Dr. Zhenyu Cui

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
School: School of Business
Building: Babbio Center
Room: 545
Phone: 201.216.3726
Email: zcui6@stevens.edu
Website
Education
  • PhD in Statistics, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. July. 2013
  • Master in Quantitative Finance, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. April. 2010
  • B.Sc. in Actuarial Science (First Class Honors), University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.  April. 2008
Research
  • Financial Derivatives Pricing.
  • Stochastic Models and Stochastic Control.
  • Monte Carlo Simulation and Nested Stochastic Simulation
  • Stochastic Volatility Models and Volatility Derivatives Pricing
  • Simulation Optimization
Experience
  • Assistant Professor, Financial Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology.  Aug. 2015 - Present
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.  Aug. 2013-July. 2015
Honors & Awards

Selected

  • Editor's Award for Excellence in Reviewing for European Journal of Operational Research (2020)
  • Excellent reviewer for European Journal of Operational Research (2017)
  • Excellent reviewer for Applied Mathematics and Computation (2018)
  • DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship for Summer Academy "Advanced Stochastic Methods to Model Risk" (Ulm University, Ulm, Germany) (2012) 
  • Bank of Montreal Capital Markets Advanced Research Scholarship (2011)
  • Meloche Monnex Graduate Scholarship in Quantitative Finance and Insurance (2011)
  • Statistical Society of Canada Annual Meeting Travel Award (2011)
  • Power Corp-Great West Life-London Life and Canada Life Fellowship (2010)
Professional Societies

Society of Actuaries

Society of Financial Econometrics

Grants, Contracts & Funds

 

  1. 2015 Society of Actuaries Research Grant
    Project Title: “Nested stochastic approach-Do we really need it?”
    Funding agency: SOA Financial Reporting Section
    Co-PIs: Runhuan Feng (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  2. 2015 Society of Actuaries Individual Grant Competition
    Project Title: “Modeling and risk management of variable annuities with VIX-linked fee structure”
    Funding agency: SOA Committee on Knowledge Extension Research (CKER)
    Co-PIs: Runhuan Feng (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Anne MacKay (ETH Zurich)
  3. 2014 Society of Actuaries Individual Grant Competition
    Project Title: “Impact of flexible periodic premiums on variable annuity guarantees”
    Funding agency: SOA Committee on Knowledge Extension Research (CKER)
    Co-PIs: Carole Bernard (Grenoble Ecole de Management), Steven Vanduffel (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Selected Publications
Journals
  1. Z.Cui, J. Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2020). "Efficient simulation of generalized SABR and stochastic local volatility models based on Markov chain approximations", European Journal of Operational Research (ABS4), forthcoming.
  2. Z.Cui, J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2020). "A unified data-driven framework for consistent financial valuation and risk measurement", European Journal of Operational Research, forthcoming (ABS4). 289 (1), 381-398.
  3. H. Cao, A. Badescu, Z. Cui and S. Jarayaman. (2020). "Valuation and Calibration of VIX Options and Target Volatility Options with Affine GARCH Models", Journal of Futures Markets, forthcoming (ABS3).
  4. K. Ding, Z. Cui, Y. Wang. (2020). "A Markov chain approximation scheme for option pricing under skew diffusions", Quantitative Finance, forthcoming (ABS3).
  5. Z.Cui, J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen, S. Taylor. (2020). "A Closed-form Model-free Implied Volatility Formula through Delta Families", Journal of Derivatives, forthcoming (ABS2).
  6. Z.Cui, and S. Taylor. (2020). "Pricing Discretely Monitored Barrier Options under Markov Processes using Markov Chain Approximations", Journal of Derivatives, forthcoming (ABS2).
  7. Z.Cui, M. Fu, Y. Peng and L. Zhu. (2020). "Optimal Unbiased Estimation for Expected Cumulative Discounted Cost,", European Journal of Operational Research (ABS4). 286 (2), 604-618.
  8. Z.Cui, M. Fu, J. Hu, Y. Liu, Y. Peng, L. Zhu. (2020). "On the Variance of Single-Run Unbiased Stochastic Derivative Estimators", INFORMS Journal on Computing (UT Dallas 24 Journal List), 32 (2), 390-407.
  9. Z.Cui, W. Qian, S. Taylor and L. Zhu. (2020). "Detecting and Identifying Arbitrage in the Spot Foreign Exchange Market", Quantitative Finance (ABS-3). 20 (1), 119-132.
  10. Z.Cui, and S. Taylor. (2020). "Arbitrage Detection Using Max Plus Product Iteration on Foreign Exchange Rate Graphs", Finance Research Letters (ABS-2). 35.
  11. Z.Cui, J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2020). "Nonparametric density estimation by B-spline duality and applications", Econometrics Theory (ABS-4), 36 (2), 250-291.
  12. Z. Cui, J. Deng, S. Lenkey. (2019). "Revisiting Advance Disclosure of Insider Trading", Economics Letters (ABS-3). 182 78-81.
  13. A. Badescu, Z. Cui, and J-P Ortega. (2019). "Closed-form variance swap prices under general affine GARCH models and their continuous-time limits", Annals of Operations Research (ABS3), 282 27-57.
  14. A. Badescu, Y. Chen, M. Couch, and Z. Cui. (2019). "A Unified Valuation Framework for Variance Swaps Under Non-Affine Stochastic Volatility Models", Quantitative Finance (ABS3), 19 (2), 227-246.
  15. R. Chatterjee, Z. Cui, J. Fan, M. Liu. (2018). "An efficient and stable method for short maturity Asian options", Journal of Futures Markets (ABS3), 38 (12), 1470-1486.
  16. Z.Cui, J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2018). "A general framework for time-changed Markov processes and applications", European Journal of Operational Research (ABS-4) , 273 (2), 785-800.
  17. Z.Cui, C. Lee, Y. Liu. (2018). "Single-Transform Formulas for Pricing Asian Options in a General Approximation Framework under Markov Processes", European Journal of Operational Research (ABS-4) , 266 (3), 1134-1139.
  18. Z.Cui, J. Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2018). "A general valuation framework for SABR and stochastic local volatility models", SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematics (ABS-2) , 9 (2), 520-563.
  19. G. Lian, SP. Zhu, R. Elliott, Z. Cui. (2017). "Semi-analytical valuation for discrete barrier options under time-dependent Levy processes", Journal of Banking and Finance (ABS3), 75 167-183.
  20. Z.Cui, J. Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (2017). "Equity-linked life insurance contracts with cliquet-style guarantees in regime-switching and stochastic volatility models with jumps", Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (ABS3), 74 46-62.
  21. J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen, Z.Cui. (2017). "A unified approach to American and Barrier options under stochastic volatility models with jumps", Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (ABS3), 80 75-100.
  22. Z.Cui*, J. Kirkby, D. Nguyen. (2017). "A general framework for discretely sampled realized volatility derivatives in stochastic volatility models with jumps", European Journal of Operational Research (ABS-4) , 262 (1), 381-400.
  23. A.Badescu, Z.Cui, J. Ortega. (2017). "Non-affine GARCH option pricing models, variance dependent kernels, and diffusion limits", Journal of Financial Econometrics (ABS-3) , 15 (4), 602-648.
  24. C.Bernard, Z.Cui, D.L.McLeish. (2017). "On the martingale property in stochastic volatility models based on time-homogeneous diffusions", Mathematical Finance (ABS-3) , 27 (1), 194-233.
  25. Z.Cui, D. Nguyen. (2016). "Omega diffusion risk model with surplus-dependent tax and capital injection", Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (ABS3), 68 150-161.
  26. Z.Cui. (2014). "Comment on 'Modelling non-monotone risk aversion using SAHARA utility functions'"", Journal of Economic Theory (ABS-4) , 153 703-705.
Research Papers
  1. Z.Cui, Z. Li, Y. Wu and M. Yu. (2019). "Variance risk premium and return predictability: Evidence from the Chinese SSE 50 ETF options", SSRN working paper.
Book Chapters
  1. Z.Cui, J.Kirkby, D.Nguyen. (Jul 2019). "Continuous-Time Markov Chain and Regime Switching Approximations with Applications to Options Pricing", In: Yin G., Zhang Q. (eds) Modeling, Stochastic Control, Optimization, and Applications. The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications, vol 164. Springer.,.
Courses
  • FE 610 Stochastic Calculus for Financial Engineers
  • FE 621 Computational Methods in Finance
  • FE 800 Project in Financial Engineering
  • FE 900 Master’s Thesis in Financial Engineering
  • FE 710 Applied Stochastic Differential Equations
  • FE 720 The Volatility Surface: Risk and Models
  • FE 646 Optimization Models & Methods in Finance