Financial Innovations and Derivatives

Dear Colleagues,

There has been an explosion of new financial products over the last two and half decades. Some of these products were created to improve access to different investment choices, while many others were created for the purpose of speculation disguised in the form of risk transfer tools. Much research has been conducted on credit default swaps (CDSs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), as they were responsible for the 2008 global financial crisis. Two classes of financial products that are more widely accessible have garnered far less attention: target date funds (TDFs) and leveraged exchange traded notes (ETNs). While TDFs are not derivatives in the strictest sense, they are mostly composed of other mutual funds. The buying and selling of TDFs could have major impacts on underlying mutual funds. Leveraged ETNs are short-term speculation vehicles that allow investors access to derivatives (futures, options, and swaps) without having to directly own the underlying derivatives. Most investors, however, are unaware of the risks associated with leveraged ETNs. Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to collect empirical works related to the risk and return of TDFs, leveraged ETNs, and their associated derivative products. We welcome the submission of empirical work related to the investment and risk management performance of the following:

• Specialty ETFs (any ETFs not tied to commonly known indices);
• Exchange trade notes (ETNs);
• Leveraged ETNs;
• Target date funds;
• Robot advisor/robot-managed funds.

We will also consider high-quality papers related to the utilization of AI/ML in investment and risk management.

Dr. Leo H. Chan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• specialty ETFs (any ETFs not tied to commonly known indices)
• exchange trade notes (ETNs)
• leveraged ETNs
• target date funds
• robot advisor/robot-managed funds