The purpose of this talk will be to present a broad overview of the Energy Quantitative Research effort at Citadel Investment Group, and highlight some challenges facing the practical application of finance theory to
energy investing. Energy markets present a unique opportunity for
financial analysis, since the underlying commodity economics cause many traditional finance assumptions to be violated. Instead, practical research solutions must address the fundamental economics and account for the shortcomings of established equity and fixed income theory. During
this talk, we will attempt to highlight some of these issues and provide a discussion framework for application of textbook theory to the trading desk reality. Further, this talk will present a brief description of the
overall hedge fund environment in which a research professional must
operate.

Founded in 1990, Citadel Investment Group is a world leader in alternative investments, with a team of over 800 people in five offices worldwide. Our research philosophy is to apply a systematic process driven approach
to investing in order to advance the reliability and repeatability of high risk adjusted returns.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Byrns is the Director of Energy Research at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, IL. He received his PhD in Engineering, (GA Tech 1991), as
well as a MS in Economics (GA Tech 1991), a MSE in Aerospace Engineering (GA Tech 1988) and a BSE in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (Princeton 1985). He has been actively involved in commodity research for almost 8 years, holding various staff and management positions at Williams
Energy, Merchant Energy Group of the Americas, and Koch Industries. Prior to entering the commodity field, he worked as a consultant in Washington
D.C.