hu. The ideal stress testing solution encompasses loan, collateral, financial, and market data as well as risk factors. Creating a unified data management system is the key to streamlining the process. Other important factors include automation, report generation, model integration, and result analysis, all of which would make the process less time consuming for users.
Since Mr. Hu’s company, RiskVal Financial Solutions, specializes in integration and Software as a Service (SaaS), he favors highly scalable and easily integrated platforms. These two factors are crucial in creating seamless and flexible solutions. During his speech, he cited cloud computation as the superior framework due to its high scalability to fit business needs. Another important factor in establishing stress testing solutions is cost.
Mr. Hu stated: “A hosted solution is a cost effective alternative.” Established in-house stress testing solutions are less efficient and costly compared to hosted service provided by vendors because they require:
IT resources to maintain and update the environmentFlexibility to scale up the computation powerAdditional staff resourcesProcessing time spanning from approximately one to four months.
External solution providers, like RiskVal, are experienced in developing solutions that satisfy new government regulations. These providers have resources allocated to new research and development making it cost effective to design new products and solutions. With the June 2015 stress testing deadline for mid-sized banks approaching, companies will have to decide which approach suits their needs best—be it internal, spreadsheet based, or a vendor solution.
