Conference Organization | Sebastian Stöckl

1st Liechtenstein Workshop on AI in Finance

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Initiated, founded, and convened by Sebastian Stöckl at the Department of Finance & Economics, Liechtenstein Business School, University of Liechtenstein. Hosted at H6 Campus, University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, May 6–7, 2026.

The Liechtenstein Workshop on AI in Finance (LW-AIF) was conceived by Sebastian as the academic companion to the practitioner conference organized annually by , with the aim of creating synergies between rigorous academic research on AI in finance and the questions that matter most to sophisticated practitioners. From an open Call for Papers, the Organising Committee — chaired by Sebastian — received a substantial number of high-quality submissions and selected thirteen papers for presentation. Each paper is allotted a 45-minute slot (30 minutes presentation, 10 minutes discussion, 5 minutes Q&A).

Scientific Committee: Sebastian Stöckl (chair, University of Liechtenstein), Wolfgang Schadner (University of Liechtenstein). Organising Committee: Sebastian Stöckl (chair), Natalie Moosleithner (University of Liechtenstein). Workshop Partner: Günter Jäger, Founder & Managing Partner, PLEXUS Investments Ltd.

Programme

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Session 1 — ML and the Cross-Section of Returns

12:30 Investor Disagreement in the Options Market — Mathis Moerke (University of St. Gallen), with Turan G. Bali (Georgetown) and Bryan T. Kelly (Yale). Discussant: Sebastian Weibels.
13:15 Transaction Costs and the Stochastic Discount Factor — Daniele Bianchi (Queen Mary University of London), with Teng Jiao and Hao Ma (both Queen Mary). Discussant: Mathis Moerke.

14:00 — Coffee break

Session 2 — LLMs in Financial Analysis

14:15 Corporate Earnings Calls and Analyst Beliefs — Giuseppe Matera (EPFL / Swiss Finance Institute). Discussant: Swaminathan Balasubramaniam.
15:00 When LLMs Agree Too Much — Swaminathan Balasubramaniam (NEOMA Business School), with Jorge Sabat (Universidad Andrés Bello). Discussant: Giuseppe Matera.

15:45 — Coffee break

Session 3 — ML Frontiers in Asset Pricing

16:00 Reviving Anomalies — Jonas Wortmann (University of Münster), with Heiner Beckmeyer (Münster), Florian Berg (MIT), and Timo Wiedemann (Münster / Potsdam). Discussant: Daniele Bianchi.
16:45 Hard to Process: Atypical Firms and the Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns — Sebastian Weibels (University of Cologne). Discussant: Christian Schlag.
17:30 Nonlinearities and Pricing Complexity in the Cross-Section of Stock Returns — Christian Schlag (Goethe University Frankfurt and Leibniz Institute SAFE), with Fabio Girardi (WU Vienna) and Lukas Koerber (Goethe Frankfurt). Discussant: Jonas Wortmann.

19:30 — Speakers’ dinner, Restaurant Lio, Vaduz

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Session 4 — AI in Practice

09:00 Machine Learning the Performance of Mutual Funds on a Global Scale — Manuel Mazidi (Université de Neuchâtel), with Christian Breitung, Sebastian Müller, and Florian Weigert (all TU Munich). Discussant: Richard Blades.
09:45 Analysts’ Response to ‘AI Washing’ in Earnings Conference Calls — Richard Blades (Bayes Business School, University of London), with Pawel Bilinski and Art Kraft (both City St. George’s, University of London). Discussant: Rubén Fernández-Fuertes.

10:30 — Coffee break

Session 5 — AI Applications: NLP, Corporate Disclosure & Credit

10:45 Monetary Policy Shocks: A New Hope — Large Language Models and Central Bank Communication — Rubén Fernández-Fuertes (Bocconi University). Discussant: Paulina M. Verhoff.
11:30 AI Errors — Wenqian Huang (Bank for International Settlements), with Albert J. Menkveld (VU Amsterdam) and Shihao Yu (Singapore Management University). Discussant: Manuel Mazidi.
12:15 Understanding Risk: Lessons from Mutual Fund Disclosures — Nikola Kiprijanovski (INSEAD). Discussant: Wenqian Huang.
13:00 Do Institutional Investors Trade on Covenant Violations? — Paulina M. Verhoff (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management), with Anthony Saunders (NYU Stern) and Sascha Steffen (Frankfurt School). Discussant: Nikola Kiprijanovski.

13:45 — End of workshop

After the workshop

The University of Liechtenstein’s (published May 8, 2026) summarizes the workshop and quotes Sebastian on the inaugural edition:

“Die Qualität der Arbeiten und die Tiefe der Diskussionen haben unsere Erwartungen für eine erste Ausgabe übertroffen.” — Sebastian Stöckl, on the first edition of LW-AIF

The 2nd edition is planned for spring 2027 at the University of Liechtenstein.

Sebastian’s — #LWAIF2026 #AIinFinance #MachineLearning #AssetPricing #LLMs #LiechtensteinBusinessSchool #UniversityOfLiechtenstein.

2nd Alpine Finance Summit (AFS)

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Co-organized with Jochen Lawrenz (University of Innsbruck), Sebastian Utz (University of Augsburg), and Florian Weigert (University of Neuchâtel).

Hosted at Park Hôtel Grenoble – MGallery, Grenoble, France, August 24–26, 2025.

Academic keynote: (University of Lausanne / Swiss Finance Institute). Alpine keynote: (mountain guide; first person to climb all 82 Alpine peaks above 4000 m).

Each paper received a 20-minute presentation, a 10-minute discussant response, and 10 minutes of open Q&A. Day 2 combined a mountain session at Chamrousse with the afternoon outdoor programme and Alpine keynote.

Programme

Sunday, 24 August 2025

Predicting Anomalies — Boone Bowles, Adam Reed, Mat Ringgenberg, Jake Thornock. Discussant: Julian Thimme.
How Costly Are Trading Heuristics? — Hee-Seo Han, Xindi He, Daniel Weagley. Discussant: Moritz Dauber.
Cash Me If You Can: ATM Explosions, Payment Choice, and Consumption — Esad Smajlbegovic, Theresa Spickers, Daniel Urban, Michael Weber. Discussant: Gertjan Verdickt.
Shifting from Active to Passive: How Retirement Plans Impact Equity Prices — Riccardo Sabbatucci, Andrea Tamoni, Song Xiao. Discussant: Ziwei Zhao.
ETFs, Anomalies, and Market Efficiency — Ilias Filippou, Songrun He, Sophia Zhengzi Li, Guofu Zhou. Discussant: Egle Karmaziene.
Improving Hedge Fund Return Prediction: Dealing with Missing Data via Deep Learning — Ilias Filippou, Ioannis Psaradellis, David Rapach, Lazaros Zografopoulos. Discussant: Richard Evans.
Information Intermediaries and Financial Product Design: Evidence from Mutual Funds — Maxime Bonelli, Anastasia Buyalskaya, Tianhao Yao. Discussant: Felix Wilke.

Evening: Academic keynote and gala dinner at Chez le Per’Gras — (University of Lausanne / SFI)

Monday, 25 August 2025 — Chamrousse mountain session

Generalized Portfolio Sorts for Factor Validation — Daniel Höchle, Markus Schmid, Heinz Zimmermann. Discussant: Paul Hübner.
The Statistical Limit of Arbitrage — Rui Da, Stefan Nagel, Dacheng Xiu.
Weak Signals, Small Bets: A Portfolio Perspective on Firm Characteristics — Daniele Bianchi, Pedro Venturi. Discussant: Guillaume Coqueret.

Afternoon: outdoor activities at Chamrousse — Alpine keynote by (mountain guide; first person to climb all 82 Alpine peaks above 4000 m)

Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Oil-Driven Greenium — Shaojun Zhang, Zhan Shi. Discussant: Karoline Bax.
Greenness Demand for US Corporate Bonds — Rainer Jankowitsch, Alexander Pasler, Patrick Weiss, Josef Zechner. Discussant: Teodor Duevski.
Nudging Investors Towards Sustainability — A Field Experiment — Lars Hornut, Christoph Merkle, Stefan Zeisberger. Discussant: Julia Meyer.
Does Climate Change Affect Retail Investors? Your Opinion Matters — Ai He, Siwen Zhang. Discussant: Bige Kahraman.

Full programme:

AI in Finance: Hype or Sustainable Transformation?

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Co-organized by Sebastian Stöckl (Liechtenstein Business School) with (CEO Günter Jäger). Hosted at the University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, on November 25, 2024 — second edition of the annual AI in Financial Practice series, following the .

Conference report

On November 25, experts from the regional financial industry, academics and interested participants gathered at the University of Liechtenstein for the conference “Artificial Intelligence: Hype or Sustainable Transformation?”, a cooperation between Sebastian Stöckl and the Liechtenstein Business School with PLEXUS Investments under the leadership of CEO Günter Jäger. The afternoon was moderated by Aurelia Rauch of Bergos.

The numerous presentations by renowned experts offered a deep insight into the rapidly advancing development of artificial intelligence (AI) in finance.

The Dean of the Liechtenstein Business School, Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke, opened the conference with a brief address in which he emphasized the importance of artificial intelligence for the University of Liechtenstein. He stressed how essential it is to offer this topic in education and continuing education, and to actively bring the university’s expertise into practice through knowledge transfer and targeted research.

The opening keynote by Dr. René Deist (ZF Friedrichshafen) gave a fascinating insight into rapidly progressing generative AI. Following this, Günter Jäger (PLEXUS Investments) examined the potential of AI in asset management. Jäger underlined the dynamic of the field with the words:

“Artificial intelligence in finance is less hype than transformation. And it will change the industry at increasing speed.”

Sebastian Stöckl (University of Liechtenstein) continued the afternoon, emphasizing in his talk that AI is no mere hype but already has transformative effects on sectors such as finance and services, while at the same time highlighting the challenges that must be overcome to realize its full economic potential. Dr. Christopher Krauss (Artellium) then explained the mechanics of AI-based stock selection in an engaging presentation, paying particular attention to the role of the human factor.

Finally, Dr. Reto Degen (Financial Market Authority Liechtenstein, FMA) addressed the upcoming European regulation of AI and gave an insight into the use of AI among financial intermediaries.

A highlight of the day was the dynamic panel discussion “AI – Hype or Sustainable Transformation”, in which renowned experts — Dr. Reto Degen, Dr. Christopher Krauss and Sebastian Stöckl — shared their perspectives.

The closing networking apéro offered participants not only the opportunity for informal exchange but also room for further discussion of the fascinating connection between investing and artificial intelligence.

“We are delighted by the positive response to the conference and the great interest in artificial intelligence, not only in finance. Given this success, we are pleased to announce the planning of next year’s conference already, to continue this exciting format.” — Sebastian Stöckl

Speakers

Speaker	Affiliation	Topic
Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke	Liechtenstein Business School (Dean)	Opening address
Dr. René Deist	ZF Friedrichshafen	Opening keynote — generative AI
Günter Jäger	PLEXUS Investments	AI in asset management
Sebastian Stöckl	University of Liechtenstein	AI: hype vs. transformation
Dr. Christopher Krauss	Artellium	AI-based stock selection
Dr. Reto Degen	FMA Liechtenstein	European AI regulation
Aurelia Rauch	Bergos	Moderation

Source: Original conference report in German, available via the (published December 2, 2024).

1st Alpine Finance Summit (AFS)

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Co-organized with Jochen Lawrenz (University of Innsbruck), Sebastian Utz (University of Augsburg), Florian Weigert (University of Neuchâtel), and Alex Weissensteiner (Free University of Bolzano).

Hosted at Hotel Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, August 25–28, 2024. Inaugural edition of what has since become an annual conference rotating across the Alpine region.

Academic keynote: (University of Chicago Booth School of Business). Alpine keynote: (professional paragliding pilot; multiple-podium finisher in the Red Bull X-Alps).

Each paper received a 20-minute presentation, a 10-minute discussant response, and 10 minutes of open Q&A. The outdoor programme featured paragliding and hiking in the Nordkette mountains above Innsbruck.

Programme

From 180 submissions, 14 papers were selected (acceptance rate < 8%). Each paper received a 20-minute presentation, a 10-minute discussant response, and 10 minutes of open Q&A.

Sunday, 25 August 2024

Sources of Return Predictability — Beata Gafka, Pavel Savor, Mungo Wilson. Discussant: Can Gao.
The Cross-Section of Subjective Expectations: Understanding Prices and Anomalies — Sean Myers, Ricardo de la O, Xiao Han. Discussant: Denis Mokanov.
The Hairy Premium — Zhaneta Tancheva, Pasquale Della Corte, Ljubica Georgievska, Anthony Saunders. Discussant: Petri Jylhä.
Productivity Changes around Childbirth: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry — Larissa Ginzinger, Kun Li, Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, Gang Wang. Discussant: Boone Bowles.

Evening: Apéro at Hotel Innsbruck

Monday, 26 August 2024 — Nordkette mountain session (Restaurant Seegrube)

Machine Forecast Disagreement — Mathis Moerke, Turan G. Bali, Bryan T. Kelly, Jamil Rahman. Discussant: Alejandro Lopez-Lira.
Does Search Engine Visibility Help ETFs Attract Flows? — Olga Obizhaeva. Discussant: Juha Joenväärä.
Imputing Mutual Fund Trades — Jean-Paul Van Brakel, Dion Bongaerts, Mathijs van Dijk, Joop Huij. Discussant: Simona Abis.

Evening: Alpine keynote — Paul Guschlbauer (professional paraglider; Red Bull X-Alps)

Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Active Fund Management when ESG Matters — Andrea Tarelli, Daron Avramov, Si Cheng. Discussant: Ekaterina Neretina.
Corporate Climate Lobbying — Tingyu Yu, Markus Leippold, Zacharias Sautner. Discussant: Markus Schmid.
ESG Skill of Mutual Fund Managers — Marco Ceccarelli, Richard Evans, Simon Glossner, Mikael Homanen, Ellie Luu. Discussant: Michael Young.

Evening: Conference dinner with academic keynote — Michael Weber (University of Chicago Booth School of Business), Restaurant “SKY” Bergisel

Wednesday, 28 August 2024

The Frequency of Outperformance and Investment Decisions — Michael Ungeheuer, Martin Weber. Discussant: Petra Sinagl.
Will ETFs Drive Mutual Funds Extinct? — Anna Helmke. Discussant: Daniel Schmidt.
The Subjective Risk and Return Expectations of Institutional Investors — Spencer Couts, Andrei Goncalves, Johnathan Loudis. Discussant: Alberto Manconi.
Timing the Factor Zoo — Otto Randl, Andreas Neuhierl, Christoph Reschenhofer, Josef Zechner. Discussant: Tim Kroencke.

Full programme:

AI in Finance: Investing with Artificial Intelligence

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Co-conceived and co-organized by Sebastian Stöckl (Liechtenstein Business School) with (CEO Günter Jäger). Hosted at the University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, on November 21, 2023.

Conference report

On November 21, experts from the regional financial industry, academics and interested participants gathered at the University of Liechtenstein for the conference “Investing with Artificial Intelligence”, a cooperation between the Liechtenstein Business School (with Sebastian Stöckl as organizer) and PLEXUS Investments under the leadership of CEO Günter Jäger. The afternoon was moderated by Aurelia Rauch (Bergos).

The numerous presentations by renowned experts gave a deep insight into the rapidly advancing development of AI in finance.

The opening keynote by Günter Jäger (PLEXUS Investments) gave a fascinating insight into AI in asset management. Jäger underlined the dynamic of the field with the words:

“Asset managers are gradually using more artificial intelligence to make a wide range of business functions more efficient. Even for the core business — investment decisions — there are increasingly more applications that are superior to human intelligence. We will therefore experience correspondingly more AI in the investment process in the years to come.”

Dr. Simon Weinberger (BlackRock) then examined the potential of AI in portfolio management, while Michael Günther (Tungsten Capital Management) presented an insightful view on effective diversification through AI.

A highlight of the day was the dynamic panel discussion “AI – Opportunities and Risks”, in which renowned experts — Michael Günther, Dr. Hendrik Leber (ACATIS), Sebastian Stöckl and Dr. Simon Weinberger — shared their perspectives.

Hendrik Leber continued the afternoon, emphasizing in his talk that AI is more than quantitative analysis and requires versatile training — comparable to a top athlete who consistently gives their best. Finally, Dr. Matthias Feiler (LGT Capital Partners) addressed the question of whether AI can be used as a systematic source of alpha.

“We are overwhelmed by the positive response to this conference and the interest in the topic of artificial intelligence in finance. Given the great success, we at the University of Liechtenstein and PLEXUS Investments are pleased to announce already now the next conference for the coming year, to continue this exciting dialogue.” — Sebastian Stöckl

Speakers

Speaker	Affiliation	Topic
Günter Jäger	PLEXUS Investments	Opening keynote — AI in asset management
Dr. Simon Weinberger	BlackRock	AI in portfolio management
Michael Günther	Tungsten Capital Management	Diversification through AI
Dr. Hendrik Leber	ACATIS	AI as more than quantitative analysis
Dr. Matthias Feiler	LGT Capital Partners	AI as a systematic alpha source
Sebastian Stöckl	University of Liechtenstein	Panellist
Aurelia Rauch	Bergos	Moderation

Source: .

USAVE Final Conference — Understanding Saving in Europe

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Final conference of the USAVE Erasmus+ project, held at the University of Liechtenstein in June 2022. Role: Main organizer.

The conference released the project’s free online courses on life-cycle investments and personal financial planning, building on the foundation laid by the . Partners: University of Liechtenstein, Aarhus University, and the Liechtenstein-Institut.

Programme

Plenary — Life-Cycle Investments and Personal Financial Planning — Sebastian Stöckl (University of Liechtenstein)
Partner presentations — presentations by project partners on saving behaviour across Europe
Public course launch — release of the free online courses on life-cycle investments and personal financial planning (German and English)

34th Workshop of the Austrian Working Group on Banking and Finance (AWG)

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:00:00 +0000

Co-organized with (University of Liechtenstein).

Hosted at the University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, November 22–23, 2019.

The Austrian Working Group on Banking and Finance (AWG / BWG) holds its annual workshop at rotating institutions in German-speaking Europe. The 34th edition was the first time the workshop was held in Liechtenstein. Researchers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein presented and discussed current working papers in banking and finance over two days. Each paper received a 15–20 minute presentation and a 5–7 minute discussant response.

Programme

Friday, 22 November 2019

Downside Risk Optimization vs Mean-Variance Optimization — Andrea Rigamonti (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano). Discussant: W. Schadner.
Fear and Laughing of the Market: Trending Pessimism, Fragile Optimism — Wolfgang Schadner (University of St. Gallen). Discussant: A. Rigamonti.
What Flows Around Comes Around: Mean Reversion and Portfolio Flows — Florian Mair (Vienna University of Economics and Business) & Alexander Thoma (University of Zürich). Discussant: M. Summer.
Systematic Systemic Stress Tests — Thomas Breuer (University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg) & Martin Summer (OeNB). Discussant: F. Mair.
Drivers of the EUR/CHF Exchange Rate — Piotr Kotlarz (University of Liechtenstein).
On the Valuation and Analysis of Risky Debt: A Theoretical Approach Using a Multivariate Extension of the Merton Model — Ines Wöckl (University of Graz).
Thou Shalt Not Trade — A Study Analyzing Violations of No-Trade Predictions in Experimental Asset Markets — Thomas Stöckl (Management Center Innsbruck).
Cognitive Skills and Economic Preferences in the Fund Industry — Michael Razen (University of Innsbruck).
Earnings Autocorrelation and the Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift — Stefan Palan (University of Graz).

Evening: Conference dinner at Gasthof Lingg, Feldkirch

Saturday, 23 November 2019

Losing Funds, or Losing Face? Reputational and Accountability Mechanisms in the Credit Rating Industry — Matthias Herrmann-Meng (University of Liechtenstein).
Reference Points in Refinancing Decisions — Virginia Gianinazzi (Università della Svizzera Italiana & Swiss Finance Institute).
Information Management against Excessive Stock Trading: More or Less? Or Both? — Moritz Mosenhauer (Management Center Innsbruck).
Gold, Platinum, and Industry Stock Returns — Quynh Thi Thuy Pham (WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management).
The Trilemma of Exiting Expansive Monetary Policy in the Euro Area — Sebastian Lang (University of St. Gallen).
The Impact of ESG Ratings on the Value of M&A Transactions — Hendrik Kimmerle (University of Liechtenstein).

UNPIE Final Conference — Understanding Pensions in Europe

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 09:00:00 +0000

Final conference of the UNPIE Erasmus+ project, held at the University of Liechtenstein on 29 August 2019. Role: Main organizer and Project Coordinator (Project Director: Prof. Michael Hanke).

The conference released the project’s free, modular online courses on pension finance and personal pension planning to the public, in both German and English. Partners: University of Liechtenstein, Aarhus University, and the Liechtenstein-Institut.

Programme

Plenary — Pension Finance under Parameter Uncertainty — Michael Hanke & Sebastian Stöckl (University of Liechtenstein)
Keynote — Mogens Steffensen (University of Copenhagen)
Academic paper session — presentations by project partners
Public course launch — release of the free online courses on pension finance and personal pension planning (German and English)

Conference Organization | Sebastian Stöckl

1st Liechtenstein Workshop on AI in Finance

Programme

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Thursday, May 7, 2026

After the workshop

On social media

2nd Alpine Finance Summit (AFS)

Programme

Sunday, 24 August 2025

Monday, 25 August 2025 — Chamrousse mountain session

Tuesday, 26 August 2025

AI in Finance: Hype or Sustainable Transformation?

Conference report

Speakers

1st Alpine Finance Summit (AFS)

Programme

Sunday, 25 August 2024

Monday, 26 August 2024 — Nordkette mountain session (Restaurant Seegrube)

Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Wednesday, 28 August 2024

AI in Finance: Investing with Artificial Intelligence

Conference report

Speakers

USAVE Final Conference — Understanding Saving in Europe

Programme

34th Workshop of the Austrian Working Group on Banking and Finance (AWG)

Programme

Friday, 22 November 2019

Saturday, 23 November 2019

UNPIE Final Conference — Understanding Pensions in Europe

Programme