The 2025–2026 academic year was another exciting year for the Hanlon Financial Systems Lab (HFSL). From hosting the annual Stevens High Frequency Trading Competition to expanding into decentralized finance research, launching new blockchain data initiatives, and welcoming students from around the world, HFSL continued to combine cutting-edge research with hands-on education. The year also celebrated the success of our alumni and graduating lab assistants.
Stevens High Frequency Trading Competition (SHIFT) 2026
The 2026 Stevens High Frequency Trading Competition (HFTC) brought together more than 50 university teams for a five-week algorithmic trading competition. As market conditions evolved each week, teams continually refined their strategies to navigate increasingly complex trading environments, ranging from volatile markets to adaptive reinforcement learning agents.
Alongside the competition, the Signal and Noise speaker series welcomed former HFTC competitors and Stevens alumni Zhiyuan Yao and Adam Moszczynski, who shared their experiences working in quantitative trading and offered students valuable insights into careers in the industry.
SHIFT–Anvil DeFi Trading Extension
As traditional finance and blockchain technology continue to converge, HFSL is expanding its flagship SHIFT trading platform into decentralized finance through the SHIFT–Anvil CeFi/DeFi Trading Simulator. By integrating the existing centralized market simulator with a local Ethereum blockchain, students and researchers can explore smart contracts, decentralized exchanges, tokenized assets, and cross-market trading within a single environment.
By bringing centralized and decentralized markets together, HFSL is helping shape the next generation of financial technology education and research. As hybrid financial systems become increasingly common, students gain hands-on experience with the technologies driving the future of global markets.
Democraticizing DeFi Data
Data accessibility remains one of the greatest challenges facing blockchain research. While public blockchains generate enormous amounts of financial data, collecting, processing, and storing this information often requires significant computational resources and technical expertise. To make this process easier, HFSL is building research infrastructure that provides access to Ethereum archival data while expanding support for Polygon, Solana, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
This initiative aims to democratize blockchain financial data by giving students and researchers direct access to the datasets needed to study decentralized markets, allowing them to focus on research rather than data collection.
Summer Programmes
This summer, HFSL expanded its international and domestic outreach through a series of immersive finance programs designed to introduce students to quantitative finance, financial markets, and emerging financial technologies. The international programs, led by Professor Stefano Bonini in collaboration with Professor Ionut Florescu and Professor Dragos Bozdog, combined technical instruction, professional certifications, and direct exposure to New York City's financial industry.
Zagreb School of Economics and Management & Luxembourg School of Business
Students from Zagreb School of Economics & Management and Luxembourg School of Business completed an intensive week covering market microstructure, algorithmic trading, quantitative trading strategies, and hands-on development using the SHIFT trading platform. Participants also completed the Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) certification and visited Mizuho Securities and Mackage, gaining first-hand exposure to the financial and business environments surrounding Wall Street.
University of Bergamo
Students from the University of Bergamo explored algorithmic trading, market-making, quantitative trading strategies, and risk management while developing trading algorithms using SHIFT. The program included Bloomberg Market Concepts certification and company visits to Hudson River Trading and Mizuho Securities, providing valuable insight into quantitative trading and global financial markets.
University of Piemonte Orientale
Students from the University of Piemonte Orientale participated in an intensive Bloomberg Training & Certification program, gaining hands-on experience with Bloomberg Terminal navigation, equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets, portfolio management, technical analysis, and Bloomberg Query Language (BQL). The program also included company visits to the Transatlantic Innovation Hub, Goldman Sachs, and Bloomberg, providing students with direct exposure to New York City's financial ecosystem and career opportunities in global finance.
Domestically, HFSL continued inspiring the next generation of financial professionals through its Business Discovery Lab and additional high school outreach programs.
Business Discovery Lab in Quantitative Finance
HFSL also hosted the four-week Business Discovery Lab in Quantitative Finance, introducing high school students to financial data analytics through Bloomberg, Capital IQ, portfolio analysis, statistics, regression, optimization, and team research projects. Students presented their findings at the conclusion of the program while gaining an early introduction to quantitative finance and financial technology.
Alumni Spotlight
This year, HFSL featured interviews with two former lab researchers whose careers highlight the impact of hands-on research and experiential learning.
Arjun S, now a Software Developer at Barclays, reflected on how his experience in the lab prepared him for a career in financial technology.
Dr. Dan, now Director of Data Science at JPMorgan Chase, discussed the growing role of data science in finance and the importance of combining technical expertise with practical experience.
Celebrating Our Graduates
This spring, HFSL congratulated two outstanding Financial Engineering lab assistants, Rebecca Ke Ren and Salvatore Matteis, on their graduation. Their dedication and contributions have played an important role in supporting the lab's teaching, research, and student activities. We thank them for their commitment to HFSL and wish them every success in the next stage of their careers.