Lectures & Research

More information about my lectures, research and publications.

Research Interests

  • Market liquidity and fragmentation
  • Portfolio optimisation
  • Machine learning, in particular, reinforcement learning


Lectures

Quantitative Finance

Espel, T.J., 2026. Market Fragmentation in Digital Assets: Structure, Liquidity and Implications. Seminar at the Nanyang Technological University.

Market Fragmentation in Digital Assets: Structure, Liquidity and Implications
In this seminar, we will: Analyze the three dimensions of market fragmentation (horizontal, vertical, temporal) and their impact on liquidity distribution in digital asset markets; Evaluate how fragmentation across CEX and DEX venues impacts trading execution and risk management; Apply market microstructure principles to understand trading strategies.
Nanyang Technological University

Access the course's slides and handout.

Espel, T.J., 2024. Application of the CAPM to Asian Stocks and ESG Indices. Guest lecture at the University of Hong Kong.

Application of the CAPM to Asian Stocks and ESG Indices: Introduction to Quantitative Finance
In this lecture, Tom will introduce one of the core theories of quantitative finance, the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Computation techniques of market beta by various means of regression will be presented. The concepts will be illustrated with Asian stocks, against conventional and ESG indices. There will be a discussion on concepts of factor models, and market segmentation under the lens of ESG investing.
University of Hong Kong

Access the course's slides and handout.

Espel, T.J., 2023. Mean Reversion Strategies. Guest lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

2023_mean-reversion_cuhk
2023_mean-reversion_cuhk.pdf
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Espel, T.J., 2023. Order Book Dynamics. Guest lecture at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

2023_order-book_hkust
2023_order-book_hkust.pdf
515 KB
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Espel, T.J., 2021. Market Fragmentation. Guest lecture at Imperial College London.

2021_market-fragmentation_icl
2021_market-fragmentation_icl.pdf
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Selected Publications

ORCiD

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Espel, T.J. , 2025. Sentiment Analysis with Large Language Models Applied to the Federal Reserve Beige Book. In: Arai, K. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Applications. IntelliSys 2025. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 1554. Springer, Cham.
Explainer Post Link to Springer Nature Link to SSRN

Espel, T.J. , 2024. Impact of US Bitcoin ETF Introduction on BTC and ETH Intraday Regime Seasonality. In: Arai, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2024, Volume 2. FTC 2024. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 1155. Springer, Cham.
Explainer Post Link to Springer Nature  Link to SSRN

Pre-Prints

Espel, Tom J., Cross-Chain Publication NFTs for Academic Publishing (October 15, 2025).
Link to SSRN

Espel, T.J., The Validator Account: A New Numéraire for Assets on Blockchains (August 29, 2025).
Explainer Post Link to SSRN

Espel, T., Katz, L. and Robin, G., 2017. Proposal for protocol on a quorum blockchain with zero knowledge. French Central Bank. Cryptology ePrint Archive.
Link to IACR

Miscellanea

  • Espel, T., 2018. A Quantitative Approach to Non-Deliverable Forwards. MSc Thesis, Imperial College London.
  • Espel, T., 2017. [In French] Drone Avoidance Algorithms : A Probabilistic Approach. Research dissertation, CentraleSupelec Paris.