Galen D. Burghardt

Senior Consultant

Galen Burghardt is a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon and a world-renowned expert in Eurodollar and Treasury Futures, managed futures for institutional investors, market liquidity and risk management. Since 1986, Dr. Galen Burghardt has been Director of Research for several prestigious futures commission merchants including Discount Corporation of New York Futures, Dean Witter, Carr Futures, Calyon Financial, Newedge, and now COEX Partners.

He is the lead author of two books -- The Treasury Bond Basis and The Eurodollar Futures and Options Handbook -- that are the standard texts for these markets globally. He has done path-breaking research into both the pricing of these contracts and their use in trading and risk management. He has also written extensively on the use of managed futures (aka, Commodity Trading Advisors) to improve the performance of institutional investors' portfolios, and has studied the effect of electronic trading on the liquidity of futures markets. Galen's research has appeared in The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Derivatives, Risk Magazine, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Alternative Investments, Derivatives Quarterly, FI Magazine, and The Journal of Futures Markets. He has served on the editorial board of FI Magazine and for several years authored an annual review of the growth and development of global trading in futures and options.

Burghardt was formerly director of financial research at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he was part of the team that created what is now the global industry-standard SPAN margining system for futures and options. He was also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business where for 13 years he taught a popular MBA course on futures, swaps, and options. He has also done extensive executive education in futures, options, and risk management -- both through the University of Chicago and privately for several prestigious financial institutions including J.P. Morgan, The World Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the CERN pension board. He has also taught graduate level courses in macroeconomics. 

Before moving to Chicago, Galen worked in the research division of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System where he participated in regular financial market briefings for the Governors.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington.

  1. Education icon

    Education

    • PhD in Economics, University of Washington
    • BA in Economics, University of Washington

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