Choonsik Lee, FRM, CFA, Ph.D.

As a finance professor, I view trading as both a hands-on application of financial theory and a valuable research avenue. It connects academic insights with real-world market activity, enriching my teaching, shaping investment strategies, and deepening the understanding of market efficiency and investor behavior.

Swing trading, in particular, stands out as an intriguing focus, emphasizing short- to medium-term price shifts influenced by overall market trends and specific corporate events. This approach also provides valuable insights into market psychology, making it a useful tool for analyzing volatility and behavioral patterns.

I regularly trade both stocks and derivatives as part of my swing trading strategy, often applying insights from my research on corporate events (see below for an example). The use of derivatives strengthens portfolio management by offering a deeper perspective on risk exposure, leverage, and broader market dynamics.

Below is a summary of my trading performance, outlining before-tax realized profits and losses for 2025 YTD (excluding unrealized profits/losses, interests, dividends, financial income, and profits/losses from retirement accounts; showing performance from active brokerage accounts only):

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I have worked on several studies using data on blockholder activists (Schedule 13D). The blockholding information is filed with the SEC and disseminated via the SEC EDGAR. Considering the significance, these filings often accompany with quite positive reaction from the market.

While the holding information (%; blockholder identity) gets the most attention, some other aspect in Schedule 13D can make quite difference when it's evaluated by the market. For example, early communication between the blockholder activist and the target management can be perceived more positively (see the figure below, and the details are available in the following paper: Let’s Talk Sooner Rather Than Later: The Strategic Communication Decisions of Activist Blockholders).