Portrait of Mehrshad Motahari

Mehrshad Motahari

Lecturer in Finance

Bayes Business School , Finance

Contact

About

Overview

Mehrshad Motahari is a Lecturer in Finance at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). His research interests lie primarily in the area of empirical asset pricing looking at drivers of market mispricing from both rational and behavioural perspectives. He also actively works on the implications of machine learning (ML) and firm environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performance for asset pricing.

Mehrshad holds a PhD in Finance and an MSc in Accounting and Finance from Warwick Business School, the University of Warwick. Prior to joining Bayes Business School, he was a Research Associate in Finance at Judge Business School, the University of Cambridge, where he currently holds an Honorary Associate position.

Insights drawn from Mehrshad's research have been used to devise trading strategies by various major asset managers in the City. He also actively engages in consultancy projects related to systematic equity strategies and machine learning applications in asset management.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Finance, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, September 2014 - July 2019
  • MSc in Accounting and Finance, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, 2012 - September 2013
  • Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF), CQF Institute - Fitch Learning, United Kingdom

Employment

  • Lecturer in Finance, Bayes Business School, United Kingdom, September 2021 - present
  • Honorary Associate, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, August 2021 - present
  • Research Associate in Finance, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, August 2019 - September 2021

Memberships of professional organisations

  • Founder and President, Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance Alumni Society (CERFAS), September 2021 - present

Languages

English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review) and Persian (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review)

Expertise

Primary topics

  • Asset Pricing
  • Finance
  • Capital Markets
  • Investment Management
  • Financial Markets
  • Financial Institutions

Industries

  • financial services
  • investment banking
  • commodities

Publications

Book

  1. Bartram, S.M., Branke, J. and Motahari, M. (2020). Artificial Intelligence in Asset Management. Charlottesville, USA: CFA Institute Research Foundation. ISBN 195292703X.

Journal articles (3)

  1. Chhaochharia, V., Kumar, A., Motahari, M. and Rantala, V. (2026). Star Firms, Information Spillovers, and Predictable Industry-Level Outcomes. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Kumar, A., Motahari, M. and Taffler, R.J. (2024). Skewness Sentiment and Market Anomalies. Management Science, 70(7), pp. 4328-4356. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2023.4898

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Bartram, S.M., Branke, J., Rossi, G.D. and Motahari, M. (2021). Machine Learning for Active Portfolio Management. The Journal of Financial Data Science, 3(3), pp. 9-30. doi:10.3905/jfds.2021.1.071

    [publisher’s website]