UPenn / Mathematical Economics / Statistics & Data Science

Diego Ordonez

I'm Diego Ordonez, a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying Mathematical Economics with a minor in Statistics & Data Science. My work spans risk and regulatory analysis, research on monetary policy, credit access, and portfolio optimization, and economic podcasting.

PwC Chile Basel III, regulatory reporting, and compliance testing in Santiago
Fed Challenge Analyzing inflation, labor markets, and monetary policy
Penn IBEC Podcast Hosting macro-finance conversations and economic analysis
Diego Ordonez smiling outdoors in a light blue shirt.
Based in Philadelphia
Current work Research Assistant, Fed Challenge, Penn IBEC

Featured project

Machine Learning for Portfolio Optimization

Spring 2026 Portfolio Optimization

The paper walks through the full workflow from signal engineering and PCA to model comparison and out-of-sample long-short portfolio construction, with the key result that forecast fit and portfolio quality do not always point to the same model.

Project snapshot 205,376 stock-month observations across 10,058 U.S. equities

The analysis compares Linear Regression, Ridge, Lasso, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting, then converts those predictions into industry-neutral portfolios.

Models 5 compared

From linear baselines to tree-based methods.

Method PCA + ranking

Signals are compressed, standardized, and ranked within industry.

Takeaway Fit is not everything

Ridge led on risk-adjusted performance while Gradient Boosting led on return.

Featured Podcast Episode

Macro Meets Business

Macro Meets Business is Penn IBEC's podcast on the macro forces behind real business decisions. It brings together conversations on policy, markets, trade, and the institutions shaping the global economy.