Ella Dias-Saraiva-Patelli wins a Derivatives Scholarship

Ella Dias-Saraiva-Patelli, a PhD in Administration – Finance student, is one of two winners of the Canadian Derivatives Scholarship from the TMX Montréal Exchange. She will receive a $10,000 award. 

The annual scholarship, worth $25,000 in all, goes to a full-time PhD student at a Canadian university who is conducting innovative research on derivatives. This year the amount was split in two, with Stephen Szaura of McGill University receiving the other $15,000. 

Ms. Dias-Saraiva-Patelli’s project is entitled A Credit-Based Theory of the Currency Risk Premium. It was supervised by Associate Professor Alexandre Jeanneret, who co-wrote the resulting paper with her and Professor Pasquale Della Corte of Imperial College London. 

“Any investment exposed to exchange rate fluctuations bears a risk that it is important to recognize in advance,” explains Ms. Dias-Saraiva-Patelli. “In our paper we propose a new way of measuring this risk, using data on the debt of Eurozone countries. Our research shows that our risk measurement can forecast the euro/dollar exchange rate return.” 

The PhD student has been awarded several other scholarships during her studies, including Fondation Boninchi and Erasmus scholarships, and from the Fondation Pierre Arbour, which she received twice.