Professor Robert E. Brooks, PhD, CFA

Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Endowed Professor of Financial Management
The University of Alabama

Selected current interest include:

Academic research that solves relevant financial challenges
Effective financial derivatives and financial risk management training
Undergraduate, Masters, Ph.D., Executive MBA, On-Site, and On-Line
Unique independent approach to quantitative finance challenges
Over 30 years of both academic and industry experience
Wide array of consulting experiences through Financial Risk Management, LLC

Brooks seeks to make financial theory work in practice. Typically, the main things are the plain things. An independent perspective is pursued that seeks weaknesses in orthodox approaches as well as provides unique perspectives related to financial risk management practices.

Robert E. Brooks

Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Professor of Financial Management

University of Alabama

Biography

Robert E. Brooks, Ph.D., CFA is the Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Endowed Chair of Financial Management at The University of Alabama (https://culverhouse.ua.edu/news/directory/robert-brooks/), founding partner of BlueCreek Investment Partners, LLC, a money management firm (merged with Keel Point, LLC in 2014, www.keelpoint.com), and president of Financial Risk Management, LLC, a financial risk management consulting firm (www.frmhelp.com) focused on market risks.

Brooks is the author of over 80 articles appearing in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Derivatives, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, and others. Further, he is the co-author of An Introduction to Derivatives and Risk Management (Seventh through Tenth Editions) with Don Chance and has authored several books including Building Financial Risk Management Applications with C++. Brooks has been quoted in several print media, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, New York Times, and The Bond Buyer.

Brooks has also testified in a subcommittee hearing of the U. S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. as well as in a field hearing of the SEC in Birmingham, Alabama. Brooks has consulted with major public utilities, energy companies, auditing firms, corporations, investment bankers, elected municipal officials, and commercial bankers regarding managing financial risks, derivatives valuation and software development. Brooks has testified in several court cases as well as conducts professional development seminars on various aspects of finance.

Interests

Financial Derivatives
Enterprise Risk Management
Philosophy

Education

PhD in Finance, 1986

University of Florida
BSc in Finance, 1981

Florida State University

Experience

Board Member and a Founding Partner

Keel Point, LLC

Jun 2003 – Jan 2015 Huntsville, Alabama

Founded as Blue Creek Investment Partners, LLC and merged with Keel Point, LLC in 2015.

CFA Charterholder

CFA Institute

Sep 1991 – Present

The CFA designation is globally recognized and attests to a charterholder’s success in a rigorous and comprehensive study program in the field of investment management and research analysis.

Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Endowed Chair of Financial Management

The University of Alabama

Jun 1989 – Present Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Responsibilities include:

Academic financial research
Teaching quantitative finance (including R programming language)
Coordinating the Master of Science in Finance program

President

Financial Risk Management, LLC

Jan 1989 – Present Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Provide wide array of solutions for companies.

Skills

R, C++

30+ years

Financial Publications

See Vita (CV tab above)

Training

Clear, Engaging, and Customizable

Publications

Selected publications with associated links below. See CV for complete publication listing. For working papers, please reference my Social Sciences Research Network page: Robert Brooks SSRN Working Papers

Samuelson Hypothesis, Arbitrage Activity, and Futures Term Premiums

Based on ten U.S. commodity futures and by capturing the dynamics of the futures volatility terms structure with three factors, we show that in most markets the strength of the Samuelson effect varies with inventory levels.

Robert E. Brooks, Pavel Teterin

DOI

An Option Valuation Framework Based on Arithmetic Brownian Motion Justification and Implementation Issues

We examine arithmetic Brownian motion as an alternative framework for option valuation and related tasks.

Robert E. Brooks, Joshua A. Brooks

DOI

An Introduction to Derivatives and Risk Management

This book is written for college undergraduate students and entry-level financial analysts seeking to improve their understanding of financial derivatives and risk management.

Robert E. Brooks, Don M. Chance

Cengage Link

Building Financial Risk Management Applications with C++

This book is written for college graduate students and entry-level financial analysts. No prior knowledge of C++ programming is assumed.

Robert E. Brooks

Amazon Link

Academic Projects

Various Stages of Development

Building Quantitative Finance Applications with R

Because of the dynamic nature of financial markets, financial analysts need to be able to rapidly adapt their valuation and risk management models to changing times. Financial analysts now can express their ideas in prototype R code. The goal of this book is to assist in helping your express your quantitative finance ideas in R.

Foundations of Personal Finance

TBD

Foundations of Pricing Financial Derivatives

We introduce the vast financial derivatives markets to PhD students in hopes that it will stimulate your interest in research related to financial derivatives as well as aid in your future research agenda, even if your agenda is not explicitly financial derivatives.