Fri, 08 Nov 2019

10:00 - 11:00
L3

Financial modelling and utilisation of a diverse range of data sets in oil markets

Milos Krkic
(BP IST Data Strategists)
Abstract

We will present three problems that we are interested in:

Forecast of volatility both at the instrument and portfolio level by combining a model based approach with data driven research
We will deal with additional complications that arise in case of instruments that are highly correlated and/or with low volumes and open interest.
Test if volatility forecast improves metrics or can be used to derive alpha in our trading book.

Price predication using physical oil grades data
Hypothesis:
Physical markets are most reflective of true fundamentals. Derivative markets can deviate from fundamentals (and hence physical markets) over short term time horizons but eventually converge back. These dislocations would represent potential trading opportunities.
The problem:
Can we use the rich data from the physical market prices to predict price changes in the derivative markets?
Solution would explore lead/lag relationships amongst a dataset of highly correlated features. Also explore feature interdependencies and non-linearities.
The prediction could be in the form of a price target for the derivative (‘fair value’), a simple direction without magnitude, or a probabilistic range of outcomes.

Modelling oil balances by satellite data
The flow of oil around the world from being extracted, refined, transported and consumed, forms a very large dynamic network. At both regular and irregular intervals, we can make noisy measurements of the amount of oil at certain points in the network.
In addition, we have general macro-economic information about the supply and demand of oil in certain regions.
Based on that information, with general information about the connections between nodes in the network i.e. the typical rate of transfer, one can build a general model for how oil flows through the network.
We would like to build a probabilistic model on the network, representing our belief about the amount of oil stored at each of our nodes, which we refer to as balances.
We want to focus on particular parts of the network where our beliefs can be augmented by satellite data, which can be done by focusing on a sub network containing nodes that satellite measurements can be applied to.

Geometry and physics
Atiyah, M Dijkgraaf, R Hitchin, N Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 368 issue 1914 913-926 (13 Mar 2010)
Thu, 31 Oct 2019

16:30 - 17:30
L1

Complete Complexes and Spectral Sequences (COW Seminar)

Evangelos Routis
(Warwick)
Abstract

The space of complete collineations is an important and beautiful chapter of algebraic geometry, which has its origins in the classical works of Chasles, Schubert and many others, dating back to the 19th century. It provides a 'wonderful compactification' (i.e. smooth with normal crossings boundary) of the space of full-rank maps between two (fixed) vector spaces. More recently, the space of complete collineations has been studied intensively and has been used to derive groundbreaking results in diverse areas of mathematics. One such striking example is L. Lafforgue's compactification of the stack of Drinfeld's shtukas, which he subsequently used to prove the Langlands correspondence for the general linear group. 

In joint work with M. Kapranov, we look at these classical spaces from a modern perspective: a complete collineation is simply a spectral sequence of two-term complexes of vector spaces. We develop a theory involving more full-fledged (simply graded) spectral sequences with arbitrarily many terms. We prove that the set of such spectral sequences has the structure of a smooth projective variety, the 'variety of complete complexes', which provides a desingularization, with normal crossings boundary, of the 'Buchsbaum-Eisenbud variety of complexes', i.e. a 'wonderful compactification' of the union of its maximal strata.
 

Thu, 31 Oct 2019

14:45 - 15:45
L3

Classifying Fine Compactified Universal Jacobians (COW seminar)

Nicola Pagani
(Liverpool)
Abstract

A fine compactified Jacobian is a proper open substack of the moduli space of simple sheaves. We will see that fine compactified Jacobians correspond to a certain combinatorial datum, essentially obtained by taking multidegrees of all elements of the compactified Jacobian. This picture generalizes to flat families of curves. We will discuss a classification result in the case when the family is the universal family over the moduli space of curves. This is a joint work with Jesse Kass.

Thu, 31 Oct 2019

13:30 - 14:30
L3

Simplicity of Tannakian Categories (COW Seminar)

Martin Gallauer
(Oxford)
Abstract

Let A be a Tannakian category. Any exact tensor functor defined on A is either zero, or faithful. In this talk, I want to draw attention to a derived analogue of this statement (in characteristic zero) due to Jack Hall and David Rydh, and discuss some remarkable consequences for certain classification problems in algebraic geometry.

This autumn we welcomed the first students on the EPSRC CDT in Mathematics of Random Systems: Analysis, Modelling and Algorithms. The CDT (Centre for Doctoral Training) is a partnership between the Mathematical Institute and the Department of Statistics here in Oxford, and the Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London. Its ambition is to train the next generation of academic and industry experts in stochastic modelling, advanced computational methods and Data Science. 

Tue, 22 Oct 2019

14:00 - 15:00
L6

Homomorphisms from the torus

Matthew Jenssen
(Oxford)
Further Information

We present a detailed probabilistic and structural analysis of the set of weighted homomorphisms from the discrete torus Z_m^n, where m is even, to any fixed graph. Our main result establishes the "phase coexistence" phenomenon in a strong form: it shows that the corresponding probability distribution on such homomorphisms is close to a distribution defined constructively as a certain random perturbation of some "dominant phase". This has several consequences, including solutions (in a strong form) to conjectures of Engbers and Galvin and a conjecture of Kahn and Park. Special cases include sharp asymptotics for the number of independent sets and the number of proper q-colourings of Z_m^n (so in particular, the discrete hypercube). For the proof we develop a `Cluster Expansion Method', which we expect to have further applications, by combining machinery from statistical physics, entropy and graph containers. This is joint work with Peter Keevash.
 

 
Fri, 08 Nov 2019

12:00 - 13:00
L4

Algebra, Geometry and Topology of ERK Enzyme Kinetics

Heather Harrington
(Mathematical Institute (University of Oxford))
Abstract

In this talk I will analyse ERK time course data by developing mathematical models of enzyme kinetics. I will present how we can use differential algebra and geometry for model identifiability, and topological data analysis to study these the dynamics of ERK. This work is joint with Lewis Marsh, Emilie Dufresne, Helen Byrne and Stanislav Shvartsman.

Tue, 22 Oct 2019

12:45 - 14:00
C5

Numerical Simulations using Approximate Random Numbers

Oliver Sheridan-Methven
(Oxford University)
Abstract

Introducing cheap function proxies for quickly producing approximate random numbers, we show convergence of modified numerical schemes, and coupling between approximation and discretisation errors. We bound the cumulative roundoff error introduced by floating-point calculations, valid for 16-bit half-precision (FP16). We combine approximate distributions and reduced-precisions into a nested simulation framework (via multilevel Monte Carlo), demonstrating performance improvements achieved without losing accuracy. These simulations predominantly perform most of their calculations in very low precisions. We will highlight the motivations and design choices appropriate for SVE and FP16 capable hardware, and present numerical results on Arm, Intel, and NVIDIA based hardware.

 

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