Professor Alessandro Frino
 Professor Alessandro Frino |
Senior Scholar Award
Media Profile
“Futures are a type of contract that allows one party to transfer their risks to another. They provide information that allows securities markets to determine a fair and efficient price…Overall, futures are an important security that allow capitol markets and corporations to function efficiently and are important to maintaining a nation’s economic growth.”
Professor Alessandro [Alex] Frino is one of two Australians to be awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2005. Professor Frino intends to conduct his research in collaboration with internationally recognised scholars Professor James Angel of Georgetown University and Doctor George Wang, of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He will examine the impact of institutional features of the U.S. futures market, specifically off-market trading and electronic trading and their impact on market behaviour.
Professor Frino holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Sydney, a Masters of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, and a Masters of Commerce with Honours specialising in Economics from the University of Wollongong. He is currently a Professor and Head of Finance, School of Business, Faculty of Economics at the University of Sydney. Professor Frino is also the Visiting Economist at the Sydney Futures Exchange and Director of the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia Pacific.
Off-market trading and electronic trading are highly controversial practices in futures markets, particularly within Australia and the United States. Professor Frino’s research aims to develop and execute a series of tests which assess whether electronic trading and off-market trading, enhance the ability of corporations and investors to manage their risk exposure and the ‘price discovery’ role of the futures markets. ‘Price Discovery’ is the major role of futures trading. Efficient price discovery is critical to the efficient allocation of capital and in turn, to the maintenance of economic growth.
The U.S. contains two of the largest and most important futures markets in the world: The Chicago Board of Trade (CBT) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). In contrast to global trends, the CBT and CME operate floor-trading and electronic-trading simultaneously. The ‘side-by-side’ trading trial in the U.S. futures markets provide Professor Frino with a unique natural “experiment” to examine the impact of electronic trading on market behaviour and to compare the efficiency of floor-trading environments with electronic-trading environments.
Professor Frino will use the Fulbright Program to collaborate on new issues and engage in current thinking and work with unique data in the U.S. His vision is to impart this new knowledge and experience as an educator and facilitator within the academic arena. Professor Frino says, ‘I try and ingrain in all my students a healthy scepticism for current knowledge and practices. Financial markets are littered with unscrupulous operators – ‘rogue traders’, ‘insider traders’, and others who seek to profit by operating unethically or illegally’. However, as an educator and facilitator Professor Frino reinforces the important value of ‘acting with integrity’ with his students.