When somebody from the West travels to Southeast Asia, he cannot help but notice how very low the cost of living is relative to the West. How do we compare prices across countries? The Big Mac index gives us an approximation. Purchasing power parity Purchasing power...
The Complexities of Satellite insurance
In today’s society, we rely heavily on the vast network of satellites that orbit our planet. From providing GPS navigation to enabling global communications, satellites have truly become an essential part of our daily lives. However, with the increasing number of...
Pyramid Schemes
In the Netherlands, a famous slogan on TV is ‘Let op: geld lenen kost geld’ (watch out: borrowing money costs money). No money can be earned for free. With a pyramid scheme, however, people seem to defy these laws of finance and make money out of nothing. How does...
How to Prevent High Interest Rates on Your Student Debt
A couple of weeks ago, Dutch students were hit with an extremely unpleasant surprise: not only did the current generation of students miss out on the “basisbeurs”, but they will also have to pay interest on their student loans! Luckily, there is a little loophole...
Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash is a tool used on the blockchain. Specifically on the Ethereum blockchain and is known as a crypto mixer. Recently Tornado Cash has been in the news because it has been added to the Specially Designated National & Blocked Persons List (SDN). This...
Rising inflation and the Taylor Rule
I recently noticed that in the last few months, my favorite pack of oatmeal went up in price by 40%, from 50 cents to a whopping 70. Not only that, but the beers at the ‘Negende Cirkel’ have probably increased as well (I have to check it when I am sober, though)....
Portfolio dynamics 101
A portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, including closed-end funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). People generally believe that stocks, bonds, and cash comprise the core of a portfolio....
Investment lessons from Blackjack
It is a very simple game, one that most people are familiar with, “Blackjack” or “21’en” in Dutch. The rules are easy to remember and are easily learned by children. Since there is a gambling element in Blackjack, the probabilities and expectations can be analyzed....
Working as a Quantitative Risk Analyst at Aegon
In the Netherlands, insurers pay out approximately 200 million euros to individuals and companies a day. Additionally, the total assets reserved for pensions amount to more than 1400 billion euros a year. Hence, it is safe to say that the world and work of insurers...
Introduction to Economics – Old School Runescape Edition
It is the year 2007. The school bell has rung and you’ve jumped on your bike and are sprinting home as fast as possible. At home you fire up the Windows Vista powered desktop computer, you launch the game client, and “Jungle Island” starts to play. It is time to fish...
Democratising the stock market
Last week, many eyes were pointed at wall street. I am, however, not yet talking about the GameStop short squeeze that took place around the 27th of January. The establishment of new online stock trading platforms has served as an agora for the public to learn about...
Donald Duck and the magic wheel
Donald Duck, the unfortunate duck that we all know and love, has had it. He angrily shouts at Scrooge McDuck: "every single day I'm brushing coins for you, and yet you barely pay me enough to buy food for my own nephews. I demand a raise!" Scrooge responds: "No way! A...
Machine learning in financial markets
[latexpage] Data has become extremely valuable to many companies in the world. Huge data centres are being built to cope with the vast amount of it that is being transmitted every single second. Especially with the rise of AI and specifically machine learning, this...
Four frequently asked questions about Apple’s and Tesla’s stock split
Every now and then, in the news you hear a new term. For me that was the term ‘stock split’. Apple and Tesla both went through a so-called stock split last month, but what does this mean for the shareholders? And what about the companies themselves? In this short...
Main partner
Find out about your career possibilities!
Categories
