Mihail Velikov
Assistant Professor of Finance
Department Finance
Office Address 345 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-0616
Email Address
velikov@psu.edu
Mihail Velikov

Assistant Professor of Finance
Department Finance
Office Address 345 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-0616
Email Address
velikov@psu.edu
Mihail Velikov is an assistant professor of finance at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. His research in empirical asset pricing focuses on stock market anomalies, transaction costs, and investment strategies with direct applications to asset and wealth management. His work has been published in leading finance journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. Velikov's expertise in optimizing investment strategies and analyzing market inefficiencies has made him a sought-after speaker at asset and wealth management forums and investment institutions. His research on cost-mitigation techniques and performance evaluation has earned recognition through awards including the William F. Sharpe Award and the Graham and Dodd Scroll Prize. His current research explores how AI and machine learning can enhance asset and wealth management practices.
Prior to joining Penn State, he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he co-led a DFAST supervisory modeling team responsible for stress testing banks' securities- and loan-portfolios. He holds bachelor's degrees in mathematics and finance from Ramapo College, and an MSBA in applied economics and a doctorate in finance from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.
Expertise
Stock Market Anomalies, Transaction costs, Monetary Policy
Education
Ph D, Finance (Macroeconomics), The University of Rochester, 2015
MSBA, Applied Economics, The University of Rochester, 2013
BS, Finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey, 2010
BS, Mathematics, Ramapo College of New Jersey, 2010
Courses Taught
FIN 497 – Special Topics (3)
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.
FIN 601 – Ph D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
FIN 875 – FIX INC MKTS (2)
Discuss the fundamentals of fixed income securities and markets. Develop tools for valuing fixed income securities and managing various sources of risks in fixed income markets. The course covers traditional bonds, the term structure concepts, and recently developed fixed income derivatives. The course emphasizes the real-world applications of the theory of fixed income securities and markets.
FIN 596 – Individual Studies (Variable)
FIN 426 – Interest Rates and Debt Mrkts (3)
The course starts off with a review of the time value of money concepts and the pricing of standard cash flows such as annuities, perpetuities. Next, an overview of the Treasury markets is provided with emphasis on both the primary and the secondary markets. In particular, the economics of the Treasury auctions, on-the-run/off-the-run liquidity issues, the presence of the zero lower bound, the economics of inflation-protected bonds, and other topics will be discussed at length. Students will also learn how to interpret the shapes of the nominal and the real yield curves, how to forecast short/long term future directions of rates as well as how to forecast future inflations based on nominal-real rate differentials. The course then moves on to non-Treasury segments of the fixed income markets: forward contracts, repurchasing agreements, floating rate notes, swaps, single stock futures, corporate bonds. For each topic, standard pricing techniques and relevant practical issues will be discussed. For example, how can a fixed income investor price a bond newly issued by a corporation based on their past equity market performance, using techniques typically employed by Moody's KMV? How does an investor gauge the potential illiquidity of a bond when transaction data are sparse? Or how one can extract a measure of the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) from the single stock futures markets? Or how a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) could hedge interest rate risks using standard duration and convexity hedging techniques even in a quick moving environment when assumptions underlying these techniques are likely, to varying degrees, violated. The final third of the course deals with relatively more advanced topics. Students are introduced to the use of risk-neutral probability measures in pricing fixedincome derivative products (callable bonds, treasury futures, swaptions) in the context of a binomial tree. For example, students learn how to use calibrated binomial trees of interest rates to accommodate bonds¿ callable features, how to compute/interpret the options-adjusted spreads, how to account for various institutional features of the Treasury bonds futures markets and why futures and forward prices may differ when bonds are the underlying assets. The class finishes with a topic on Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and the economics of their mispricing prior to the Great Recession.
FIN 597 – Special Topics (1.5)
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently; several different topics may be taught in one year or term.