Dr Rand Low

Research interests

Dr. Rand Low is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Finance at Bond Business School and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.  

Assoc. Professor Rand Low’s research areas are in asset and investments management, specifically correlation/dependence modelling, portfolio optimization, risk management, systematic trading strategies and commodities investing strategies. His work has been published in leading academic and industry journals such as Journal of Banking & Finance, Energy Economics, Quantitative Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance,  Journal of Commodities Markets, Resource Policy, Journal of Investing, and Journal of Risk.

He is on the editorial board of the Kindai Management Review at Kindai University, Osaka, Japan.  He is also an editor of the Special Issue of Mathematics: Mathematical Models and Applications in Finance (Impact Factor: 2.6; Q1 Journal Ranking) and Journal Of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research (Impact Factor: 5.1; Q1 Journal Ranking)

Prior to his PhD studies, Assoc Prof. Professor Low worked in control systems engineering and management roles for Honeywell for landmark engineering projects such as GOMA, SLQ, Brisbane Square, Mater Mothers' Hospital, St Andrews Hospital, and more where he achieved the Chartered Engineer designation from Engineers Australia. During his PhD studies, he won the GSITA Award and 3MT competitions. Upon completing his PhD, he received the Dean's Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence, a research fellowship on portfolio optimization & risk management techniques for financial crises and an Australia Awards - Endeavour fellow. He has been a visiting research fellow at the New York University - Stern School of Business, and an Australian Institute of Business and Economis (AIBE) Scholar He has also had Visiting Research Fellow appointments at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Assoc. Prof Low research expertise has allowed him to successfully transition into industry as he has worked at the global headquarters of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BlackRock in New York City. He led teams of quantitative researchers in building mathematical models for market/credit/operational risk, securities lending, structured products, asset-backed securities, and portfolio management. He has also defended quantitative model development practices on behalf of these institutions to US regulators such as the Federal Reserve (FED) and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC). He is worked on quantiative model stress-testing, model risk management practices, and model risk governance for major global financial institutions.

Assoc. Professor Rand Low has frequently contributed his academic and industry insights into topical issues in global financial markets, the Australian economy, interest rates, cryptocurrencies, and investing & retirement with national newspapers and trade publications (e.g., Australian Financial Review, Courier Mail, BBC, Australian Stock Exchange, Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange, news.com.au, 7news, Newsweek, etc.).

On radio and television media, Dr. Low has been quoted as the "DIY recession guy" appearing on interviews with Channel 9: The Today Show, Channel 10 The Project, and Channel 10 News. He has also been interviewed several times on ABC Brisbane Mornings with Steve Austin on the state of the Australian economy, inflation rates & risks, and the Australian Federal Budget 2024.

Dr. Rand Low provided his expertise in financial markets for federal government agencies.  He has been called to parliament for the Inquiry into the Development of the Australian Corporate Bond Market and provided advice on how to increase Australian retail investment into corporate bonds.  He has also been requested by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to provide expert comment and feedback and the Central Clearing of Bonds and Repos in Australia.

Dr. Rand Low has sat on the product advisory board on financial technology firms such such as BitOrb (Digital Assets Derivatives Exchange) and the Australian Bond Exchange (Fixed Income Products Exchange).  He is currently working on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) CBDC Pilot for Digital Innovation to use the blockchain for corporate bond settlement with the Australian Bond Exchange.

Assoc. Professor Low’s interests are in applying statistical and machine learning techniques in automating business processes and investments management in areas such as corporate credit ratings, robo-advisors, digital assets (i.e., cryptocurrencies, blockchain), commodities, and systematic active investment strategies.