Charles Cao
Professor of Finance
Department Finance
Office Address 338 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-7891
Email Address
qxc2@psu.edu
Charles Cao

Professor of Finance
Department Finance
Office Address 338 Business Building
Phone Number
814-865-7891
Email Address
qxc2@psu.edu
Charles Cao is the Smeal Chair Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance at the Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1993, his M.S. from the University of Kentucky in 1988, and his B.S. from Peking University in 1984.
Expertise
Professor Cao's research interests include FinTech, cryptocurrencies, hedge funds, mutual funds, derivative securities markets, and market microstructure. His work has been published in a broad range of leading academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Journal of Financial Markets, and Journal of Econometrics.
His paper “Empirical Performance of Alternative Option Pricing Models” (co-authored with Gurdip Bakshi and Zhiwu Chen, Journal of Finance, 1997) is among the 50 top-cited articles of all time in the Journal of Finance.
Another of his articles “Price Discovery without Trading: Evidence from Nasdaq Pre-opening'' (co-authored with Eric Ghysels and Frank Hatheway, Journal of Finance, 2000) received the New York Stock Exchange Award for Best Paper on Equity Trading in 1999.
More recently, his paper “Hedge Funds and Stock Price Formation” (co-authored with Yong Chen, William Goetzmann and Bing Liang, Financial Analysts Journal, 2018) received the Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence in 2018.
Professor Cao won competitive research grants from the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Center (2009 and 2013), the CFA Society (2013), the Real Estate Research Institute (2012), the Q-group (2010), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-FDIC (2006-2007), and Morgan Stanley (2004). He was also elected Fellow of FDIC Center for Financial Research in 2006.
He currently serves (or has served) as an editor/associate editor for several journals, including Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Journal of Financial Markets, Review of Derivatives Research, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, and Annals of Economics and Finance. He has taught courses at the undergraduate, M.B.A. and Ph.D. levels at the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University.
Education
Ph D, Finance, University of Chicago, 1993
MS, Statistics, The University of Kentucky, 1988
BS, Mathematics, Peking University, 1984
Courses Taught
FIN 410 – Derivative Markets (3)
Functions, techniques, and impact of speculation conducted through forward markets; the nature of speculative transactions, pricing, and methods of trading.
FIN 601 – Ph D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
FIN 597 – Special Topics (1.5)
FIN 597A – Asset Pricing Theory (3)
This course develops the theory of financial markets; topics include intertemporal portfolio choice, asset and option pricing models and determinants of cross-sectional stock returns.
FIN 596 – Individual Studies (9)
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
FIN 585 – Financial Innovation and Portfolio Risk Management (2)
Introduction to fundamental derivatives, standard valuation models, and practical applications to portfolio management; recognition, measurement, and management of portfolio risk.