VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1
16-1 Meet the committees → 5,6,7
Quantitative Finance Project → 22
Pooltournament → 33
Photopage → 26
Pinkwin & Penguin → 10, 19
Chef Lam → 12 Interview with CBS → 30
SPED trip → 26
Jouw studievereniging wil het je zo voordelig en makkelijk mogelijk maken. Dus hebben ze een boekenleverancier die daarbij past.
Jouw studievereniging werkt nauw samen met studystore. En dat heeft zo z’n voordelen. Doordat we snugger te werk gaan, kunnen we jouw complete boekenpakket snel aanbieden tegen een scherpe prijs.
PREFACE
01
FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear reader,
Right now, you are reading the first Estimator of the academic year 2013/2014! Meanwhile, the first block has already finished and the exams of the second block are approaching. This hopefully means you got used to Erasmus college life again, full of waking up early, interesting and less interesting lectures, nights of studying, chaos, the brand new campus and not to forget: lots of ED-activities organized by the new board and the ED-committees.
>48
The 48th year of life of our Faculty Association for Econometrics & Operations Research has started with an ambitious new study to represent: BSc² Econometrics/Economics. After the introduction of the international bachelor Econometrics & Operations Research a year ago, students can from this year on combine econometrics and economics with the BSc²-programme. Even before the year had started officially, the tone was directly set with the successful introduction camps PINKWIN and PENGUIN. Followed by (among others) some entertaining drinks in our cozy new café Divoza, the first thrilling tournaments of the year and the discovering Amsterdam Trip, there have been lots of opportunities to relax for a while. These moments of relaxation are very important to stay sharp and motivated in achieving your own academical and career-oriented goals for this year, which you have undoubtedly set as an aspiring econometrician. In line, as every year, one of the main goals of the Econometrisch Dispuut is to be there for you in reaching those personal goals. With the renowned Quantitative Finance Project and the first edition of the Econometric Career Days, we have already offered some great opportunities to get familiar with possible future employers. In case you regrettably missed some ED-events, I can reassure you: lots of exciting social and career activities are yet to come! Read so far, you possibly noticed the word ‘new’ has occurred several times. The new BSc² study to represent, our new hangout Divoza, the new Campus and the ambitious new career event the ECD together already provided the guarantee of another innovative ED-year. Noticing that the Christmas holidays are still to come, I am totally sure there will be plenty of innovation coming to the ED’s way and your way the rest of the year as well. Of course, this all will not just pass by. For now, I’d suggest you to start reading all items this Estimator is offering and enjoy both the familiar and the new content created by the new Estimator Committee. Keep a close eye on the ED, because we are there for you to enrich your student experience! I wish all of you a nice and successful year. Bas Vringer President of the Econometrisch Dispuut 2013/2014
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1 - ESTIMATOR
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1
02 TABLE OF CONTENTS 01. From the president // 02. Table of contents // 03. Editorial 05. Who is who? // 08. Eerstejaarsdag // 09. SAS Forum 10. Pinkwin // 11. Amsterdam Trip // 12. Chef // 13. 1st Drink 14. Interview with ... // 15. Freshmenday // 16. SPED project 17. LEVT // 18. Econometrical // 19. Penguin // 20. Photopage 22. Quantitative Finance Project // 25. Rotterdam 26. SPED Trip // 30. CBS // 32. Preview December 33. Pooltournament // 34. Adventures // 36. Post-Exam Drink 37. EducationBoard // 38. EducationCommittee // 39. Graduates
26 24 05 09
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p
Titel Trip Penguin SPED Read about riatur maionse the dipissi journeytatiam that iset quam,by made volupta 20 econometricians quaepudi reic to in et quod the USAquos & Canada. ×
The introduction camp for the international freshmen students of econometrics.
p
p
Who is Who?
Sas Forum 2013
Meet the new committees of the ED. This edition the Estimator, Freshmen & Eerstejaars Committee.
Read about the companay SAS & the forum SAS that they organized.
ADVERTISEMENTS 00. Studystore // 30. CBS // 41. LED // 42. MIcompany
COLOFON
Final Editing > Joris Blokland, Thomas van ‘t Westeinde Editorial Office > Florine Groenen, Joris Blokland, Thomas van ‘t Westeinde, Emrys Komen, Ruud Moers, Hilton Nicholas Khorazon, Lars van Kempen Office address > Erasmus University, Room H11-02, P.O box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, estimator@ectrie.nl Aquisition > Max Schotsman, phone: 010 408 14 39 Circulation > 900 copies Printer > Nuance Print Design/DTP > Het Econometrisch Dispuut. Estimator is a periodical from the Econometrisch Dispuut
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
EDITORIAL
 03
A WORD FROM THE ESTIMATOR COMMITTEE
> Dear reader, A new academic year took off, the courses started and students started diving into their books again. But student life does not only consist of studying of course. The Econometrisch Dispuut organizes lots of activities and drinks for the econometrics students every year. We will keep you all up to date with the Estimator, which is published 4 times a year! The Estimator is the Econometrics magazine of the Econometrisch Dispuut and is full of articles and reports of activities, drinks, career events, interviews and much more. The Estimator contains articles that are interesting for students, professors and even for parents that want to know what our faculty association is up to. The Estimator will be brought to you by our Estimator Committee, which consists of 7 new members. We introduce ourselves in this edition of the Estimator. We will do our best to make this years Estimator a great success! Many events have already taken place, for example the Penguin and PINKWIN weekends, the Amsterdam trip, the Quantitative Finance Project (QFP) and a pool tournament. All these events will be discussed further on in this Estimator, the first one of the year! We wish you a lot of fun reading! The Estimator Committee
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>> ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
04 AGENDA
AGENDA
9 January 2014:
New Year’s Drink & Pub-Quiz
16 January 2014:
Poker tournament
17 January 2014:
BETA Ceremony
30 January 2014:
Find Your Match
February 2014:
Activity organized by FC
11 February 2014: LED (National Econometricians Day) 13 February 2014: Prom
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
WHO IS WHO: ESTIMATOR COMMITTEE
05
Meet the Committees > Hey, my name is Lars van Kempen, currently 18 years old and of a Dutch nationality! I was born in the south of Holland but haven’t lived there for more than the first three years of my life. So sorry to disappoint, but no accent! I’m a second year student doing econometrics, currently residing in Rotterdam. Besides my studies I like nearly all sports, ranging from running to basketball, tennis etc. I also like to have a couple of beers and to go out, so you’ll probably be seeing me around at the social drinks!
> Hi, my name is Thomas van ’t Westeinde. I’m 18 years old and I grew up in a small town in the southwest corner of the Netherlands, called IJzendijke. I have been living in Rotterdam for over two months now and I really like the city. I joined the Estimator Committee because I wanted to do something besides my study and meet new people (solving math problems all day doesn’t get you a lot of friends). I hope we all have a great year at the Econometrisch Dispuut with lots of fun activities and drinks!
> Hi, my name is Joris and I’m the marketing officer of the board. I’m the supervisor of the committee and responsible for the pictures that are in the Estimator! Further I’m 20 years old, have lived in Rotterdam now for 1.5 years, member of Laurentius and not sportive at all. In the upcoming months, our annual beerpongtournament will take place and the LAM (named to the former board member Tjian Lam) trophy can be won. I hope to see you all at there so that I can beat you all ;)
> My name is Florine Groenen, second year econometrics and second year active member of ED. I’m currently 20 years old and very Dutch, with an obvious Brabants accent. As most of you know, we are loving parties in the south, but since I loved math as well (great combi), I had to divide my love between them, when I chose for this study. This year I’m focusing a bit more on my writing skills (hopefully I got some) and I’m looking forward to provide you with fun and interesting articles during the year. Hope to see you around on campus/in Rotterdam!
> My name is Emrys Komen and I am a second year student in the International Econometrics programme. Both of my parents are Dutch and I myself am a Dutch national, however, I was born and spent my whole life living in England with my wonderful family and friends before leaving them to discover my roots and study in Holland. Apart from doing homework, my hobbies include football and running; you’ll often see me running round Kralingse Plas after a long night of drinking 50 cent beers (another hobby) with my fellow classmates at our famous social drink
> My name is Hilton Nicholas Khorazon, and I’m from Indonesia. I was born on 7th of June in 1996. I hate reading a book and that’s why I chose Econometrics. It has a lot of maths in it, which means less memorizing pages of books and more solving problems. Still, solving problems for the whole week would be terribly boring, that’s why I do basketball and I play games. I might not be able to attend all parties and drinks available, not because I’m not into drinks but sometimes I just feel more like staying at home and enjoy my hours without homework or assignments.
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> Hi there, this year I will be part of the Estimator Committee. My name is Ruud Moers and I currently live, like most of you, in Rotterdam. I was raised in Breda and as you would expect I am a big fan of Carnaval. I am in my second year of Econometrics, the Dutch department. Outside the university I like to play hockey and a game of table tennis, now and then. My goal as member of the Estimator Committee is to introduce you to some great mathematicians with extraordinary lifestyles and show that Econometrics is much more than mathematics only. Have fun reading our first edition and I hope you will enjoy it.
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
06 WHO IS WHO: FRESHMEN COMMITTEE
> Hi everyone, I am Austin Liu, 18 years old and I am in my first year of the bachelor Econometrics. This year, as a freshman, I am part of the Freshmen Committee at the ED. We are mainly going to organize fun trips and events for the first year international students so that they will have a nice start here at the university! I hope we will succeed in this and make a lot of memories that last a lifetime!
> Hey, my name is Maxi Moeller and I am first year student of the International econometrics program. Besides that I am also part of this year’s freshman committee. The FC is a committee where we organize great events like a trip to Amsterdam for all the freshmen. I hope you guys have an amazing time at our events! See you soon hopefully!
> Hi, I am Esmeé Vermolen, a freshmen of the international econometrics program, and this year I’m one of the members of the freshmen committee. Throughout the year we will organise events for the freshmen to get to know each other, relax and enjoy. I believe that as a committee we will have a lot of fun and I hope you will enjoy the events as much as we do! I’m excited to see what this year will bring!
> Hi, my name is Bob Muijs and
> Hi, my name is Tammo, 18 years old I come from The Hague and beside my study I like to do sports, sailing and I’m in for a party too. I am member of the freshmen committee. We organise a handful of awesome acivities this year. I joined this committee because I like to organise those events like the Amsterdam trip. I hope to see you on those activities this year!
> Hi! My name is Milena Zychlinsky Scharff and I am a member of this years Freshmen Committee. As the name might suggest I am a first year international student. The goal of the FC is to create fun events for the Freshmen to build the groups moral and have fun! I hope everybody enjoys the activities as much as we enjoy planning them!
I’m a second-year BSc2 student. I grew up in Enschede and now I live in Rotterdam with two good friends. This year, I am the chairman of the Freshmen Committee. I think we have an awesome group of students in our committee and I am looking forward to organising some great events this year.
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> Hi, my name is Shuda and I’m a new member of the Freshmen Committee. Since this is my first year, I’ll try to get to know the things around here and have a better understanding of Holland when it’s still appealing. For now I love Holland, a big fan actually. Guess it pretty much says why I joined the committee to organize activities, especially the upcoming Amsterdam Trip, for students to have fun in Holland. Amsterdam represents everything I hate, but I do find it highly entertaining. So you can imagine what you will experience during our in-depth Amsterdam Trip.
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WHO IS WHO: EERSTEJAARS COMMISSIE
> Hey guys! My name is Jessy Lee and I’m eighteen years old. I live in a small place called ‘s-Gravenzande, which is near Rotterdam. This is my first year at Erasmus university and I really enjoyed my time here so far. I work at a restaurant, so in the weekends I’m quite busy with work and school. Although I really love going out and having a lot of fun with friends and family. I also love to play piano and drums. I hope to see you all at the activities of the First Year Committee!
> Dear students, I am Eva and this year I started the study econometrics, which I like so far. Besides econometrics I also play hockey by leonidas in a very good team, namely Dames 32. Since this year I live in Rotterdam in a very nice studenthouse with 8 roommates. I love to party and on tuesday nights you often can find me in Club Bed. Furthermore I am a member of the “eerstejaarscommissie” so I am responsible for the activities for the students. It would be nice if you all come to the activities, see you there!
> My name is Tom Ingelse. I was born in Middelburg on the 28th of November 1993.This is the second time I am doing my first year of Econometrics, as I made a mess of it last year, and I love being a freshman so much. Anyways, this second time gave me the opportunity to join the First Year Committee. Additionaly, I work as a bartender in a hotelrestaurant. In my time off I like to hang out with friends and do some exercise. I also like to run, and have recently completed a half marathon. So, let’s not only be serious about running this year, time to pass Econometrics year 1!
> My name is Britt van der Velden. I finished secondary school last year and moved from Breda to Rotterdam to study Econometrics. I am member of RSZV ‘De Zeil’ and besides doing math I really like to go out with friends, spend time with my family or go shopping. I am very excited to be a member of the First Year Committee and I think we will all have a lot of fun at the events the First Year Committee is going to organize.
> Hi, my name is Bernadette, and I’m in my second year of Econometrics. I’m nineteen years old, play basketball and work in the catering business. Also I’m an ambassador and mentor. Furthermore my passion is baking (and cooking) and I hope to open up my own pastry shop one day. Last year I was in the first year committee myself and this year I am the chairman of the committee. Of course I’m honored to be chairman and I will do the best to my ability of making this year again another great year! I hope you will all join our events and make them the best ever.
> My name is Robert van Dijk. I’m
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an 18 years old econometric student (of course) and I just moved to Rotterdam two months ago. I joined the social studentorganisation ‘Laurentius’ and found a nice appartment in the centre of Kralingen. Next to the student live I go to the gym a few times a week to prevent getting fat. And for the past three years I’ve been speedskating three times a week. The best nearby skating rink is in Utrecht, so three times a week I go to Utrecht. Which is close to the village I’m originally from, Soest.
07
> Hello. My name is Merlijn and I will support Bernadette this year as vice-President of the EC. Despite of all the candy and party talk during the meetings, I will try to outstrip last years events with the enthusiastic new members of the EC. I hope we can organize even better tournaments for the freshmen, as well as for the less young ED members.
> Hi, I am Tjeerd and I am a member of the First Year Cowmmittee. I will do my best to let you come in contact with other students this year by organizing drinks, parties and tournaments. I liked the social activities we already had very much and I already met many nice people. I hope to get to know more of you all this year. I am looking forward to see you the upcoming activities!
> Hey! I’m Koen Janssen, all the way from Groningen. I moved to Rotterdam because the Department of Economics in Rotterdam is the best in the Netherlands and because i’ve always liked the lively and divers city of Rotterdam. In my spare time i like to hang out with friends, do sports such as running, fitness or fieldhockey and ofcourse partying hard! This year i’ll try my best to make the best parties and activities happen. Don’t hesitate to approach me, since i’m always in for a chat or a coffee! ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
08 SOCIAL
EERSTEJAARSDAG
On September 12th, the First Years Committee organized an awesome getting-to-know-each-other-day for all the new econometrics students. > It all started at the ‘Bennie Beer’ restaurant near the Feyenoord Stadium. I went there with some friends I’d already met at the Eurekaweek and when we arrived at the restaurant there were already more or less 100 people present. Of course, the entire 2nd floor was reserved just for us so we could make all the
was divided into small groups of about 10 people per team. We drank some more beer and wines, making every throw worse than the one before and everybody had a lot of fun. By the way, I can’t let this moment pass without mentioning my glorious victory again, and telling Robert van Dijk he sucks at bowling. I also think the
On the menu were fries and a massive burger, and for vegeterians there was some pasta. noise we wanted. On the menu were fries and a massive burger, and for vegeterians there was some pasta. After this heavenly dish, accompanied by some pints of beer we left the restaurant, on to our next destination; the bowling alley, which was next door. Oh I forgot to mention it was all for free! We, Dutchies love free stuff, it just makes everything better. Back to the bowling. The group
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beer we drank. So trying to get rich, we reserved a spot near the tap and told the bartender to just leave the tap open and keep the drink of the gods coming our way. Our massive supply of beer soon attracted all kinds of people and we started playing drinking games with everyone who liked to join us. Since a drunken man speaks the truth, I got to know a lot of freshmen and seniors very quickly. After hours of socializing, drinking and crazy dance moves the bar was closing and the bartenders, relieved the building was still standing, told us to go home.
Refusing to let this great night come to an end, many people grouped together outside for a talk and made plans to go to the next party. A few of the more experienced partygoers did just that and partied all night long; the others had a last drink and went home singing and satisfied. Koen Janssen
best girl of the evening deserves a honorable mention: Bernadette Zantman threw a lot of strikes and seems to be very good with balls. When we were done bowling, we left for the bar, where music, senior students and 50ct beer (and wine) were waiting for us. Since everybody knows 1 euro for a beer is pretty much free, we basically got paid 50 cents for each
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
CAREER
>>
SAS is a software suite developed by SAS Institute for advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management and predictive analytics. This year’s theme: Big Decisions Now! was about making fast decisions in times of intense competition. > On the 8th of October we went to NBC congrescentrum in Nieuwegein for the annual SAS forum. The day started early as we met each other at Rotterdam Central Station around 7 am. Fortunately there was no delay and we were on time for the meet & greet and some coffee. The forum was opened by Karel Kinders, managing director of SAS Netherlands and Chairman Paul Laseur, financial journalist and presenter. According to Karel Kinders the theme Big Decisions Now has an important link with big data. “A huge amount of data has become quite normal for companies, but only becomes valuable with the right decisions. It’s about the art of making the decision.” After the introduction we joined Peter Hinssen, IT-expert, author and visionary, in his journey about the impact of technology on both the business as the social life.
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09
SAS FORUM 2013 According to Hinssen we are only at the beginning of what is possible with all these new technology. We live in the new normal. This new world is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. That’s the reason we shouldn’t use data as a fixed variable, but as a variable which is always evolving and growing.
Credit Rating Models. He showed us the model he is currently using with his company DirectPay which seeks out the probability of a payment default.
And just before the break Jer Thorp, a Canadian software artist, showed us how you present abstract data into a more human context. By visualizing the data it becomes not only more attractive, but you find also other manners to look at the data. After the break we joined Colin Nugteren in his parallel session about Researching Individual
With a well-filled belly it was time to listen to Mark Torr, Global Technology Practice Director SAS. He demonstrated the ease and power of Visual Analytics with some other SAS-experts.
Now after a busy morning and hearing the term ‘big data’ a lot, it was time for a large and very tasty well-groomed lunch.
For the second parallel session we chose to go to BI Box: Self Service BI & ETL, with SNS REAAL and PW consulting. It was
hard to understand it all and I’m still not entirely sure about putting DI Studio in the BI Box or not. The day ended with no other than André Kuipers, astronaut and physician. Kuipers is the first Dutchman with two space missions on his name and his second mission is with 193 days the longest European space flight in history. His story followed with photographs and motion pictures from space made sure he had everybody’s attention. In conclusion, it was a long but exciting and instructive day. Jelle Geerts
The day ended with no other than André Kuipers, astronaut and physician.
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10 SOCIAL
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In August the Dutch freshmen students went on an introduction to a beautiful scouting camp in Capelle.
PINKWIN
to clean the toilets, so most of the teams jumped right away in the puddle. The guides laughed at them from the dry edge. After all it was a heavy contest, but very good for the teambuilding.
Most of them expected a week with games to get to know each other, but soon they discovered that was not true. > On the first night, after chili con carne from Harry (the chef of the camp), they had to swim in the ditch. Actually the competition was to build a float and complete a parcours. The slowest team had
The next morning after a nice evening with much fun (which didn’t end well for everyone, especially not for the guides), the alarm went early that morning, because a visit to a company was planned. Fresh from the shower, in proper clothes and (of course) with a small hangover Ortec Finance was visited. After the presentation and a good lunch the students played the game “crazy
88” in the centre of Rotterdam. From the results you could see that everyone was very fanatical, bananas were destroyed, dogs were licked, cashiers were kissed, the ugliest clothes from the Coolcat were pulled on and mobility scooters were driven. That eve was finished with a good game of hints, where the most impossible things had to be represented. For example in the category animals; a “vibra-tor”, the monster of Loch Ness or Cameltoe had to be represented and at the category food; “vleeslul” or “paardenkut”. After a lot of laughing, the real party was about to start. The beers appeared and the night didn’t end early. Unfortunately the next morning was early again to visit the University. Everyone tried really hard to stay awake, but for the most students this was a hard job. This could be seen as preview of the coming year when lectures are early and the party is till deep in the night. The planning for the afternoon was a trip along a few famous pubs in Rotterdam. In every bar the freshmen played a
The play of Harrie!
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game and drank a beer, so the freshmen got to know Rotterdam and her bars. After the trip, it was time to go back to the camp, where a delicious barbecue from Harry was ready, but with a less tasty peanut sauce from Tjeerd. During the barbecue a few of them had the idea to do the survival track. This was nothing more than a 50 meters long rope above a ditch where you needed to swing like some kind of Tarzan to get through. Bernadette and Vicky started first followed by tough guys, who dropped out before Bernadette. Not everybody finished it, but it was really entertaining for the spectators. As big ending Harry performed his play. Everybody got a role and Harry was the producer. It was a play with a good script and very dedicated players. That night everybody who joined the trip along the bars from Rotterdam stayed for a drink, so it was a cozy affair. This was the end of a nice week, the next day everyone had to help cleaning and after it was time to say goodbye, heading to the Eurekaweek and the coming year! Eva van Bruggen
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
SOCIAL
AMSTERDAM TRIP
>>
Over twenty students from Econometrics went to the greatly
anticipated
Amsterdam Trip. It was an event
organized
by
the
Freshmen Committee, held in the 2nd of November and designated to those who would like to spend their Saturday in Amsterdam. > The Amsterdam trip surely was an occasion that everyone looked forward to, especially international students who haven’t been to Amsterdam yet. Everyone gathered quite early in the morning in order to catch the morning train to Amsterdam and do the activities as soon as possible. The main event in Amsterdam started at 11 pm, and in the schedule it was said to be a “museum” visit. It did look quite lame and boring, but everyone’s thoughts did change when they finally did arrive at the museum. It’s none other than the Sex Museum of Amsterdam. Everybody did actually go wild when they figured it out. They knew that wouldn’t be just another museum visit trip. The Sex Museum in Amsterdam is the fourth most visited museum in the city, and is also one of the
most famous Sex museums in the world. The museum is, of course, filled with lots of galleries and sculptures that imbue sex and other erotic contents. It surely was worth the time to visit, as there are lots and lots of things that you would never find anywhere else, such as ancient pictures of people from ages ago having sex. It may be quite wrong when you think of it, but it really is a must-visit museum. After the museum, it was already time for lunch, which was the time that people were waiting for. They visited a restaurant near the museum, which was quite delicious and not pricey. Everyone had to choose food and drinks from the long list of menu with the budget of €8, which was actually very satisfying. The great and tasty meal prepared the group for the long-waited event, the Red Light District tour. A tour guide came and showed us
The great and tasty meal prepared the group for the long-waited event, the Red Light District tour.
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11
around Amsterdam, as she gave the group a lot of information, such as the biggest coffee shop “Grasshopper”, the building of the central station, the canals and much more. After the walk, they all finally arrived at the Red Light District. They started from the old church, which was the place where all of the Red Light District’s main activities were held at first. Now, it is the place where a few rainbow-colored flags are raised, which was the sign of a site designated mainly for gays. As everyone goes through the street, some buildings started to appear with red lights above their door. Some of the windows were open with women standing and posing behind the mirror. The tour guide led the way to the biggest sex theatre, where live sex shows are shown every day. After those long walks, the Red Light District tour ended at the Chinatown district of Amsterdam. The tour guide really did help everyone gain a lot of experience and knowledge, and an unforgettable spectacular tour. Next in the schedule was nothing else than free time, where everyone can go wherever they want with their own responsibilities until 17.30 to gather for dinner.
Some went to a coffee shop, some went looking for some extra food, as there’s a lot of other choices of things to do in Amsterdam in 2 and a half hours spare time. At the evening, everyone had their dinner around the southern part of Amsterdam, where they all gathered again. It truly was an enjoyable moment, to have a dinner together with friends while being accompanied by good music and that warm, cosy feeling. The day won’t be complete if everyone went home without visiting any pubs or bars. Well, that’s what the committee had been saving for last. Everyone headed to a pub, where everyone could get drinks and enjoy themselves, having a good time. After around 2 hours at the pub, the last event of the day was to go to a pool bar, where everyone could play and have fun together, even those who never touched a cue stick before. It was a really fun and awesome event, as everyone playing in 4 different tables and everybody got a chance to play. It truly was a great event to finish the day in Amsterdam. Hilton Nicholas Khorazon
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
12 CHEF
Chef LAM
Nothing beats a well home-cooked meal. On Wednesday, 13th of
November, the Estimator Committees travelled to the former ED board member’s house, Tjian’s, for dinner. He was expecting our arrival, and therefore he was already preparing for 2 hours in
the kitchen. It was a meal that all of us had been waiting for and indeed it was worth the wait.
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> The first meal, the appetizer, was none other than a splendid salad. The salmon in it tasted superb, as the freshness of the lettuce and the juiciness of the salmon paired amazingly in the mouth. Not only that, the mozzarella and the creamy cheese gave a lovely mix with the salmon. It truly felt like eating a glamorous salad from a five-star restaurant. It had really succeeded in filling the role of “appetizer”, as it made us crave for the next meals, inpatient for another extraordinary meal. It’s finally time for the main course. From far away we had been wondering what’s in that large pot. It smelled very nice but somehow it’s not what we encounter a lot. Tjian revealed that it’s a Japanese curry, the
one that not that many restaurants in Rotterdam can serve it well. Tjian also prepared two rice cookers, with the captivating smell of rice being all across the room. People said that rice is best cooked with rice cookers, and I can ensure they are right indeed. The Japanese curry Tjian cooked was incredible, with its thick and strong moisture of the
ter” and yes, we were very thankful that Tjian made too much food. We did eat a lot of rice and curry, as it was hard to restrain ourselves from eating something that good. Although we were pretty much full, there is always room for dessert. Tjian baked brownies by himself, and served along with ice cream. The warm
Chef: Tjian Lam Startyear:
2010
Favorite dish:
Eggplant stew
ED-highlight:
The 47th board year
curry, soft and tender beef, and well-cooked potatoes accompanied by carrots and paprika to colour up the food. We know it would taste great even before we tried it, which is, quite an essential part of cooking: not only to please the mouth, but also the eyes. In the middle of our feast, Tjian revealed that he cooked a bit too much of rice and curry and yet it wasn’t even a bad thing. As what was learned from microeconomics, “more-is-bet-
brownies and the refreshing vanilla ice cream together was one of the best desserts you can possibly get anywhere. We sincerely thank Tjian for his warm welcome and magnificent food. Those two-hours-worth of cooking was superb and would probably the best meal we could have in a few months’ time. Hilton Nicholas Khorazon
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
SOCIAL
FIRST DRINK
On 12 september the first social drink took place. After the “eerstejaarsdag” lots of students came to Divoza to have an awesome drink and a great time!
> Surely we all agree that having a couple of beers with friends after a long day is a vital part of your student life! Most students like to go out, drinking that one beer too many when celebrating birthdays, end of exams, successful long days or simply that the sun has set once again. What better way to do this than with your fellow econometricians?
Undoubtedly you have all heard about the Social Drinks of the Econometrisch Dispuut. You might know about it from last years, friends or simply by the tons of Facebook invites you get every month! This year things were no different, or were they? As is the case every year, the first social drink of the year is a special one. This is the first chance to
13
>> This first drink however, had another completely different aspect to it. The new location, Café Divoza!
have a drink with the new board, meet your new classmates, or see what is left of your old group of friends. This first drink however, had another completely different aspect to it. The new location, Café Divoza! The atmosphere was great, with people celebrating their birthdays and a lot of drinking games going on. Also in the garden of Divoza were some nice conversations going on. In my opinion, the quality of such drinks is measured by looking at the tons of photos that are taken in such a night… and as usual some amazing photos were captured. Lars van Kempen
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
14 INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW ESMEÉ VERMOLEN Every econometrician is special in their own way, of course some are more special than others. In this new section in the Estimator, we interview these special ones. The Estimator Committee is very honered to interview an econometrician, who is also a model who travels all over the world!
> Who are you? My name is Esmeé Vermolen and I’m a freshmen Econometrics. 19 years old and originally from Oud-Beijerland. > As a econometrician/ model we see you as a ‘striking person’. Why did you choose to study Econometrics? I have always had an interest in mathematics and I always thought I was going to study mathematics in Delft. Until I heard about Econometrics, which is the perfect balance between mathematics and economics. I am so happy with my choice, because I really enjoy this study and I have so much fun with the people here. > How did you get into the world of modelling?
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I was asked to model for a photographer who needed a model in one of his photography classes. I enjoyed it and within a few months I signed my first contract with Max Models Rotterdam. I’m now in this business for three years. > Are you planning to stay in the modelling business? I have had some really great experiences while working and I have travelled a lot, but I enjoy studying more. Also, at some point I really have to make a choice and I am quite positive that I’ll choose econometrics. > Can you tell us something about the perks of being a model (parties, trips)? The model parties are really as crazy as they are known for, I
have had some awesome but crazy parties with models. Also, for some events, people want models to be in the VIP areas. So I was flown into Miami, to go to Miami Ultra Music Festival. That was really weird, but so awesome. And when I was in New York, we were invited to party with the Real Madrid players. To be honest, they were real jerks, but I had fun with my colleagues. > What is your biggest accomplishment as a model? Personally, my trip to Azerbaijan was a very big accomplishment. But I’ve done campaigns for Schwarzkopf, look book for Valentino, advertisements for Revolt and the magazines Elle, Glamour, Grazia, Baku and some Dutch, French and American magazines.
> In which magazines can we find you? Right now I’m in the French Glamour, soon the Dutch Elle and the Russian Elle. > How much time does being a model take? sometimes I have one job a month but lately it has increased to one job per 1 or 2 weeks. > For the last question, if I may ask, what’s the craziest thing you have done as a model? Hmm.. The craziest thing that can be published is really ultra miami festival. I was asked to go there on Thursday morning and in the afternoon me and a friend of mine were on our way to Miami for the weekend. Thomas van ‘t Westeinde
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
SOCIAL
FRESHMENDAY
>> The concept of freshmenday is crystal
clear:
bowling
 15
We high-fived each other for every strike or spare and socialized in the time
and
between our turns!
diner. And the best part of it: all this for free. > Every year a new group of freshmen enjoy this day, while getting to know there fellow students. The group of international econometric students is clearly growing, but that was no problem for restaurant Bennie Beer. With a group of 50 people, including the Freshmen committee of last year (this was their very last event, which made it a very emotional evening of course) and the board, we had a great diner. While exchanging stories, we enjoyed either a Bear Burger XL (which was more of size M, but fine), a goat cheese salad or chicken satay. After this we went to the bowling bar, where everyone played some serious games of bowling. We high-fived each other for every strike or spare and socialized in
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the time between our turns. Although some people broke their nails while bowling, others only threw their bowling balls in the gutter, after all everyone had a fun night and definitely found out how crazy econometricians are (the clichĂŠ always turns out not to be true). Florine Groenen
>> ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
16 CAREER SPED stage
SPED stage
Conservatrix
Charta Software
> Dear Reader,
> Hello all,
I am Eric Slob and I am a member of the SPED committee 20132014. During the first period of the academic year I did an internship at Conservatrix holding, the holding group for a combination of three insurance companies active in both the Netherlands and Belgium. The internship took place in Baarn, a small town in the neighborhood of Hilversum. The project I worked on during my internship was the valuation of real estate. Due to the new guidelines from the European government (Solvency II), the valuation of the real estate had to be done based on market value instead of the traditional book value. The goal of the internship was to calculate the market value of the portfolio. Next to that I had to calculate the Value at Risk, the sensitivity of the portfolio for a change in the interest rate and sensitivity for a change in rural house prices. What I learned during my internship were the several aspects of asset valuation (mostly real estate valuation), how to apply my academic knowledge to the commercial world and to work together with people with different backgrounds. It was also a good
My name is Robert Arends and I did an internship during the first block of this academic year. This internship belonged to the Study Project of the Econometrisch Dispuut (SPED). Together with another Econometrics student I worked for Charta Software, which is a software development company in Rotterdam.
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opportunity to gain some handson experience. To conclude, I learned a lot about how insurance companies work, valuation of real estate. The internship was a great opportunity for me! Eric Slob
>>
During my internship I worked with the application PROTIDE (PRObabilistic TIdal window DEtermination), which is a software program for calculating tidal windows for a ship. The goal of the internship was to fully understand the working of the application and subsequently research and suggest possible improvements for PROTIDE . During my internship I experienced the process of developing and maintaining a software program. This experience taught me that a software program is never completely finished. Keeping in touch with clients (users of the program) always results in new ideas to expand or improve the software program.
Furthermore I performed some programming work for PROTIDE during the internship. By programming new parts for PROTIDE and adjusting parts of existing programming code I contributed to the internationalization of the application. These changes can already be seen in the programming environment of Charta Software and will be used by clients in the upcoming version of PROTIDE. Summarizing my internship I would state that I learned a lot about optimizing a software program and the corresponding proceedings. This internship was an educational experience and I am definitely glad that I participated in the Study Project of the Econometrisch Dispuut (SPED). Robert Arends
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
SOCIAL
17
LEVT
May 24th, Lisbon, Portugal: the 2014 Champions League final. July 13th 2014, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: the 2014 World Cup Final. If you’re a sports fan, these
>>
two dates are certainly already marked in your agenda. Even if you’re not a sports fan, probably as well. However, on Thursday 19 September 2013, an at least as memorable football tournament took place: the national football tournament for econometricians (in Dutch: LEVT, Landelijk Econometristen Voetbaltoernooi)! > After weeks of training and mental preparation, the EDdelegation consisting of three teams of 8 players each, was ready to leave Rotterdam at the early hour of 09:30 in the morning. While stars like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo were still sleeping, our heroes were busy with drafting complex tactics and discussing the line ups for the first matches. Once arrived in Utrecht, the tension immediately increased. The local streets were filled with riot control units trying to restrain the mass of hooligans from all over the country. Fortunately we were able to reach the fields of USV Elinkwijk, former club of several professional players including Marco van Basten, Gerald Vanenburg & Ibrahim
Afellay. In total, 24 teams spreaded over six associations were competing for the prizes. Next to our three Rotterdam representing teams from the Econometrisch Dispuut, there were 21 more teams believing in a worthy final ranking. Let me introduce to you: Asset | Econometrics from Tilburg, SCOPE | Vectum from Maastricht, VESTING from Groningen and both Kraket & VSAE from Amsterdam. Although the first matches were not very successful, the first prize of the day was for the ED. In form of the ‘First Beers of the Day – Award’, a couple of former board members (not to mention any names) earned this noteworthy award around the clock of 12:30.
Although the first matches were not very successful, the first prize of the day was for the ED. In form of the ‘First Beers of the Day – Award’.
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This was definitely a boost for all ED-teams resulting in some good wins. After all group matches, the earned points were added and it turned out that one of three EDteams ended first in the group which means they were going through to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, the other two teams didn’t manage to reach the finals but it is for sure that their incredible skills have not been unnoticed. In the semi-finals we were facing Kraket. Quite a strong opponent, but the ED was dominating the match. Regrettably, we quickly conceded a goal against through a fast counterattack of Kraket. After this setback, our players pulled up their socks and took the opponent’s goal on fire. However shot after shot was taken, the score remained unchanged due to some great saves of the Kraket goalkeeper and an angel on both the goal posts and the crossbar. A big disappointment but the ED-team was able to recover in the small final (3rd/ 4th place) and defeated
the opposite team from VESTING. The day was completed with a BBQ, a couple of drinks and the prize ceremony in the canteen of USV Elinkwijk. A fun and sporty day had come to an end. We went back to Rotterdam with a deserving 3rd prize trophy. The 2nd prize was for Kraket and the 1st prize went to VSAE; our congratulations. Thanks to all heroic participants and also to SCOPE | Vectum for the Organisation of the national football tournament for econometricians. Now it’s time to focus on our next Champions League match, which hopefully brings us a step closer to Lisbon, May 2014. See you there! Bas Vringer
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18 ECONOMETRICAL
ECONOMETRICAL ARTICLE This proof is not complete yet, but I am running out of time
> It is the thirtieth of May 1832. Évariste Galois was sitting at his desk. Galois just turned twenty, but has already gone through a lot. As a student his mathematical talents were never recognised, because he had always failed to find the right words to explain his ideas. Next to that he was living in the time of the French Revolution. He joined the National Guard and his fight for justice got more important than his love for mathematics. That night however he was going to spend solely on mathematics, jotting down all the results he had come up with over the last few years. The next day he will be having a duel and he doesn’t expect he will win. So tonight he will make sure in a letter to his friend that his knowledge will not get lost in case he would die tomorrow. The reason for the duel?
>> VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1 // ESTIMATOR
Stéphanie Poterin-Dumotel, the girl Galois fell in love with three months ago. Since Galois had only one night to write down all of his results, his notes were more or less comparable to the last numbers or words you write down before you have to hand in your exam. Fortunately other great mathematicians were able to decode Galois’s handwriting and published his works. This led to great progression in the study of polynomials by means of the Galois Theory. This theory is mainly used to show that some mathematical problems does not have a solution in radicals(=the four common math methods + - ÷ ×, and square roots, cube roots and so on). The Galois Theory itself is quitecomplicated, but one of the purpose in which it can be implemented is in a compass and straightedge problem. This is a geometrical problem where it is the question whether or not a certain operation can be constructed by only using an unmarked ruler and a compass. For example: Is it possible to trisect every angle?
What are the similarities between those problems and the Galois Theory? Well, let us say the ruler has length 1. After a little puzzling with the compass and the ruler, you can get to a line segment of length ; using Pythagoras’ Theorem. Making use of similar triangles you can achieve line segments of length ; . Combining the two, we can create any line segment with length ; . Other lengths cannot be constructed, so as soon as you can prove you need to draw a line with a length of a number that is not a radical, it is obviously impossible to draw. Back to the question whether it is possible to trisect every angle? First assume this is only possible if the new angles can be constructed using the unit circle. In other words, the original angle can be trisected if and only if and written as
Substitute reorder.
, and
Now Galois’s Theory says there is no radical solution for or . Then we can draw the conclusion it is impossible to find a way to trisect every angle. And then at last whether Galois did survive the duel. No he did not. He got shot in his stomach and he died due to the consequences of it on the same day. Some say it was because lack of sleep. Galois himself never doubted he would die, what in the end led to the fact he is still remembered as one of the greatest mathematicians of the nineteenth century. Ruud Moers
can both be ;
.
Let us have a look at trisecting an angle of 60 degrees. Using one of the trigonometry rules gives us the following.
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
SOCIAL
At
midday
on
Friday
30th
August, a group gathered outside the train station at Rotterdam Alexander, strangers to each
PENGUIN
other, these individuals came from far and wide. To the untrained eye they seemly had nothing in common.
They had
strange accents, dressed a little different and all had sleeping bags and camping gear, but why? > Of course there was only one answer! The start of PENGUIN WEEKEND 2013! Lead by the Freshmen Committee 2012 Chairman, Bob Muijs, the international students arrived at the Scout Centre just north of Rotterdam. Surprisingly no one got lost travelling to the camo, despite passing a KFC on the way. At the site an extremely enthusiastic 2012 Freshman Committee greeted the shy penguins into camp and were hurried past the crates and crates of beer and wine, I believe the site doubled up as a warehouse for local Gall and Gall stores, but this cannot be confirmed. The boys realised quickly they would be bunking down in the large tent whilst the girls got five star accommodation in the nearby cabins. After introductions from outgoing
Educational Officer Tjian Lam and his team, the first port of call was to break the ice and test our mental faculties. A quick game of “name that person” took place, about an hour later, the students had lunch and played some more games. Throughout the three days a regular routine was established whereby everyone was split into groups to tackle tasks like washing dishes, cleaning tables and preparing meals. If a parent is reading this, read the last sentence again, yes your child can do these things, for the last eighteen years they just pretended not to know how. There was a mix of students from Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands and more, a great vibe was building and everyone was enjoying getting to know each other. A game of “get to know you bingo” discovered some people had tattoos, others revealed shocking stories and quite a few students didn’t actually know what bingo was. But laughs were had and later dinner provided more opportunities for students to get to know each other. With drinks and food, games were played deep into the night, Poker
A thrilling series of beer pong games entertained the students amongst the music and laughter.
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was a popular favourite as probabilities were calculated, antes raised, pots lost and bragging rights won. For others it was games like “Vikings” that required strange noises and rowing actions from its players or the rather popular “Screw the Dealer” which provided numerous laughs at some of the Freshmen committee members expense, names shall be withheld. BANG! No it wasn’t a gun but Bob cheerfully banging a metal pot with a big wooden spoon as the bleary eyed students woke up for day two. After a very Dutch breakfast of bread with chocolate sprinkles on top, but definitely not jam and sprinkles, which would be a silly mistake, all the students were split into groups for a game of similar to treasure hunt. By then some of the tasks seemed easy, like getting a napkin, pose by a statue, but this would lead you into a false sense of security as it quickly became apparent that not all tasks could be done. As budding Econometricians, calculations were made, what was the benefit/costs of doing a kung fu fight scene in the city centre as opposed to eating as many “Ferrero Rocher” chocolates in one minute (apparently the benefit is quite high). Others were more daring, asking strangers to marry them or doing a “mission impossible” in H&M. Rest assu-
19
>>
red all the groups valiantly performed the tasks with enthusiasm before lunch. Afterwards was a great opportunity to meet the outgoing 47th Board of the Econometrish Dispuut. The first years learnt about the opportunities on offer, social events, career days and much more. That evening a grand BBQ was setup for all to enjoy, the previous and current board arrived as did many I-buddies (a great bunch of second year students who helped the new arrivals in some of the day to day things like bank accounts, books and where to shop). There was a whole host of meats, cheeses, vegetables and deserts for everyone to enjoy. As the evening turned to night, beers were drunk and wines were spilt. A thrilling series of beer pong games entertained the students amongst the music and laughter. Alas, all good things must come to an end. A Sunday after a breakfast and cleaning everyone left for home. The partying and socialising had set-up a great foundation for friendships in the years to come. Many of the students were then ready for their first block of study knowing that their new friends were there with them. A massive thank you goes to Tjian, Isabelle, Bob, Mechteld & Wendelien! Brett Luke Rosebaum
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
20 PHOTOPAGE < Peace Princess
> “ Daar zakt mijn bril vanaf!”
> Having a blast!
> Tarzan of the Econometrisch Dispuut
>>
> The board is ready for the constitution drink!
> ED drinks are hilarious
> Mr. Treasurer & former Mr. Treasu
> Pretty damn good!
> How does it look around here?!
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
PHOTOPAGE
21
> Find the photobomb!
> The final assembly of the 47th board!
s
urer!
> Who’s going to be an investmentbanker in the big city?!
> Some brotherly love!
> An awesome party on a boat!
> The first beer of the day!
> Visiting the University during PINKWIN
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
22 CAREER
QUANTITATIVE FINANCE P
On October 25th, after endless calls with completely unreachable (hot!) recruiters,
the
Quantitative
Finance Project itself was finally there. > We started out with a very popular bank these days, the wonderful and sympathetic Rabobank headquartered in Utrecht. We gathered at Rotterdam in the middle of terrible stormy weather. But of course, we did not have to worry about anything as we only had to take the train form Rotterdam to Utrecht, which is just a subtle formality with the wonderful NS in charge. As Econometrics is becoming more and more popular around the country, we also had some ‘Delft Boys’ in our group. This posed to be quite the problem, as several trees had slashed the railway into pieces between Delft and Rotterdam. However, due to some smart and quick thinking, the Delft group had arranged a car to go to Utrecht. Then there was our ‘little dirty man’ Victor, whom had quite the struggle travelling from Amsterdam. After some delays around Utrecht, most of the people managed to be at the Rabobank with a few minutes
employees. It was interesting to see how many different paths you could choose within the bank. Some popular programs were heavily discussed, whilst other programs were represented by, let’s say the more quiet employees around. After that, we got the introduction for our case study, which was about hedging FX, commodity, and interest rate risk for several originally named U.K. based bakeries with all kinds of fancy products. Now you might think that this would require serious econometric analysis, however, luck was the greatest factor in determining the winning group, next to unnecessarily complicated sheets we had to fill in. Fortunately, the next part of the day was coming closer and closer. One can already suspect what was next; alcohol. After a 20minute walk through several departed departments (clearly not the M&A floor), we arrived at Rabobank’s cozy in-house pub; the ‘Old Dutch’. With an extreme feeling of excitement, people ran towards the bar, screaming for beer. However, there was no barkeeper and the slightest drip of beer was even further away from being found. As it turns out, the Rabobank has other severe problems next to its LIBOR depart-
Finally, after a few panicking moments, bottles of beer had arrived and all students were satisfied again. delay. The in-house day at Rabobank was quite interesting. After the usual presentations we started off with a serious speed dating event, where all different intern and trainee programs were represented by recruiters and/or
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ment. Finally, after a few panicking moments, bottles of beer had arrived and all students were satisfied again. Then, the Thursday arrived, and we headed to the ‘Zuidas’ in Amsterdam to visit Kempen & Co. The day started out with an inte-
>>
resting presentation about Kempen & Co by John Hak, the CEO of Kempen & Co. After some Q&A, we headed over to the lunch room, where wonderful sandwiches and juices were provided. Then the networking began with several Kempen & Co employees of various departments. After our hungry bellies were filled up, we were introduced to the case study of the day. The case was about pitching two companies to investment managers, and trying to sell the stocks to them that closely matched their investment beliefs. We had to do this on the basis of half-year reports and Kempen’s analyst reports. During the case, we were able to interview the stock company’s ‘CEOs’, in order to get better insights into the companies. After some intensive hours, and lots of accounting drama, the winners turned out to be team 1, who received a nice bottle of wine for their efforts. After a short presentation about
internship and starter positions, we headed for the social drink at Kempen & Co where some interesting discussions were held. Then, Monday morning, we would finally go to city where it all happens, London. The plan was to gather At Rotterdam Central Station at 9. This turned out to be a problem for Daryl, but as real bankers prefer, he took the plane to London. After an hour of free lunch time in Brussels, it was time to check-in for the Eurostar train to London. There was one idiot, also known as ‘Matlab’, who had forgotten to take his passport with him (how stupid could one be?!). After some folks had been eliminated, 18 of us made it to the Eurostar. Before crossing the channel, the ‘train manager’, as he called himself, decided it would be a good idea to stand still for 1.5 hours, allowing us to abuse the bar area in the train, by pumping loud noises out of our own speakers and drinking beer in a
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
CAREER
PROJECT
pace that was pretty unusual for 1 pm. After arriving at King’s Cross, we went straight to the hotel to drop our bags off. Around 16.55, just 5 minutes before market closing, we arrived at the London Metal Exchange, where we experienced the last, wild 5 minutes of the metal trading day. While everybody was still dizzy because of the huge amount of telephones, screaming people and screens filled with quotes, we headed back to the hotel. Fortunately, Daryl had already made it to the hotel by then. Everyone was able to spend a few hours doing whatever they would like to do, which was basically drinking at the nearby legendary pub the Water Poet. At 7 pm, we headed out for a wonderful pizza restaurant, where we had our very own floor. After some good stories from Derrick on some very ‘special’ topics, there were rumors going round about ‘the committee’, a
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secret organization within the QFP which would be responsible for the Thursday night entertainment. After loading ourselves with pizza, red wine and surprisingly large beer bottles, we went back to the infamous Water Poet. Around 10 pm, dumb guy Matlab had reached London, and walked into the pub with the usual selfloving smile. This smile quickly disappeared however, when he was the victim of the self-invented drinking game by the others. Hence, Matlab quickly went to bed, as he felt a little ‘verneukt’ by the group. Shortly thereafter, everyone went to sleep to get some rest with the busiest day of the week ahead.
Morgan. After having received our name plates in the impressive looking lobby, we took the hightech elevators with live tube updates to a higher floor. Izaak gave a presentation on what it was like working at J.P. Morgan and about the markets department. This interesting presentation was followed by a presentation about the investment banking division within JPM. Then it was time for a small networking event with lots of J.P. Morgan employees. It was interesting to speak to a lot of people from different departments. After that we started with the trading game. Together with an English university, we had to make the markets of the final scores for a NBA basketball game. This turned out to be quite chaotic, with Louisville being completely crap in the beginning and Kentucky scoring suddenly way too much at the end. The winners were two English blokes, who almost didn’t trade anything and profiting from their extreme risk taking. The winners amongst the QFP had quite the advance technique: trying to find out whom did not understand the game at all, and profit from their complete incomprehension. After a short presentation of a really manly HR-guy from JPM, and some hints and tips from Izaak and Martina, we headed to visit the next investment bank. After having eaten a lousy under-
23
ground sandwich, we arrived at BNP Paribas, the French investment bank. After some toilet delays form Nishad’s side, we went to a small conference room, where we would spend the whole Tuesday afternoon. We started out with the usual introduction talk about the possibilities for us as students and why we should choose to work at BNP. After some awkward silences at the Q&A afterwards, two BNP employees gave presentations about their day-to-day activities. Bram told us about the Fixed Income Sales business, while Tim gave a good overview of M&A and his extremely pleasant work-life balance. For a change, we did not do a case study at BNP. But instead, we did some intensive speed dating in groups with BNP employees from several divisions. We had five 20 minutes talks to groups of 3 employees. Although it was pretty intensive, it was also very insightful and a convenient way to get to know the bank. Then, it was time for the social networking event. Now, this was clearly the main focus point of BNP; lots of delicious cheeses and nice French wines were available, as one would expect from a French bank. Although some were reluctant to go mad on the stinky cheeses, the bottles of wine were finished in quick fashion. After some good conversations, accompanied by some good food and drinks, we were kindly
Tuesday morning, we gathered in the lobby at an, for the most people complete insane, early hour. After some delays with breakfast habits of Matlab, we took the London overground, followed by the DLR to Canary Wharf, where we were to visit J.P.
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
24 CAREER requested to leave the BNP offices. The next day we had to be at Barclays at 1 pm, allowing us to have some fun Tuesday night. We had dinner at the Giraffe. Of course, the birthday of the lovely Robin van Straalen could not pass by without a little tribute, so we performed some awesome songs that were perfectly executed, and gave Robin a bottle of Vodka, which would be finished that same night, according to the birthday-boy himself. After that, we went to a club called Cargo, in the middle of Shoreditch. Apart from some elaborately dancing strange people, we were the only ones there. However, this was no reason for this night to turn out dull. Quite the contrary, we took over the whole club with our smooth dancing moves and impressive girl-attraction techniques. At 1 am, we moved to an even worse-looking club, where we stayed until the early hours. Next day, after some good English breakfast, we headed out to Canary Wharf to visit the British investment bank Barclays. Apparently, Barclays has multiple
buildings in Canary Wharf, so after some trouble, we managed to still be on time at the securities building. First, we had some presentations about opportunities at Barclays and how an investment bank operates. After that, we had a panel discussion with several Barclays employees, who gave good insights into the world of investment bankers, and also in how to actually pronounce ‘Barclays’ (apparently British folks pronounce it as ‘Barklies’). Then, we did a case study which was about the work of a salesman. We had an hour to prepare a sales pitch for an investment strategy by using a selection of fancy products. This was severely stressful, but everyone managed to give a reasonable presentation, where team 1 and 4 clearly excelled. After being interrogated with some tough questions, the winner was team 4. After a short tour of the FX trading floor, we headed out to the Boisdale, an extremely fancy restaurant, where Barclays had organized a nice social drink. The mini burgers is where Barclays really hit the nail on the head, they were absolutely delicious. Although everyone’s body was already filled with food, we
headed out to a Mexican restaurant, to spice things up a little. That night, everyone went to bed at decent times, as we had to get up early and prepare for the legendary Thursday night, where ‘the committee’ would reveal itself. On Thursday, we headed out to the Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse. After the usual presentation from the recruiter’s side, there were some interesting discussions with employees. Thereafter, we did a short little trading game, where pretty much everyone massively cheated, and thereby also everyone was the winner. After a good lunch with Credit Suisse employees, we had a quant case ahead of us. Although the term ‘quant’ really scared us, the case was actually quite fun and interesting. We had to discuss several topics about Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations and the ways in which they are used. Then we made a wonderful group picture at the Canada Square, after which we headed back to the hotel; to change clothes and get ready for our final night in London City.
The mini burgers is where Barclays really hit the nail on the head, they were absolutely delicious.
For the final night we could finally go completely mad since we did not have to visit a bank next day, but only had to catch a train (although some participants found it difficult on the wake up). We first had dinner in a very Apple store lookalike Japanese restaurant (so not that cosy). Afterwards we went for a cocktail to the ‘Dutch Drink’ in Mahiki, a Hawaii themed bar. Lots of Dutch bankers who work in London came to this party so we had an excellent netwerking opportunity. Before we went too drunk to get a career in the City we got to Tiger Tiger, the local version of club Hollywood in Rotterdam. Here the drinks flowed freely and everybody had a good time (some even more than others). The next and final day we went back to the Netherlands with a huge headache, but with a lot of experiences and more insight in the crazy banking world of the City. Now it is to be seen who really becomes an investment banker! Floris van Keeken
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UNKNOWN ROTTERDAM For how many years have you been studying in Rotterdam now? And how often have you been to places like Bird, BAR or Dr.? Have you actually heard about them? > Even though Rotterdam has so much to offer, students often stick to the same places. Tuesdays we go to club BED, student parties are often in club Vie and for shopping you go to the Koopgoot. So for everyone who is looking for something new, we have discovered some very cool places for you. Have fun! BIRD Inspired by trendy nightclubs and restaurants in cities like London, Berlin and New York, BIRD is the place to be for jazzmusic and a restaurant which has combined music and food in one great concept. Besides Jazz, there is also a lot of soul, latin, funk, hiphop, afrobeat and electric music. Prices are not cheap, but definitely affordable, since they focus a lot on students. A great regularly event they’re having is the Cinema Culinair. Every first Sunday evening of the month they watch movies and eat exactly what is in the movies at the exact same moment. This way you’re tasting exactly what you’re seeing. Would you like going some time? Check out their website if you need a ticket or a reservation. Where? Raampoortstraat 26, Rotterdam When? Wed – Sun: 17.30 – different closingtimes
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BAR This bar with its very easy name offers you a great amount of different events in both day and evening/night. Would you be in for a roller-skate disco? There is one every month. You want to sell your furniture? Your chlotes? Or whatever? They’re having regularly yard sales including good music, which will make you dance, while making money. And then there is my personal favorite: the No Phub Club: A night out without phones. If you hand yours in, you get a 3 euro discount on your meal. If you don’t, don’t use it, because if they catch you, you’re out.. Next to this they have a lot of normal dance nights, with mainly house music, techno and electro. But the word normal will always be taken out of context. In BAR almost everything is possible, which will make you eventually never have a ‘normal’ night or dinner. (Btw, Kapsalon seems to be their favorite dish!) Where? Schiekade 201, Rotterdam When? Mon – Wed: 16:00 – 01:00 Thu – Sat : 16:00 – 05:00
Dr. This might me the most unknown place in Rotterdam. Try googling it, try finding it, but you will most probably have a hard time. Dr. is a cocktailbar in Rotterdam, which is owned by two men and you can only go there when you have made a reservation. For this reservation you need to have the phone number, but this you can only get from someone who has been there before. And even if you’re finally there, you cannot take any pictures or videos. You’re definitely asking yourself ‘why?’ right now. The reasoning from the two men is that this way they want to attract only people who are appreciating their work. And they definitely did. The bar is booked every day and this year they have even received the very important VENUEZ-price for it.
The name Dr. is not just random. The two owners are seeing their work as being a doctor. Their guests are the clients, you can only come in if you have an appointment and the cocktails will be your medication, made from their own recipes. They focus on personal attention, since that is, in their opinion, missing in the current nightlife. Does this not sounds awesome? Only one problem left.. How to get the phonenumber? So what I’d like to propose is, that we all keep our eyes open. And who knows, we can soon spread the word… Where? Just outside the citycenter. That’s all we know… When? Make an appointment. Florine groenen
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SPED TRIP
On Monday July 22nd the group gathered at Schiphol to leave for an epic adventure to the United States and Canada. Although our great leader Tjian missed the train, somehow he did arrive half an hour earlier at Schiphol (the magic of NS). > Dear reader, Our first destination was the sunny Chicago. Unfortunately our hotel rooms were so small that they barely had room for our suitcases, however, we did have one of the trip’s most important things: WiFi. Luckily the travel agency told us that it would only get better. After splitting up the rooms, getting some cash to spend from daddy Tjian and making ourselves comfortable, it was time for dinner. Because everyone was tired from the flight, this first evening we only did a little exploring of the city, ending with drinks at the Cheese Cake Factory. Back at the hotel our genius leader Tjian had the great idea to go the rooftop of the hotel. Although there were clear signs that this was forbidden, he ignored them and wanted to lead his people to the top. Unfortunately the alarms went off and we rushed back to our rooms. The theme of SPED 2013 came to existence during one of the first nights in the room with Kit, Yugesh, Lisanne and Kim. They were chatting whilst getting ready for bed and after a few minutes Kit fell asleep. When Yugesh poked him (no homo), he suddenly screamed out loud “Yoloswag” and went back to sleeping. This is when our theme for the rest of the trip was born. The following day the speedboat trip was up! Through the center of architectural Chicago, our boat guide Trooper told us a lot about the history of the origin of Chi city. During the boat trip even Yugesh got sunburnt. Our next attraction was the famous Chicago’s bean: Cloud Gate, where selfies were
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our priorities. It was a relaxing afternoon in the Millennium Park. Our day ended with Chicago’s specialty: the Deep dish pizza. The first few bites of the pizza were good but after that it was surprisingly disgusting with layers of fat cheese. Next was CME group where we could see one of the world’s last trading floors. It was interesting to see that in this modern age there were still trades being made in the old school way with hand signs and shouting. The evening followed with one of our highlights at night, which were literally lights high, fireworks! With only a few hours left in Chicago, we had only one thing left on our checklist: a rooftop bar! After being rejected by some low class bars (some of us were underage),
we concluded that we had to stick to our high class. Obviously our next objective was the Trump Tower, where we were warmly welcomed like regulars. The drinks and cocktails were a little bit expensive, but luckily the view and the barmaids compensated this, so it was all good. This was the perfect way to end our stay in the windy city. After we got a glimpse of the States, it was time to cross the border to see what kind of country raised Justin Bieber. Unfortunately the customs were as nice as in the States, Kit as a suspicious smuggler was picked to be questioned in a separate room. Luckily he still had his charms to work his way out. Arriving at our hotel we quickly noticed that apparently we were staying in Chinatown. Suspicious supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants everywhere, but because of our trip’s theme #yoloswag, we were not scared to try new things. For some the world was opened to Chinese dishes, Korean ‘Hotpot’ and even Karaoke, where lungs were screamed out. Taylor Swift and the Back Street Boys were a hit in our playlist. Even
though we liked our new experiences, some of us still needed their regular style food as autistic Econometricians. So we paid a visit to North American’s finest: Hooters. Being served by busty chicks in small tops and hot pants made the food tastier for the men of our group (the food was actually okay). Because we were tourists, we had to visit Canada’s most famous landmark, the CN Tower. High up in the sky, we were able to see through the elavator’s glass floor how we’d ended at one of Canada’s highest points. Right next to the CN Tower was the stadium of the baseball club the Toronto Blue Jays, where we visited a match the next day. We had a nice sunny day in the ballpark, where the Blue Jays defeated the Houston Astros 2-1. Let’s go Blue Jays! This stadium is probably the only place in the world where it is acceptable for 14 year old girls to wear shirts and hats that say “I love BJs” (short for Blue Jays). We also visited the University of
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Toronto where we got a campus tour and had a lecture by prof. Roy Kwon about Markov Switching Models. This university had very nice buildings and a very Hogwarts-like view. The nicest thing of Canada for us was probably that the drinking age was 19 instead of 21, so the nightlife in Toronto was fantastic (the younger the better right?). The nightclub Cobra was one of the memorable nights we have had. Especially for David. Next to Cobra was another bar where Kit, Lisanne and Dai Linh went to find a good toilet. The toilet was amazing, there was a guy who did everything for you. He washed your hands, handed you a towel and the place smelled like heaven. If you wanted he probably would even have held your penis. So we felt obliged to tip him after taking a piss. But back to the bar, this bar had a weird vibe and Dai Linh suspected it to be a gay bar. However, no one believed him. When he took David into the club
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to convince everybody he was right. He immediately proved he was a powerful gay magnet, being challenged for dance battles by numerous people (of course he won). It was hard for him to get out of the club, but in the end everyone was finally convinced it was a gay bar. Gayvid rightfully got his nickname since then. The night before we left for the Niagara Falls Jelle, Yugesh, David, Tjian, Kit and Dai Linh played a long card game through the night, where the loser had to perform a punishment assignment. This was the birth of the ‘Nail game’. The lucky was loser Dai Linh, who had to wear bright pink nail polish on his fingernails and a drawn phallus on his arm the whole day in Niagara Falls, it was a joy to see how people reacted when he had stuck his hand out. At the Falls we undertook various activities around the waterfall, including a boat ride again (we like boats) that brought us to the bottom of the waterfall and a
trip behind the waterfalls. On the way back to the hotel we encountered a giant outlet mall, the ladies, Edwin and David fell in love at first sight. When everyone was finally finished, the busses had already stopped their services, so we all had to have a long creepy, but pleasant walk back in the dark. When we finally set sight on the hotel, our eyes were also drawn to something else: Walmart! The saying ‘Everything is big in America’ was certainly applied in this case, the amount of large Diet Coke bottles were a pleasure to the eyes of Kim. Special shopping carts were available for fat people, so that they can sit when they are shopping. The next day was one that no one looked forward to, the long bus trip of 8 hours to Boston. Surprisingly the bus that we arranged was one with 60 seats (for 13 people). So most of the time the bus ride was pretty comfortable with lots of card games and beautiful nails, the sleepy ones had enough space to take a nap (sometimes the bus even looked like a scene of the movie inception!). Different from the other cities, the people were more athletic and Boston does not have the standard street grid. As a result Tjian managed to get lost in the city almost every night. Our highlight of Boston was the nice facilities in the Hyatt hotel, there was a swimming pool, sauna, fitness area and the outdoor people could run along the Charles River. Edwin was a little too enthusiastic about the running part and thus he was limped the rest of our stay in Boston. Boston is well-known as the University City with the universities Harvard en MIT. Led by our interesting tour guides we visited these universities. Harvard has a classic style with brick buil-
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dings, where MIT looks more like the Erasmus University. At MIT, however, they had a Dunkin Donuts, Subway, supermarket and a food court at the Campus, something we can only wish for at the EUR. After almost two weeks of partying, shopping and sightseeing in the cities of USA and Canada, we deserved a little rest at the beach of Cape Cod before continuing our #yoloswagjourney to the city that never sleeps. We looked forward to this short stop at the Atlantic Ocean, because our legs were extremely tired from wandering through the streets of the previous cities we visited. The hotel at the beach was great, there were indoor and outdoor swimming pools and even a jacuzzi. We arrived in the early morning, so our rooms were not ready yet. Fortunately, this was not a problem and the hotel staff supplied us with some towels so we could chill at the beach. The weather was great this day, so we all put on our swimsuits and enjoyed ourselves at the beach or in the pool. For the people that do not share the same hotel room, this was the first time to see each other’s body. We can say that we all looked smoking hot in our trunks and bikinis, especially Didier, so it seems natural to compliment him for his body, even if he is from the same sex. But then the discussion came up, where we draw the line of things being gay. After a long debate we came to the conclusion that everything is cool to say, as long as you say No Homo (or NoHo). Unfortunately, a few days later some haters added So Homo (SoHo) to our vocabulary and since then we have had quite a few discussions about whether things were SoHo or NoHo.
Harvard has a classic style with brick buildings, where MIT looks more like the Erasmus University.
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28 CAREER Just like all other evenings, we had dinner together, but this time our quest to find food was a bit more difficult. This was the first time that we weren’t in a city, so there were no Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds or any decent restaurants within a five-minute walk. When we left the hotel, we had to make a choice, do we take a left turn or do we take right turn. We don’t remember which way we went, but what we do remember is that we went in the wrong direction, because we spent the next hour wandering through the woods and eventually ended up in a weird fast food joint which also delivers to our hotel... But we always look on the Brightside, next to this ‘restaurant’, there was a pitch where you could practice your baseball skills, a groceries store, and last but not least a liquor store. The liquor was a blessing for Dai Linh and Gayvid, because after a few games these guys were too pussy to play cards for nails, so we decided to switch to playing for shots. That night the party crew shrunk to only four people, the rest decided to call it a day and hit pillows. Yugesh, Dai Linh, John and Kit shared a cab to a little town nearby and tested the nightlife in Cape Cod. There was only one street with bars and on recommendation of our cab driver we chose one to enter. After a few drinks we concluded that this bar was kind of disappointing, the
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only interesting thing was the group of young women that were celebrating a bachelorette party, but with whom we did not have a shot with. Just when we were about to leave, the lights went on and we were asked to leave. Apparently the bars close at 1 a.m. in the weekends in Cape Cod… When we came back to the hotel we were not tired yet, so we decided to play cards for shots again. Then someone had the great idea to prank call Lisanne in the middle of the night (the imitation of Tjian’s ‘7 days’ literally gave us chills) and knock on her door to freak her out. The next day Lisanne was all confused and she was not sure whether she had a creepy nightmare or that it really happened. Only recently she found out that her roomies pulled a prank on her. The next day it started to rain, so unfortunately we could not really enjoy the beach on our second day. Most of us spent the afternoon in the indoor pool or took a nap in their room. That evening we found out that there was also a good restaurant at the hotel, it was a shame that we spent so much time looking for a place to eat the evening before, while there was such good food right down the stairs. The restaurant served the cheapest and at the same time the biggest steak we have had during our trip. For about 10-15 dollars we had a
steak that covered our whole plate, and it was delicious! Later that night some of us decided to hit the jacuzzi after closing time (yeah #yoloswag, we know). However, we were not the only ones with that idea. When we came in, there was already a couple in the jacuzzi, where the guy was already sliding into second base. If looks could kill, we wouldn’t be writing this story for you, but fortunately we were with quite a large group so all he could do was leave (sorry bro, didn’t mean to cockblock). We had some whiskey and chilled out big time in the jacuzzi. The alcohol combined with his Asian blood, the heat from the Jacuzzi and the lack of sleep made Kit pass out a few minutes later. Instead of waking him up, his friends tried to hit him with a frisbee. (thanks guys..) What happened the rest of the night Kit can’t remember, because of the previously described event, but the next morning we continued our trip to New York City!! Finally it was time to arrive at New York, the big apple. For most of us this city was the one that we looked forward to the most. The city that never sleeps gave us the
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great idea to actually try not to sleep. First activity was of course the Empire State building, waiting hours in line we finally arrived at one of New York’s greatest attractions, the night view we had was unbelievable. Being in New York, we also wanted a taste of the night life. Unfortunately the first day ended disastrous, because we didn’t dress up fancy enough, didn’t want to get ripped off or we tried to party on Sunday (or a combination of those). The SPED trip is not always chilling and partying, we also had to do some career events. So the next day we paid a visit to Rabobank’s head office of North America in New York. We were kindly welcomed by lots of people with nice food and the view was as nice as the Empire State building. We had a presentation how Rabobank operated in New York, it was nice to see how a Dutch bank was active between the other American banks. The valuable information we got that afternoon proved to be essential for our stay in New York, the party place to be for us was: Turtle bay! Before the party crew entirely trusted those Rabo interns, we wanted to explore some other places as well from the in-
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CAREER formation we got on Google. Walking through a pub area, we decided to enter a club. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. Apparently there was a Gothic party going on and we’re sure that this was scarier than the dark places in Harlem. With almost no hope left, we decided to head for Turtle bay to check it out. Surprisingly this was actually a pretty nice pub/club with young people like ourselves. With this valuable information we decided to come back the next day with the rest of the gang. Our next visit to a company was Pointlogic! This is the company where Rick works part time as an Econometrician. We had a warm welcome with lots of different cupcakes and coffee, we started this morning with an interesting introduction round with toilet paper! Each of us had to take the amount from the roll that we thought we used during a sit. With every piece you took you had to say something about yourself.
Not only our hosts, but we also got something new that we didn’t know about ourselves. Didier apparently has pronounced his name wrong his whole life and Kit loves everything about Taylor Swift. This was followed by a nice information session about Pointlogic. After lunch it was time to do some sports. We rented some bikes and crossed through Central Park like the cyclers on steroids nowadays. When we finished the laps the group got split up. Some genius had the great idea to cycle all the way around the island of Manhattan, of course we agreed based on #yoloswag. When we finally reached downtown Manhattan, we realized that we had 20 minutes left to return
the bikes. As a result the group got split rushing all the way up to Central Park with literally our lives on the line. Each one of the 50 blocks that we crossed while cycling up the crowded American Avenue could be have been the very last moment for some of us. With every single breath we evaded taxis, buses and angry pedestrians. Miraculously no one got run over and died, so it was all good. The evening program consisted of drinks with Flow Traders at the rooftop bar of the Dream Hotel. Because some of us were really interested in trading, this was the ideal event for them to get to know real traders. One of us also failed a math question about the bill. Rejected by almost
We spent a good part of the day on THE mode of transportation for lazy Americans: the Segway, also known as the #Swagway. every American club, Gayvid finally collected all his courage to borrow Yugesh’s ID to try to sneak in Turtle Bay. Without giving too many details, points were scored this night. Our last day in New York we all had free time and split up, of course we did meet for dinner. Everyone had some time to do some last shopping, sightseeing or just sleeping in bed. Daddy Tjian decided that the group behaved nicely, so he handed out a bonus that day. After dinner the group split into two to spend the cash, one headed for the classical piece of The Phantom the Opera at Broadway and the other one celebrating John’s birthday at a gentlemen’s club. Although there are no pictures, the second group was convinced that their cash was better spent. Ending this day with a blast, we headed to the city of Obama! When we arrived in Washington D.C. by the luxurious Amtrak we immediately had a meeting with professor Lumsdaine at the
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American University Kogod School of Business where they told us more about their educational programs and demonstrated how Bloomberg could be used for education. That day it was also Rick’s birthday. So we dined at one of the best restaurants we have eaten the whole trip (and we already had some good food this holiday), namely the Brazilian all you can eat buffet with a lot of meaty goodness named Fogo de Chau. The next day was our last full day in Washington. We spent a good part of the day on THE mode of transportation for lazy Americans: the Segway, also known as the #Swagway. After having walked long distances for three weeks already, this was a welcome activity. After some practicing most of us got the hang of it, especially Didier quickly developed a cool trick. Riding the #Swagway is the best way to visit DC’s most famous monuments such as the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the White House (from a distance). We celebrated the end of our epic journey with a last evening of absolute #yoloswag in a the big nightclub Ultrabar, where we partied till we dropped. Luckily in Washington the MacDonald’s is also open at 4 am, so we decided to pay the big yellow M a visit. The next day we all left to go home from an unforgettable journey that seemed way too short. Those three weeks we dined like kings and spent money like celebrities. The things we will probably miss most are: The group, the food, feeling better by looking at fat people, new experiences, the group, our daily doses of Taylor Swift and of course John’s jokes. This adventure left a great impression on all of us and we are sure nobody will ever forget this great experience! Hashtagyoloswag, Dai Linh, Kit, Lisanne & Tjian
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INTERVIEW CENTRAAL BUREAU VOOR DE STATISTIEK
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Statistics Netherlands, a government institute concerned with data, statistics, their analyses and even predictions based on this vast world of numbers. What better place to find an econometrician at work? And indeed, we found one. Just before the deadline of this edition of the Estimator we arranged a meeting with Lenny Stoeldraijer, an econometrician working at Statistics Netherlands.
> Having arrived with fifteen minutes to spare, we were escorted to some comfortable chairs in the lobby and presented one of the weekly press releases. Once the big moment had finally arrived and we had introduced ourselves, it was time to venture up to the sixth floor, where a small room was free for us to commence with the interview. Asking Lenny to briefly introduce herself, we quickly found out that she had studied econometrics at Tilburg University. She took her master’s degree in Mathematical Economics and Econometric Methods, although she also did some other courses (such as Operations Research). During and after her studies she worked at the university as a research assistant, where she frequently used data provided by Statistics Netherlands. What does Statistics Netherlands do? As she is in a good position to
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know exactly what happens at Statistics Netherlands, she had no trouble describing to us what the organisation does and what her specific role is: “Statistics Netherlands is an independent knowledge institute”, which collects, publishes and researches data on many different topics. In most cases, these data are simply published, but not interpreted or used for forecasting. This is done by another institute: the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (Het Centraal Planbureau in Dutch). Statistics Netherlands provides this bureau with their data, which
the CPB then uses as input for its own models to make predictions. Could you describe your job? Technically speaking, Lenny is a statistical researcher. She researches and gives meaning to the data obtained by Statistics Netherlands. She works in the Demography department, among other things producing population forecasts. This is the only department at Statistics Netherlands that is allowed to make predictions. Lenny’s skills as an econometrician help her a great deal in doing
“Statistics Netherlands is an independent knowledge institute”, which collects, publishes and researches data on many different topics.
her job, she elaborated. Methods that she learned during her studies, and also during her time working as a research assistant, help her with her work every day. These vary from research methods to using programs such as Excel, SQL and SPSS or even creating her own programs implementing self-made models! Do many econometricians work at Statistics Netherlands? Quite surprisingly, the number of econometricians working at Statistics Netherlands is not shockingly high. In fact, only about 50 of the approximately 2,000 employees are econometricians. Most of them, however, can be found in the same department: methodology (developing statistical methods). So you do in fact use a lot of your study skills working at Statistics Netherlands! Not only can you put your acquired techniques to good use, according to Lenny Statistics Netherlands is also a good em-
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Compared to all the university research she’s done, she says her work at Statistics Netherlands is much more practical and definitely useful: her work is implemented at national levels!
ployer. It offers great freedom in terms of doing what you enjoy most. There’s room for research, writing articles, and working with data or research results, using methods and models. It’s easy to switch departments for a while and find out whether or not you might like it better there! Opportunities for selfdevelopment Statistics Netherlands also allows you to grow further and offers its employees the possibility to do training courses at many levels alongside their jobs. Lenny, for instance, is doing a PhD programme at the University of Groningen at the moment, and is allowed to spend 50 percent of her time on it. In her case it’s very appropriate, as her topic of choice is closely related to her actual job. Added to this, the working environment is very friendly. Even though there’s a certain hierarchy, which is usual in such an or-
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ganisation, the workplace did not seem at all divided, with all employees working among each other. Combining theory with practise For Lenny however, one of the main reasons for working for Statistics Netherlands is that she feels it’s the perfect combination of theory and practice. Compared to all the university research she’s done, she says her work at Statistics Netherlands is much more practical and definitely useful: her work is implemented at national levels! This also adds
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to the sense that her work has a social aspect. Through her work, national government may function better, whereas if she worked for a big company the main goal would be to make profit. Big responsibility Naturally, there aren’t only advantages to working at Statistics Netherlands. It also brings a great responsibility, she says. If employees make a breakthrough, for example, they can publish it and this will directly be picked up by the media, and even seen on the news. Therefore, there can be no doubt as to the accuracy of published statements or data! This can be quite a burden to carry. It can also be quite frustrating if the media only pick out parts of a written article, which might distort the idea expressed in the whole text. Weighing the pros and cons, however, Lenny can certainly recommend working at Statistics Netherlands. Even though the organisation is cur-
rently having to cut its costs and is not recruiting many new people, it still is possible to get into Statistics Netherlands! Firstly, there’s the possibility of doing an internship there if you’ve got a burning idea you want to research. Secondly, direct letters of application are a way to get access, according to Lenny. How to become successful Last but not least, we asked Lenny what she thinks is important to do well as an econometrician in general. She said that if you want to do well, econometrics can be a great help. It’s a highly valued discipline in more than just a couple of sectors. Specifically she’s of opinion that doing an internship in a part of business or research that you deem interesting is a very good idea! Being active and having things to show for it is of great importance. Lars van Blokland
Kempen
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Joris
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TWO BEARDED MEN
Wintertime has come. Christmas holidays are soon upon us. There are only a couple of exams that stand in the way of our journeys home, towards the much needed warmth of our beloved family and friends, and let’s not forget mum’s cooking! But, it’s not just a holiday! > These holidays come with much-a-much anticipated festivity. For years-and-years an old man with a long, white beard dressed in his characteristic red outfit, flying around in his reindeer-pulled carriage, has been delivering presents to children all over the world. Certainly you all know this story, as it’s one of the biggest events in our modern society! A small country somewhere in Western Europe however, has a story next to this one… By this time of year all of you have undoubtedly seen the advertisements that have to do with this alternative tale. Based on Saint Nikolas of Myra, the Dutch have created another story around an
old, bearded man giving children what they want most: presents. If you have indeed seen the advertisements, there has had to be a moment where you’ve noticed that our Saint Nikolas and Santa Claus might look alike, but operate in completely different manners! For starters, Santa Claus travels by means of a flying carriage pulled by red nosed reindeers. If you ask me, that’s a more productive way of delivering his presents than the one presented in the Dutch story. Saint Nikolas decided to deliver them whilst riding his horse (unfortunately not a flying one!) over people’s homes! Secondly, Santa Claus has green little midgets to
Children in the Netherlands can’t sleep weeks in advance of this highly anticipated event.
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help him out. Saint Nikolas also has helpers, but they are people with red lips, curly hair and a dark skin. Furthermore, he’s also about children behaving well, and has found a way to have children on their best behaviour all year long. Children don’t only miss out on their presents if they’ve been bad, but according to myth they also receive a beating (with a stick!) by Saint Nikolas’ helpers, or can even be taken back to Spain, where Saint Nikolas sets out from. One might wonder what kind of cruel story we sell to our children. Crudely put, you could interpret it as follows: An old slavedriver going around beating and/ or abducting children who haven’t been on their best behaviour. And indeed, this is exactly how people made it look this year, resulting in big debates all over Holland (and even Europe) as to whether or not this is acceptable. I, for one, think that’s the biggest nonsense. There’s no doubt that if you want to find things which could offend someone on this planet, you will. Besides that, the Dutch say that Saint Nikolas’ helpers are of darker skin because they have to force themselves
through chimneys in order to deliver the much appreciated gifts. Sounds plausible to me! In my opinion however, it shouldn’t even be about whether or not this is based on slavery at all. We don’t actually beat our children if they haven’t been good, nor do we in any way make Saint Nikolas’ helpers stand out in a negative way! Children in the Netherlands can’t sleep weeks in advance of this highly anticipated event. They too send lists and lists of wishes to a holy man in hope of getting that one present that will make them the happiest. So why complicate matters? Why pose questions now, when this has been going on for years doing nothing but making children happy? Sinterklaas is a great thing, celebrated in Holland just as widely as Christmas is in other countries, so please just let it be! Lars van Kempen
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The long-awaited ED Pool Tournament had finally arrived. It was one of the events where lots of people from both Dutch and International Econometrics all gathered to participate, regardless of their year of study.
POOLTOURNAMENT > The tournament took place at Thurston, a pool bar near Kruisplein. For those unfamiliar to pool, the game finishes as soon as someone puts in the black number 8 ball. If someone accidentally puts in the black ball before they put in all their other balls, they instantly lose. This is why luck may sometimes be quite an important role in playing pool. Some of the teams came with the confidence of reaching at least the quarterfinals, while some only played for the fun and the thrill. The tournament started at 8 pm, as each team was assigned to a different tables with their respective groups of around 4 teams, with 8 tables in total. Although some games may take more time than expected, the
schedule didn’t run off that much due to some teams managing to pull off a quick victory (mostly through unintended black ball going in). The group stages went smoothly, with the top 2 teams of each table were allowed to go to further in to the finals. The victorious 16 teams then had to compete against each other, fighting for the spot in the quarterfinals. The games started to heat up as the tournament goes to its semi-finals stage. Crowds started to gather around the two tables, with each table holding a very interesting match between good players. On one of the tables, both teams ended up with only the black ball remaining. The game was so intense that everyone was caught in awe when the shot missed by a
Our finalists were Bob Muijs and Ricardo de Boer, playing against Alex Wong and Zhi Wei.
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hair’s-breadth. After a few rounds of strong plays from each side, the winners finally made it to the grand-final. Our finalists were Bob Muijs and Ricardo de Boer, playing against Alex Wong and Zhi Wei. That was the long-awaited match. The two teams who had proven themselves worthy of reaching the finals, were finally faced up with each other. The game started with a great break, causing all of the balls to be well-scattered throughout the table. The game was so intense that the crowd restlessly cheered for both teams. After a while, both of the teams were finally left with only the black ball. The four players could feel the tense of being one step away from winning the tournament. Misses by misses, Ricardo was finally able to finish the game and win the tournament. The losing team was also cheered since they had played amazingly too impressing the crowd, but maybe luck was the only thing they’re lacking. Bob
and Ricardo each won the prize constisting of Stef Stuntpiloot and a few small bottles of Jägermeister, Baileys, and Gordon’s. Since they won the previous tournament as well, a few words from the winners about how to be good at playing pool: “Don’t play pool, get drunk. We somehow managed to win these tournaments without being sober.” Bob Mujis, as the chairman of the Freshman Committee, dedicates his victory to the Freshmen Committee. Hilton Nicholas Khorazon
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34â&#x20AC;&#x2026;ADVENTURES
>>
ADVENTURES OF THE 48TH BOARD > The first block is already over and so are the first exams of the academic year. As the board it feels like we have just started, but before you know it it will be Christmas. Looking back at the past period we have already made a lot of nice memories. The activities, such as PINKWIN, Penguin, First Years Day, the national econometric football tournament, the first social drink, etc. were fun and it was nice to meet a lot of students. Next to getting to know the ED members we also met the boards of other faculty associations at all the constitution drinks, where the ethos and the free drinks were definitely fine. Also we enjoyed our own constitution drink. Not everyone of the board remembers this night clear, but I know for sure everybody had a good time. Also our mace-bearer fulfilled his role very well, until
the moment the board from JFR found his weak moment and stole the staff. However, the mission we had to do to get the staff back is fortunately already accomplished. We want to thank all the people who were present for their beautiful presents and nice choice of booze. After the drink the party went on in club Hollywood. The pictures of that evening are not representative for everyone and therefore we will keep these for ourselves, unfortunately. On Wednesday the 9th of October we traveled to Groningen. There the Board Integration Days took place. During these days the board members of all the Econometric faculty associations in the Netherlands meet each other. There were people from Amsterdam, Maastricht,
Groningen and Rotterdam. Unfortunately, the board from Tilburg could not come. Because we were somewhat later than planned for some reason (the secretary missed the train), the welcome drink was already over when we arrived. However I can tell that no one had to worry about the amount of booze that day. We followed our way to the climbing walls where everybody showed their climbing skills. It looks not scary, because you are hanging on a rope, but still my legs, and I know for sure the boys felt this as well even though they will never admit it, were shaking. After the energetic activity everybody was hungry and therefore we all were delighted to hear that we were going to eat unlimited sushi. Of course it was delicious and when everybody had enough, it was time for a pubquiz in a cozy cafĂŠ.
The goal of this day, getting a close connection with the other board members, was taken very seriously, especially by our marketing officer.
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The pub quiz was somewhat too difficult and all the teams performed unfortunately very bad, but that does not mean that we had no fun. The last activity that day was experiencing the nightlife in Groningen what was really great. It was Wednesday night but every pub was busy and everything was open till the last person was gone. Groningen is a very nice city especially for students and we recommend going out there! The goal of this day, getting a close connection with the other board members, was taken very seriously, especially by our marketing officer.
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ADVENTURES
Furthermore, the 25th of October we went to Walibi for the whole weekend to get already in the mood for Halloween, because the fright nights were going on. It was very busy and the haunted houses were unfortunately already sold out. However, suddenly a little boy came to us and asked us if we wanted two tickets for The Villa, known as the scariest haunted house of the theme. He did not dare to go anymore. Isabelle and I were very happy with the tickets and getting all our courage together we followed our way to the house. We were a little bit excited, because you do not know what to
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expect. Moreover, I never thought I would be afraid, but once in the house Isabelle and I never screamed so loud. Every room had another theme/topic and the costumed people were great. They lashed out to us and followed us with bloody knifes and chainsaws. That night we ran to the exit chased by Frankenstein and finally arrived in our apartment we were very happy to see the boys (as we always do of course). At Saturday evening we went out for Dinner in Elburg, which was really nice. Furthermore, the only moment when there were no lines for the rollercoasters was in
the mornings. So, on Sunday morning we took for the last time all the roller coasters. Only the weather was not so nice that day and once we were in the Goliath, the highest roller coaster of the Benelux, it started to rain so hard that the roller coaster looked like a splash. We were drowned/flooded. However we had a good time and a fantastic weekend!
35
at our Facebook page! Moreover, keep your eyes open for all the events that are coming. The events in the first block were nice but we promise that the rest of the year will be great as well! Kim Wittekoek
Thursday the 31th of October our second social drink took place. It was again a beautiful evening and also very nice to see so many people. If you do not remember it so well anymore, view the photos
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36â&#x20AC;&#x2026;SOCIAL
POST-EXAM DRINK
After the first exams, there always is the Post-Exam Drink of the Econometrisch
As you can see, the pictures were awesome!
Dispuut. Succes is celebrated and sorrows are drowned!
> At fifty cents a drink, you cannot go wrong with a swift half-pint at the ED post exam drink, the second of the year. The venue was the delightful Cafe Divoza. Upon entering, the place was humming with laughter, stories and some post exam analysis. The Board in their smart attire of waistcoats were mixing with crowd of first, second and third years, taking plenty of photographs to capture the mood of the night. As more students poured in, the flirtatious barmaid happily supplied round after round of beers and wines. The freshmen committee popped out for a quick pizza, whilst others drunk more. Divoza was soon heating up, evidenced by the mountain of coats piled up by the entrance, a glass or two was dropped but the spirit
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continued. Several male students were sporting suits and ties and some of the ladies were wearing what seemed to be furs, others deciding to be more casual with jeans and t-shirt. As the night continued post drink plans were made and the party continued into the Rotterdam nightlife scenes. Whilst others had a rather shaky cycle back home in the rather brisk Halloween night. Safe to say, the scary thing about the Post Exam Drinks, is the spectre of a gruesome hangover the next morning! Brett Luke Rosenbaum
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STUDYSECTION
37
EDUCATIONBOARD > Dear students, A very warm welcome to the 100th academic year of this university on behalf of the Education Board of Erasmus School of Economics. One hundred years ago, the Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool (Netherlands School of Commerce) was initiated by Jacob Adolf Ruys, Cornelis Adriaan Pieter van Stolk and Willem Cornelis Mees, who managed to mobilise a sufficient number of Rotterdam business community members in order to facilitate this very establishment. The school’s name was changed, in the late thirties, to Nederlandse Economische Hogeschool (Netherlands School of Economics), which in turn was the predecessor in title of Erasmus School of Economics. Throughout this academic year various events are organised to celebrate this anniversary. We have already seen the Battle of the Bands, the successful University Library party (with Bakermat and Goldfish) and of course the Dies Natalis (where the change of rector ship had taken place; congratulations to Prof. Dr. H.A.P. Pols); more is yet to come. For those of you who are interested in these events, make sure you visit the Centennial Facebook page on a regular basis! Besides these celebratory events, study life moves on. But before I discuss study matters, I would like to congratulate Kevin Dalmeijer, who finished his Bachelor’s with a Summa Cum Laude result. Kevin is the very first graduated econometrician to achieve this outstanding performance in history, for which he was surprised to receive his Bachelor’s diploma from former Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende himself, during the Bachelor Graduation Days of last October. On behalf of the Education Board I of course hope many students will follow him in achieving this result. As from this academic year a new programme has started: BSc2. This programme is a combination of the International Bachelor Econometrics and Operations Research and International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics study programmes, which gives students the opportunity to finish both bachelor programmes in only four years. This prestigious programme consists of 20 students who all started in September. Altogether, we now have approximately 200 students following an Econometrics programme: the community has doubled compared to only four years ago. Not so long ago it was not clear what exactly the exchange options were for Econometrics students. I would like to let all of you know that every Econometrics student will have the opportunity to follow an exchange-programme abroad. Please know that for the BSc2 programme this is still under construction, but will be available just in time! This edition of Estimator is already the last one for 2013. Therefore, I would like to wish all of you good luck with the second block, and wonderful holidays after. Best regards, Philo Meerman Student member Education Board & First Ambassador Econometrics R: H6-01 E: meerman@ese.eur.nl
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ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
38 STUDYSECTION
EDUCATIONALCOMMITTEE >Dear fellow students, The results of the first block are all known by now and we have been working hard on the second block for a few weeks. We hope that you are satisfied with the results and keep up the good work until the Christmas holidays! To explain to all our new students, the Education Committee helps to improve the quality of the programme where possible. For example, we evaluate the courses halfway through the block and for the first year this is done by meeting with the lecturers of the courses. In these meetings we discuss the proceedings of the course and, if needed, try to adjust them for the remaining weeks. To get as much information about the courses as possible, we really need your feedback. This can either be done via SIN-online, the first year representatives or directly through one of the student members of the Education Committee. As announced in the previous Estimator, Luuk Maassen has left the Education Committee after three years. His successor is Tobias Polak, a second year student of the Econometrie bachelor and also teaching assistant for Precalculus and Calculus. Tobias will be the representative of the first and second years of the Dutch Econometrics and Jan of the first and second years of the international programme. Mechteld is the representative of the third year students and John for the master students. After the count on September 2nd the ESE staff came to the conclusion that this year a record-braking number of 198 students started the bachelor Econometrie. 39 students started the international Econometrics programme and there are 21 students who accepted the challenge of the BSc2 programme. We hope that this high number of starting students has not led to any organizational problems in the first year so far. If there are any problems please let us know because you are our main feedback source. Right on time with the centennial celebrations of our university, the ESE has commenced a brand new Bachelor Programme: BSc² is the fusion of the studies Econometrics and Operations Research and Economics and Business Economics in an interesting and challenging, four-year bachelor course. The first year is still very similar to the econometrics programme, but in the following years many IBEB courses are added to the familiar curriculum. After four years, graduates will then receive two Bachelor diplomas: one for Econometrics and one for IBEB. As said above, there are 21 first year students enrolled in this programme and five second year students have switched to the course from their original econometrics programme. During the Bachelor Graduation Day, on October 30th, many students received their Bachelor’s Degree. We would like to congratulate them and wish them a lot of success during their next steps that they will undertake! You can always contact one of us if you have any questions, problems and/or suggestions. Together with all students and lecturers we hope to make this another successful and memorable year! John Brouwer Mechteld Ferment Jan Radermacher Tobias Polak Student members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Dr. D. Fok Dr. C. Heij Dr. W. van den Heuvel Dr. M. van der Wel Staff members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Contact: oceconometrie@gmail.com
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39 STUDYSECTION WE CONGRATULATE ALL GRADUATES!
27-8-2013
9-9-2013
E.S.A. VAN ESSCHOTEN
A.K. QUIST
12-9-2013 T.H. THU TA
Testing HAC covariance matrix
Valuation of Cross-Border Physical
Market Illiquidity and the Cross-Secti-
estimators: an analysis of several
Transmission Rights in the Electricity
on of Mutual-Fund Returns
well-known kernels for a wide range
Market
W.W. THAM
of bandwidths
R. PAAP
12-9-2013
HOOGERHEIDE, L.
9-9-2013
W. RIJNVORDT
27-8-2013
R. HANSELAAR
Aethalides: A News Personalization
F.P.N NUGTEREN
Speculation as Explanation-Modeling
System for Financial Professionals
Researching individual credit rating
cacao prices by means of heterogene-
F. FRANSINCAR
models A marketing perspective of
ous agents’ behavior
credit scoring
D.J.C. VAN DIJK
16-9-2013
10-9-2013
Option strike effects on stock returns
28-8-2013
R.J.G. BOS
and volatilities
X. JI
Explain Sales Volumes Using Loca-
M. VAN DER WEL
Sampling of alternatives for discrete
tion Information
choice models
R. PAAP
16-9-2013
10-9-2013
Financial Globalization and Global
28-8-2013
R. VERSTEEGH
Stock Market Crashes
J.S.Y.S.Y. DJOHAN
Forecasting balanced international
H.J.W.G. KOLE
Improving order quantities at Henkel
trade flows
Benelux
R. DEKKER
17-9-2013
12-9-2013
Value-at-Risk estimation applied to
29-8-2013
T. DE ROOS
non-life insurance companies
A. MONDROM
Interest Rate Sensitivity of Commer-
R. PAAP
Forecast Support Tool for Sales
cial Real Estate Investments: Non-
Promotion Campaigns;Design, Imple-
Parallel Interest Rate Shifts
mentation and Evaluation
H.J.W.G. KOLE
L.H.E.T. KNOPS
D. FOK
S. DOS GOMES
J. BRINKHUIS
R. DEKKER
L.A.E. BRIËT
17-9-2013 S. LIAO Macroprudential Capital Require-
F. FRASINCAR
12-9-2013
ments and
29-8-2013
M.A. SNEIJDER
W.W. THAM
W.W. HOP
Tailspotting: Volatility Trading When
Web-shop Order Prediction Using
CEOs Fly to Their Vacation Homes
Machine Learning
W.W. THAM
M. VAN DER VELDEN
17-9-2013 N. KLOET The Relationship between consumer
12-9-2013
confidence and the stock market in
9-9-2013
V. BISHOEN
the European Union
S. WONG
Realized GARCH option pricing using
D.J.C. VAN DIJK
Combining Density Forecasts Using
the filtered historical simulation
Time-Dependent Combination
approach
Weights
M. VAN DER VELDEN
R. PAAP
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1 // ESTIMATOR
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
40â&#x20AC;&#x2026;STUDYSECTION WE CONGRATULATE ALL GRADUATES!
17-9-2013
18-9-2013
K. EL HATTABI
W. DE RIDDER
J.D. PORTABELLA
Analysis of Realized Volatility: Interde-
Robust Storage Assignment In 3D
The Role of Institutional Quality in
pendence, Contagion and Forecasting
Warehouses
Chinese Foreign Direct Investment
approach
R. DEKKER
in Africa
D.J.C. VAN DIJK
17-10-2013
N. BASTURK
18-9-2013 17-9-2013
J. HEIKOOP
S.C. BARENDSE
Economic Scenario Generation from a
An application of factor copula models
Hybrid Interest Rate and Equity Model
to hedge fund index returns*
M. JASKOWSKI
H.J.W.G. KOLE
19-9-2013 17-9-2013
S. IBISEVIC
C.A. KLEIJ
Information extracted from news,
A regime switching dynamic factor
returns and volatility
model for the swap term structure
M. VAN DER WEL
W.W. THAM
19-9-2013 17-9-2013
W. DE RIDDER
L.L. HU
Does combining models help with
Investor Sentiment on the Foreign
pricing of European options
Exchange Market
R. DEKKER
W.W. THAM
3-10-2013 17-9-2013
T. LUO
J.S. POORTA
Style-related Commonality in Liquidity
Bayesian VAR methods for forecasting
and Index Labels
UK inflation
W.W. THAM
A. PICK
3-10-2013 18-9-2013
I. VAN DAM
E.A. BRUENS
How Effective are Desegregation Poli-
Retaining and segmenting customers
cies in Education?The Case of Gouda
at an insurance company
D. WEBBINK
R. PAAP
17-10-2013 18-9-2013
A.C.E. DRIESSEN
N. M. FISCHER
The behavior of impulse indicator
Consumer attributes and heterogen-
saturation
eity in competitive position effective-
M. VAN DER WEL
ness for car insurance products P.H.B.F. FRANSES
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1 // ESTIMATOR
ECONOMETRISCH DISPUUT
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