Estimator Volume 16 Issue 4 by FAECTOR

volume 16 - issue 4

End of the Year Party

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p09 p10 p16 p17 p19

Alumnus Vertelt X-FAECTOR Committee Day All Options Football

ECONOMETRIE

preface

From the president Dear reader, You are currently reading the last Estimator of the year – what a pity – and as we’re in summer I am really curious to where you are reading this fancy publication. You may lie on the Spanish Costa Del Sol enjoying the sun and a cold drink, but reading the Estimator while taking a break from backpacking through Australia does sound quite relaxing too. I also heard that the American continent is quite popular, Chile and Mexico in particular, which are perfect fitting countries to read the Estimator while eating some spicy appetizers. However, possibly you are just reading this on your sagging couch in our small country famous for its representing colour: orange. That is not so bad though, as the countries mentioned above have a fine common denominator: by the time I am writing this, they all have been eliminated from Brazil’s World Cup 2014 by the enchanting Dutch squad! A great achievement. By the time you are reading this, they could be World Champions for the first time ever... Let’s hope so. Now let’s move to a more ED-related subject. I already used the word ‘last’ before, but that was not the last time I am using it in my last Estimator preface as the President of our association. As you know, FAECTOR is going to be the new ED and therefore this is the last Estimator of the Econometrisch Dispuut: antique within the shortest time! Unfortunately, a board year does not last forever. In less than two months, Bob, Felix, Diederik, Mats, Bob, Lars and last but not least Susanne, will be running the place. Yes indeed, they were the green decorated people singing a wonderful song at the End of the Year Party. With Lars present in the form of a crocodile, they officiously started their adventure of a board year: good luck guys, you will have an unforgettable year! Of course, you can find more about them in this edition of the Estimator. By the way, have you already noticed the new design of the Estimator? The new name is coming with a new branding, which you will in no time discover by yourself the upcoming months. It is getting time to read all other content such as the adventures of the 48th board, reports of – among others – the talent discovering X-FAECTOR drink, the Football Tournament and Alumnus Vertelt and not to forget a new Chef exhibiting his talents. Dear readers, on behalf of the 48th board of the faculty association Econometrisch Dispuut, I would like to thank you for your contribution to this fantastic year. Without such enthusiastic and pro-active members, we would not be having the joy in providing a year full of events for all students Econometrics in Rotterdam. Thank you, enjoy the summer and see you next year! Bas Vringer President Econometrisch Dispuut 2013/2014

Table of Contents

volume 16 - issue 4

Tournament 19 | Football 20 | Beerpong

Social 10 | X-FAECTOR

16 | Committee Day 18 | Third Years Day

10 19

Study Section 22 | Educational Committee 23 | Educationboard 24 | Graduates

Advertisements 00 | Studystore // 25 | Econometrie.com

Colofon Final Editig > Joris Blokland, Susanne Pols Editorial Office > Florine Groenen, Joris Blokland, Thomas van â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;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@faector.nl Aquisition > Max Schotsman, phone: 010 - 408 14 39 Circulation > 900 copies Printer > Nuance Print Design/DTP FAECTOR. Estimator is a periodical from FAECTOR

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FAECTOR

preface

Preface Estimator Committee Wishing you a happy holiday!

Dear reader, The year is (finally, for some of us) coming to an end and summer has arrived. At this right moment, most of us probably got sunburned, tanned or for the unfortunate ones, stayed inside all day, because of the exams coming up. This also means that we have to say goodbye to the current board and hello to the new board. From the Estimator Committee we would like to wish them lots of fun and luck for the upcoming year (More about the new board can be found under ‘who is who?’). But also, our year as committee members is coming to an end unfortunately. Our last articles are almost finished and we are excited about this last edition. Especially, the articles about the Inhouse Day at All Options or one of the other Inhouse Days that took place. Also, don’t forget to read our column about unknown Rotterdam.

Finally, we as the Estimator Committee would like to wish all of you loads of fun during summer and lots of luck with the resits afterwards, if any. Especially our first years, since they of course need to get their 60 credits. And to the graduates of this year, which we might not see again that often anymore. Good luck to you all! And as always, happy reading! The Estimator Committee of 2013-2014

Who is who?

49th Board

Hey everyone! My name is Lars van Kempen, currently 19 years old and I will fill the position of Educational Officer this year for FAECTOR. I was born in the south of Holland but I only lived there for the first three years of my life. So I’m very to disappoint, but no accent! Instead, I have grown up in a very international environment, having done my secondary school at the European School of Bergen. Currently I’m finishing my second year of the International Bachelor of Econometrics and Operations Research programme and I live in Rotterdam. My biggest hobby is sports, having practice(d) various of them, ranging from basketball to football to tennis. I also however, like to have a couple of beers and to go out. This year I’ll mainly be busy with organising various events and activities for FAECTOR, so make sure to keep an eye out for events like the International Research Project (IRP), Best Econometric Thesis Award (BETA) and the famous beerpong tournament! VOLUME 15 ISSUE 4 // ESTIMATOR

Hi the name is van Rijn, Mats van Rijn. A few weeks ago I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse, to become the career Officer of the FAECTOR board. A board year is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. As Career Officer I will organize events such as: The Econometric Career Days, Orientation Days, Find Your Match, the Quantitative Finance Tour and more. These are the projects you are looking for. Go ahead… subscribe for some career activities, make my day. Rotterdam, we have a problem. Someone forgot that the first rule of FAECTOR is –you do not talk about ED. The second rule of FAECTOR is – you DO NOT talk about the ED. THIS IS FAECTOR! Unfortunately, being a board member could mean that I have to get up early. That’s why I love the smell of coffee in the morning. Luckily, a big part of a board year are social activities. Sometimes during career activities I think: why so serious? But no, career activities are my precious. This is my last chance. After this, there is no turning back. If I take the orange pill my store ends. If I take the green pill - We stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. There are a couple of movie references in this part. Spot them, you can? Hasta la vista baby!

Dear members, At the moment I’m writing this introduction of myself I’m struggling with my bachelor thesis and desperately looking forward to the summer break and the upcoming board year. When you read this Estimator, you are hopefully enjoying your well-deserved summer break after having enjoyed the amazing End of the Year Party, where the new board was announced. Or perhaps for the less lucky ones, you are working hard on your resits. But remember, after you’ve worked hard, you can also play hard! My name is Felix Mourer, 20 years old and I have the honour to be the secretary of the 49th board of FAECTOR. I was born in Germany, but have lived almost my entire life near or in Rotterdam. After becoming a member of the Almanac Committee, I found out that being a board member is a lot of fun and a great opportunity to develop yourself. Currently I am in my third year and will hopefully start my master Quantitative Finance next year. However, I think that I will put most of my time and energy in our amazing faculty association. As secretary I will keep in touch with you through mail or social media, but I am also looking forward to see you at the FAECTOR office or during the events, whether these are drinks, tournaments or career activities.

FAECTOR

5 Ni Hao,

Dear FAECTOR member, My name is Bob Muijs and I will be the president of the 49th board of FAECTOR. Please do not mistake me for Bob Maks, who is the Commercial Officer. He is better known as Robbert. This year, I will have the pleasure of working with some extremely creative fellow board members, as you can tell by their introductions. Unfortunately, I am not that creative, so I will try to keep this article as cliché as possible. By the way, I was able to find thirteen movie references in Mats’ article. I grew up in the always tropical Twente, in Enschede. This might explain my accent for whoever notices I have one (who does not?). Contrary to popular belief, being from Enschede does not make me German. I just finished the second year of the BSc² programme. My tasks for the upcoming year are mainly to guide the board and represent FAECTOR. Besides that, we will start planning the upcoming lustrum and of course we have to promote the name change. That’s it for now; I promise I am more interesting if you talk to me in real life. I’ll see you at the social drinks! Bob Muijs P.S. Do not forget to apply for one (or more) of our many awesome committees!

Hi everyone! My name is Diederik Mathol and I’m 20 years old. I am a third year econometrics student and this year I’m finishing my bachelor. Next year I will be the treasurer of the 49th board. In the previous years I really enjoyed going to all the drinks and tournaments and enjoyed participating in other events organised by the ED/FAECTOR. I am raised in the fantastic but small Wassenaar so moving to a big city like Rotterdam was a big change! Luckily I moved with two friends with who I still live today. After my board year I will probably do the master Quantitative Finance. Beside my study I love to play hockey, spending time with my friends and watching some cool TV series. In the summer I also love to spend time on the beach or at the kralingse plas, therefore I also try to spend some time in the gym. I look forward to work together with the rest of the 49th board to make it a great year and hope to meet you all in person next year when you come get your books at the Booksale!

Never has there been a FAECTOR board before. Going to be the first time this year! Give my full potential this year I will. You dear reader, specially for you I will be the commercial officer of FAECTOR. Up will the amount of partners go, no new company will be able to resist my charm. Never in the history of this great association have Dear readers, there been cooler companies. Going to be awesome this year! My name is Susanne Pols and I’m going to be the new Let we take moment and Marketing Officer. I live close all think about the previous to Divoza, so after the drinks, commercial officers and the tournaments and other activities great work they have done. organized by FAECTOR, I only You have all experienced the have to roll and I’m home. In amazing inhousedays and my spare time I like to have a other company activities made couple of drinks with my friends possible by these brilliant and run or row a couple of times people the last few years. a week. To all the girls out there, Down from that great history come visit me at the office to is simply not an option, hence help me stand up to all those its up to me to expand upon guys and show that we girls will this prolific legacy. Never can rule FAECTOR. So lets agree on this be abandoned, ignored or one thing, I will make sure this forgotten. will be an awesome year for you and you will join all of our Gonna be a good year, best fantastic events. Guys, don’t year, cool year. Run for one of worry I am not forgetting you! If the incredible committees and you really want to impress me come to the fantastic social you should mow the FAECTOR drinks. Around the world there logo in the biggest field around. are tremendous opportunities In the upcoming year, I hope to for econometricians, you just see you all at the events and the have to grasp it. And of course, room. But for now, enjoy your have an amazing time studying. summer holidays and don’t Desert the rest and engulf forget your most astonishing thyself in the intriguing world of photo for the photo contest, econometrics, companies dig make me happy! econometricians. You can do it! Now read every first word of each sentence. Ciao, Bob Maks

CAREER

Inhouse Day

SAS On the 2nd of May we visited the SAS Institute at their mansion in Huizen, where we were welcomed with a delicious lunch. SAS is the leader in business analytics and offers software solutions worldwide. After being part of the SAS forum 2013 in the NBC Congrescentrum in Nieuwegein last October, it was now time for their Inhouse Day. After the lunch we went to a fancy lecture room, there we had a presentation about the ins and outs of SAS, from their history until their recent developments. SAS (Statistical Analysis System) has his own software package, which is known by many companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s but less known under students.

In the last couple of years they are trying to focus more on students, so students have the change to gain some

knowledge on their software before graduating. After the presentation, we were handed a case in which we could use their software for the first time. The case was about considering what type of customers the supermarket has to focus their Champagne advertisement on, whether it was on their gold members, silver members or their more unregular customers. We made groups of four, two were trying to make some predictions for the sales in the advertisement, where the other

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two more focused on the data itself. Together we made the conclusion which we presented. For the best group there was a price, which suited the case: a bottle of Champagne. The day ended with the possibility to chat with the

employees of SAS while having a drink. Besides that we also received a little tour through the SAS institute. Thanks to the people of SAS, we all had a great and above all a very informative day. Jelle Geerts

FAECTOR

CAREER

Zanders After visiting SAS a few days ago in their unusual office in a manor, twenty enthusiastic students visited the company Zanders on the 6th of May. Zanders is an independent firm with a track record of innovation and success across the

After being welcomed with tea, coffee, cookies and more, one of the partners gave us an extensive presentation about Zanders. In the presentation he first explained what divisions they had and what they involved.

After doing so he gave us a taste of the problems each division faced on a daily basis and how to solve them. They also informed us about your career path at Zanders. Two econometric students of Rotterdam, who are currently working there, were present.

Inhouse Day

total spectrum of Treasury & Finance. Zanders creates value with their specialist expertise and independence. The office of this company was once again unusual and located in a really beautiful villa.

So if you wanted to know more about working at Zanders during your study you could ask them. Now that we had slight knowledge of the Zanders way, it was our turn. We were divided in groups of four or five persons to work on a case. The case had a popular background, namely soccer. The purpose of the case was to valuate the four soccer clubs Ajax, Real Madrid, Juventus and Dortmund. After that, you had to rank them according to their determined value. To get to this value, we had to choose several indicators and indicate how important these indicators were. To do this, we received four reports with a lot of information and data on the clubs. After each team came up with an own ranking system, it was time to present the results. After some interesting presentations, it was the group consisting of Bas Vringer, Tim van der Zaan, Jun Xian Weng and myself who convinced the investors the most. For this performance, they were rewarded with a big bottle of vodka per person. At the end they explained to us how Zanders would have handled the case and what their results would be, so we could see how you really had to deal with this kind of valuing.

After all this excitement, they arranged a nice barbecue for us. Here we got the chance to talk to one of the partners, the recruiter and a few employees while enjoying the good food. All in all, it was a really nice, fun and especially an informative day! Remy Broekmans

SOCIAL

Chef

Kevin Wardhana After having western food for the last 2 meals, we finally decided to have a unique oriental cuisine as the target for our last chef of the year. On Thursday, 22nd of May, Kevin, a first year international student, decided to show us some

of the favourite food from Indonesia. He was expecting our arrival, and therefore prepared us a meal from almost 4 hours beforehand. It was a meal that all of us had been waiting for and indeed it was worth the wait.

The first meal, the appetizer, was the famous “Sate Lilit”. It was a mix of the pangasius fish and shrimp paste, which was actually native to Indonesian cuisine.

most people in Rotterdam might not even have a clue how good does it actually is. It had really succeeded in filling the role of “appetizer”, as it made us crave for the next meals, inpatient for another spectacular meal.

Although it looks just like a normal fishcake, it actually contains lemongrass, ginger, galangal, candlenuts, shallots, garlic and coriander leaves, which gives a combination of different vibrant taste. It was served cold, which made it feels even more fresh and juicy. It tasted so unique that

From far away we could see a huge pot which emitted a strong chicken aroma. It smelled very nice but somehow it’s not what we encounter a lot. Kevin revealed that it’s an “Ayam Gulai”, another one of the traditional Indonesian food. It was boiled with coconut milk, together with red chilli, shallots, garlic, coriander, cumin, ginger, galangal and turmeric. It looked a bit similar to Indian curry, but with so much aqueous sauce that it could be considered a soup. It was served with rice, which was cooked along with the pandan leaf that gives a rich taste. Kevin also served us a small bowl of sambal, which was oddly soft green instead of the usual red colour. It was a special chilli sauce made from cayenne pepper and some mashed shrimps. You should be warned though, not underestimate that pepper’s intensity by any case. The chicken that Kevin cooked was incredible, with its fantastic curry-like soup, a very spicy yet tasty sambal, and the perfect rice just for this meal. We could hardly stop ourselves from eating the chicken, which was enormous and plenty, as it tasted simply amazing. We barely had any room left for

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dessert. Finally, Kevin made shaved ice with brown beans for dessert. As the name says, it was a glass of rasped ice with brown beans on top of it, coated with condensed milk and syrup. It was sweet and fresh at the same time, a very suitable desert after those heavyweight meals earlier. It was a splendid dinner at Kevin’s, and a very delightful night afterwards. Hilton

FAECTOR

CAREER

Inhouse Day

Alumnus Vertelt An alumnus is a former student Econometrics, who is now graduated! On the 27th of May 2014, we had the pleasure that the number of six alumni were willing to come back to university and tell something about how they use Econometrics in their daily life. The day started with RobertJan van der Mark from Aegon Asset Management, a company active in the fields of finance.

He told that he and his department were responsible for managing assets worth over 19 billion euros. So, if you like big responsibility and managing big amounts of assets, Aegon Asset Management is definitely something for you. Then the floor was for Maarten Peekstok from ORTEC, which is active in logistic problems. Maarten

already started working at ORTEC in his second year of study as an assistant. He really liked working at ORTEC and after graduation he continued as full-time employee. He also told that he has worked for six month is the U.S.A., so there are a lot of international possibilities. As expected the presentation from someone working in the marketing industry was looking good and of course had a lot of visual material. Abdel Ichou from MIcompany is working in the field of quantitative marketing or as he states: “Booming Business”. MIcompany is a still growing company and also looking for new starters! After the break Marc Jansen from Flow Traders was giving a presentation. Flow Traders is a trading firm and that is what they do basically the whole day. Buying and selling in split seconds to make as much money as possible is the daily life of a trader. Where trading is mainly for your own business, is consulting at Capgemini mainly for clients. Irma Tempelaar, a former board member, is consultant at Capgemini and works day in day out for her clients. As she’s telling, no day is the same as the other, because all the clients are different and they demand different things from you. So, if you’re looking for a various job, think about Capgemini. Then it was time for the last speaker of the day, Remco Rothkrantz who is working at Kempen & Co. Kempen & Co is a Dutch

investment bank, a real finance firm thus.

Big deals and trades are daily business at Kempen, so if you’re real into this, don’t hesitate and apply for an internship or as starter at Kempen & Co! The day ended with an informal drink, where everyone could ask their questions and have a chat with the alumni. I think that everyone had a nice day, and that they are a little closer to their dreamjob! Joris Blokland

SOCIAL

Party

X-FAECTOR In the history of ED drinks were I personally have been present at, the drink never lasted as long as it did after this year’s fourth block. Also, the drink was never so much fun as this one, which might actually explain the first. Since the drinks are already known as being crazy fun, I am assuming you are wondering now, what the key ingredient was which made this one stand out.

The answer is very simple, just give econometricians the possibility to sing

karaoke. Turns out we love to either embarrass ourselves or show ourselves off. As soon as the first person entered, people were singing their favorite songs on the stage in Divoza. And the X-FAECTOR was actually present a lot

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of times. Although, they got compensated by others, and to be honest, including myself. From Eckhart (definitely worth mentioning) singing No Woman, No Cry to songs from the 70’s and current top 40 hits, one thing all performances had in common, is that the songs were sang with passion. And of course such an evening can never end without singing Brabant with everyone together,

while forming this one big group. I wonder if anyone song ‘Het Rotterdamlied’ as well, but the average attendee would probably not remember. But maybe, instead of writing this article, it is probably better to give you a look at some of the awesome pictures taken on this night… Florine Groenen

FAECTOR

SOCIAL

The 49th Board

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FAECTOR

ASSOCIATION

Adventures of the

48th Board Finally; the summer holidays have started! Now it’s time to do all the things you wanted to do during the year but had no time for yet, most likely because of all the hard studying and all other activities next to your study. Have you missed it: being bored and do not know what the hell to do with all your spare time? Well, we did not really miss it, but the time for us as a board of the ED is coming to an end, and thus times of

The new board should be a happy with us, as we had a spring cleaning moment at the end of April. All unnecessary folders, documents and other stuff (over more than seven years old) in our room H10-05 and our meeting room H10-03 were thrown away. We even found folders out of the year 1986, when there were barely no computers yet and the board had to write everything down. At such moments you realize that we are privileged with the technology we have these days. Moreover, we found some nice old photobooks and Almanacs, which were very funny and nice to go through.

boredom are coming closer for the seven of us. Better known as the black hole.. During the fantastic End of the Year Party the new FAECTOR board was announced accompanied by their beautiful self-written song and spectacular video. No worries if you missed the announcement, because you can enjoy our new and sexy board for a whole year long as of upcoming September.

One of the many great events we experienced this year was the Blacklight Party at Toffler on the 7th of May. Before the party, we went out for dinner with the boards of the study associations MFVR (medicin) and JFR (law) at pizzeria Caffé Italia. After enjoying the dinner we put on something white and went to Toffler. The guests arrived early and the party went on whole night.

The cooperation with the MFVR and JFR was successful and we hope you enjoyed the party as much as we did! Furthermore, the Excelsior Football Students Cup took place on the 8th of April. All the study associations and fraternities of Rotterdam joined the cup and competed for the first place. Also the ED was represented with a team (including a board member) full of talent and appeared to be one of the strongest teams . They made it to the finals, but lost during a penalty shoot-out against the football association Antibarbari and finished second. However, our

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members of the ED, known as the biggest nerds of the Erasmus University who only love sitting behind a computer and are the worst at playing sports, definitely performed very well! The 14th of May the seven of us travelled to Amsterdam to participate in the Board Integration Days (BID). In this event, we meet the 5 other boards of the Econometric study associations in the Netherlands. We started with a game called ´Baantjer´, based on the Dutch series with ‘De Cock met c-o-c-k’ and Vledder. We were divided into

FAECTOR

ASSOCIATION

five groups and had to find answers at some questions in the red light district to solve a murder case. The weather was really nice that day and the game was a fun way to get to know each other. After the game we ate a pizza and ended the day, as expected, in a pub. Well, five of us ended the day in a pub. Joris and Bas were the fittest of us that night and ended in a club, leaving Amsterdam around 5am so that they could just take the already going metro home in Rotterdam. I am sure I can speak on behalf of the board when I say that we are going to miss all the invitations to drinks, parties and other trips as a board. Unfortunately, we have to pay again for all the parties next year and even worse: studying will start again. We had a wonderful year and this left us with beautiful memories.

One of these moments is captured in the picture on the

page of Committee Day, as our treasurer in a Cool Cat fitting room scored points with Crazy 88 during the Active Members Day!

looking forward to it. For now, we would like to thank you for the fantastic year and wish you a great holiday! Oh, I almost forget to say the following: do not forget to take your FAECTOR sticker with you to make the craziest photo on your holiday and win ten drinks for the first social drink! Kim Wittekoek

But not to forget, we are not completely done with the journey through our amazing year yet. During the summer holidays, our Educational Officer Isabelle will have an amazing trip with the International Research Project (IRP) 2014 to Singapore, Malaysia and South-Korea. They will travel with a group of eleven enthusiastic students who have already worked hard during their internships to earn this fantastic trip. Next to IRP, the three introduction events, PINKWIN, PENGUIN and the Eurekaweekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, will take place in August where we will meet the new first year econometrics students. We are already

ASSOCIATION

Teamwork

Committee Day Crazy 88 is a game predominantly played in the Netherlands in accordance with the crazy lifestyle this country has. Thursday the 15th of May was now the second time I had played this game since moving to the country to study and I now consider myself a seasoned professional. The game consists of a list of 88 different challenges of which you must try to complete as many as you can as you travel around Rotterdam. Each

From attempting to engulf the large fountain on the Coolsingel roundabout in shampoo foam to attending a wedding and getting in some of the photos, the game had the lot.

As my group and I walked through Rotterdam we managed to catch glimpses of other teams, busy at work on some other challenge, which only motivated us further to try to get as many points as possible and win the coveted glory

the victors receive.

challenge was worth a different number of points, respective of their relative difficulty. The active members of the Econometrisch Dispuut were grouped together in their own committees and were sent on this epic quest to see which team was the most adventurous and daring of them all!

would

Each team was to keep track of their progress by taking photographic evidence of the completion of a task. You may understand some of the bizarre looks we got when, for example, Florine Groenen emerged from the changing rooms of H&M looking like something straight out of the Flinstones, to be photographed by a chuckling bunch of econometricians. Once sundown was upon us, the active members regrouped at the restaurant Amigos, just off of the Coolsingel. Amigos is a wonderful Mexican restaurant where with the Rotterdam pass you can have all you can eat for just â&#x201A;Ź2.50! We were completely in our element as we were served lashings of full fat Mexican delicacy of which the

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very thought of just makes my mouth water even now. Many hours rushed by as we enjoyed our food before the dessert was served (just standard ice cream, not Mexican, but still good) and people began to say their farewells. The following Monday the photos and videos were cast in and the winners were announced, but like always, not committee days was without a bit of controversy. Yes dear reader, it turns out the ever innocent Activities Committee had in fact cheated and was therefore stripped of their winning prize. Inevitably,

the winners were then us: the Estimator Committee. So it is with great honour that I hereby accept the glory but in turn give it back. Back to whom I hear you ask? Well, to you, for it is you who have stuck by us this year and it is with you now that I humbly share this moment of triumph, celebrating not only this victory, but this great year we have spent together. you would like to get to know your fellow students better. Lars van Kempen

FAECTOR

CAREER

All Options

Inhouse Day

Trading undoubtedly belongs to the interests, if not passion, of many econometric students part of our association. For those people the in-house day at AllOptions provided the perfect opportunity to enter the world of option trading, getting familiar with its concepts and work environment.

At 13:00 on Tuesday the 3rd of June, all of the interested students gathered at Rotterdam Centraal, from which our journey to Amsterdam began. The train proved to be one of various methods of transportation, taking a tram and crossing the last distances by foot as well. Luckily, it turned out to be a smooth and easy enough trip, as we arrived well in time at AllOptions in Amsterdam. We were welcomed into their spacious lobby, which unfortunately for some of our participants only contained a toilet marked as “private”. After several minutes of a desperate quest looking for another loo, our host for the day arrived. A kind lady welcomed us up to the fourth floor, where she quickly presented the company and gave the word to two traders currently employed there. As soon as the traders started speaking, all eyes were eagerly

focussed on the slides they presented, looking to soak up all information thrown at us. Basic concepts of trading were quickly discussed and examples were given. Concepts such as “the Greeks” came by, which would prove of importance later in what was still to come.

where to look! Of course, this was only a basic case…

Once all theory was explained and had processed into our brains, we were presented with a case. For the case we were asked to calculate theoretical Profit and Loss (Pnl) outcomes of several scenarios. This proved to be a challenge to some, to others it seemed like second nature. For times’ sake we were provided with the correct methods and solutions after an hour of brainstorming, calculating and discussing. It turned out that, like many things, the solution was definitely doable if you’d know

This test contained three different categories: Simple calculation questions, followed by rather challenging series and several more complicated calculation questions. These all had to be done in our heads, without the possibility to write down intermediary steps, in a mere 4 minutes! Once finally all brainwork had been completed, a tour on the trading floor followed. The trading floor occupied one level of their building,

As if our brains hadn’t been tested enough, we then proceeded with a maths test.

trading employees, each of which used 5 computer screens, all filled with data and news in order to keep up with any possible real time changes in the world economy. We finished the tour just before 1730, as a drink with most of their employees followed when the trading floors closed. Cold beverages and snacks were presented, and we got to familiarize with the traders. They turned out to be a very young and jolly group of people, some of which have studied econometrics themselves, sometimes at the Erasmus Univeristy! After about an hour of social activities, the drink came to an end. This meant it was time for us to venture back into the public transport of Amsterdam in order to arrive back home. Some of us decided to rush, in order to catch the earliest Fyra (Intercity Direct) back, as they had had their share of the city. Others opted it’d be easier to take their time and simply catch a train whenever they arrived at the station, being directly after the drink or after a possible dinner in Amsterdam. Lars van Kempen

completely filled with many computer screens used by

SOCIAL

Teamwork

Third Years Day On May 28th a group of around fifteen third year’s students went to the famous pub Melief Bender, located on the Oude Binnenweg, to enjoy an event where only third year´s econometricians were welcome.

At nine ‘o clock the first third years dropped in and after receiving some snacks the first special beers came to the tables and a short introduction about its history, origin and taste was given. Sadly, after the first two beers, Melief Bender became very crowded and the bartenders didn’t have time anymore to tell us some interesting facts about the special beers. Fortunately, there was also a pub quiz and the econometricians thought that they would win this easily, because the average visitor of the pub looked less smart and a lot of people also joined the New Year´s Pub Quiz in the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, the pub quiz consisted only of naming the songs with corresponding artists of songs that were produced before most of the third years were born.

However, this didn’t have any effect on the atmosphere in the group, since the special beers and snacks continued to arrive at our tables. In general, special beers like ´Trappistenbier´ have a large amount of alcohol than the normal ´pils´, we always drink during the regular drinks at Divoza. So, a lot of the third year´s became a bit tipsy and people went home after having a great and informative evening. Felix Mourer

VOLUME 15 ISSUE 4 // ESTIMATOR

FAECTOR

SOCIAL

Football

Tournament

On the 22nd of May the annual ED Football Tournament took place at the fields of Excelsior. The sun was shining, plenty of sport drinks were available and Isabelle was cheering

for all the teams. What do you need more for a fantastic tournament?

The large number of 8 teams were divided in two groups, so every team was playing at least 3 matches. Not only students were participating, there also was a team consisting of teachers. Just like me, you’d probably think that econometric teachers aren’t any good at sports at all. But after the basketball tournament, where they played as a trained team, I changed my mind. And again, the professors proved the prejudices wrong and survived the group stages.

it became a win for “Met een Palmke”. Congratulations to Bas, Bob, Daan, Luc and Gijs!

After the group matches were over, it was time for the semi-finals. Luckily for the teams who didn’t make it to the semi-finals, there was something else to do. To let everyone know when the games began, a big sound

system with a microphone was used. Of course, you’ll likely to understand what happened, everyone was eager to scream something through the microphone and get their moment of fame. This was good for some hilarious moments and added that little extra to the tournament! The winners of the semi-finals, logically, were playing the finals.

“Met een Palmke” vs. “Players” were the two teams playing for the everlasting glory. It was a good match with awesome goals and a high pace, a real finale! Eventually,

Joris Blokland

SOCIAL

Tournament

Beerpong At the fourth of June the yearly ED Beer Pong Tournament took place at Beurs. One pair after the other walked in around half past seven confident they had a shot at winning the desirable ‘Lam’ Trophy. Every pair representing a country contesting in

the world championship football willing to give up a productive morning the next day to shine at the tournament of the year.

Already before all the rules were explained and the first game had started the competitive tension rose to high levels. Each player got the flag of the country they played for painted on the cheek to show that from then on there was nothing as such called friends anymore within the ED. All pairs were divided over eight groups according to the division of the world championship. Since I guess most students are well familiar with the basic rules of beer pong I would only

The first matches were just awful to look at, everybody seemed to struggle with anxiety.

like you to inform you about two special rules that in the end unexpectedly turned out to be crucial for some countries. The first one: if the ball bounces and you get it in one of the opponent’s cups, the opponent has to empty two of them. The second special rule was that if both players of the team threw the ball into the same cup, the opponent even had to drink three. After the rules had been clearly announced it was time to leave the provoking looks behind and let the games begin.

The balls flew all over the place and some players had a higher chance of hitting a cup when aiming at the neighbour’s table. However, already during the second match in the group stage the level began to change. After a couple of pints the contesters started to unwind and some matches of high quality were played. The barkeeper of Beurs was stunned and admitted that he had never seen so much beer pong talent before. Unfortunately due to unknown reasons the level of beer pong dropped after the group stages were finished. As the tournament continued

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two countries caught the eye of the viewers. Algeria existing out of Erwin van Wingerden and Joris Wagenaar smoothly made it into the final together with Germany which had only just won the previous matches. Joris Blokland and Max Schotsmand were twice lucky to both throw the ball into same cup of the opponent while they were three to two behind. But then again how is it not possible when you are representing Germany. The final itself was not as thrilling as expected. Only a few players were able to put their disillusions aside and watch it, while many others had forgotten why they had come to Beurs in the first place. The final was sadly enough easily won by the Germans, who took over the ‘Lam’ trophy of two of their former board members. Lars van Kempen

FAECTOR

SOCIAL

Party

End of the Year The End of the Year Party took place on June 24 in Thalia Lounge. With the presentation of the new FAECTOR Board, drunk econometric students and good music it was a hell of a night!

ASSOCIATION

Study Section

Educational committee Dear fellow students, The academic year is already coming to an end. We hope you have reached the goals and dreams you set for yourself this year. We can look back at another busy academic year with the centennial of the Erasmus University, the start of the BSc squared programme and the announcement of great changes in the BSc program taking effect next academic year. Also, there will be changes in the Education Committee. John will leave the committee because he will soon finish his Master’s programme and we would like to thank John for all his efforts for the committee over the last two years! John: “I have been a student member of the Education Committee for 2 years and a lot of big changes have happened in those years. Nominal is normal (60-credit-rule) was introduced, so a lot of attention had to be paid to the effect that had on how achievable the first year is. Furthermore, in the year I started as a student member the first group of international students started in the Econometrics programme. With that came a lot of work to ensure the high quality standards of the ESE is met for that programme as well. Next to those big chances we have never lost sight of the details, for example when the amount of time between two exams was in our eyes insufficient. I greatly enjoyed representing my fellow students in those situations, and I am sure that the student members of the Education Committee will keep on doing a great job representing the students long after I have left the university.” John’s parting from the Education Board leaves of course a vacant spot that will be filled with another highly motivated candidate whose name will be announced in September. Furthermore, the newly established exchange opportunities for third year students give rise to another change in the composition of the Education Board as of next year. Tobias will spend the first two blocks studying in Southern France (Aix-en-Provence) and thus will not be able to represent his fellow students during that time. Moreover,

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by December Jan will have been a member of the Education Board for two years as of January 2015 and is ready to pass the torch on to a successor. Resolvingly, Tobias and Jan will share a position in the Education Board next year, that is, Jan will still be a member for the first two blocks and Tobias will take over in the third block. This result in another open spot in the committee and we can proudly claim that we have found a second very suitable candidate. We are already enthusiastically looking forward to presenting you the two new candidates in September. We would like to wish you an enjoyable summer and are looking forward to seeing you in the new academic year! Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions about our work or encounter systematic problems in the programme. Best regards, John Brouwer Mechteld Ferment Jan Radermacher Tobias Polak Student members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Dr. C. Heij Dr. W. van den Heuvel Dr. R. Spliet Dr. M. van der Wel Staff members of the Education Committee Econometrics & Operational Research Contact: oceconometrie@gmail.com

FAECTOR

Study Section

Educationboard Dear students, In this last Estimator of the academic year, I am writing my first column as First Ambassador. I am very glad to be the successor of Philo Meerman as student member of the Education Management and First Ambassador of Econometrics. At the bottom of this column, you will find my contact details. In this column, I would like to look back at the last few months of this academic year as well as take a look forward to the upcoming academic year. The past year has been dominated by the celebration of the centennial of the Erasmus School of Economics. In the last months, several activities and events have taken place. The Erasmus Charity run was a great success and a fantastic amount of € 10,036.30 was raised for charitable foundation ‘Playing for Success Excelsior’. Furthermore, the centennial conference day in May offered 60 students of the Erasmus School of Economics the opportunity to attend several exclusive master classes. On the 24th of May, the campus was open for visitors. Visitors could attend mini-lectures, demonstrations, games and join in sports. The program of the Erasmus School of Economics attracted about 80 visitors. Coming September a new academic year starts. The upcoming year, bachelor students of econometrics will have the possibility to go on an exchange without experiencing study delay due to missing their semester. Some of you will study a semester abroad, others will start the year with a minor. Some of you are currently finishing their Bachelor, can call themselves ‘Bachelor of Science’ in September while starting a master. Do not forget to apply for the Bachelor Graduation Day to celebrate this accomplishment with a joyful ceremony! The Erasmus School of Economics has introduced a new honours programme for the upcoming academic year: The Bachelor Honours Research Class. This extra-curricular

programme is for bachelor students with the motivation, potential and ambition to start a career in research. During the program, each honours student works as an assistant for one of the academic staff members and will contribute to existing or new research. The new program offers the possibility to get familiar with the work in academic spheres. Perhaps you are finishing your studies at the Erasmus School of Economics, perhaps you are taking a gap year or maybe you are just going to continue your current studies. At least it is certain that right now, all of you are either studying for the re-sits or already enjoying the well-deserved summer break. On behalf of the Education Management I wish you all the best with the re-sits and enjoy your summer! Best regards, Margot Wolters Student member of the Education Board & First Ambassador Econometrics R: H 6-25 T: +31 10 408 2978 E: wolters@ese.eur.nl

ASSOCIATION

Study Section

Congratulations to all graduates! 03-Apr-14 Kristian Cörvers

08-May-14 Myrthe van Dieijen

05-June-14 Frederik Campagne

Doing more then less

Volatility spillovers across stock returns and user-generated content

Out of Sample Performance of Factor Copulas

Goos, P.

19-June-14 Duco Montauban van Swijndrecht Forecasting workload at Fokker’s repairshop

Dijk, D.J.C. van Franses, Ph.H.B.F.

Jaarsveld, W. van

03-Apr-14 Erik Hessing

22-May-14 Marcus van de Wetering

18-June-14 Hui-Fang Hsueh

Examining oil price dynamics using heterogeneous expectations

“A Risk-Based Passenger Screening Security Architecture optimized against adaptive threats”

Pipeline stock and lateral transshipment flexibility with two demand classes

Dijk, D.J.C. van

Gabor, A.F.

Jaarsveld, W. van 03-Apr-14 Ko Verstraten

22-May-14 Bas Poot

19-June-14 Yuchen Li

Asset allocation strategies A Simulation Approach in a Defined Contribution Plan

Improving inventory management at Huisman Global Services

Mean-variance and 1/N allocation in a limited investment universe: An application to the Dutch equities market

Diris, B.

Gabor, A.F. Diris, B.

03-Apr-14 Emin Younan

22-May-14 Susanne Reijndorp

19-June-14 Bart Groenenweg

Can Investors Profit from CEO Vacation Trips?

Data imputation in brand positioning studies

“Common Risk Factor In Infrastructure Returns: A Latent Factor Approach”

Tham, W.W.

Paap, R. Kole, H.J.W.G.

17-Apr-14 Svetlana Tokunova

05-June-14 Mathijs Hagenouw

19-June-14 Freek Klein

A Comparative Study on the Effects of Corruption on FDI

The Investment Opportunities Posed by Bubble Detection Methods

Empirical study of household TV viewing behaviour

Kole, E.

Velden, M. van der

Basturk, N.

VOLUME 15 ISSUE 4 // ESTIMATOR

FAECTOR

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Send your picture to marketing@faector.nl and win ten drinks for the first social drink in one of the catogories!

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