Learn From People Who Have Done the Work.
GRF gives high-school students direct access to established professors and field practitioners, not an interchangeable mentor pool. The September Research Desk is led by a former J.P. Morgan Executive Director and a university professor; five Fellows each finish an individually authored 2,000–2,500-word market report.
- Cohort size
- 5 Fellows Selective, by application
- Duration
- 6 weeks Weekly live desk sessions
- Starts
- Sep 14, 2026 Applications reviewed on a rolling basis
- Who it is for
- Grades 9–12 Online, worldwide
- Tuition
- $1,000 Need-based aid up to 50%
Our mentorship students have been admitted to
Six weeks. Three concrete outcomes.
This is not a general finance course. Every week moves your research toward a complete, defensible report credited to you.
Your own market deep dive
A professionally formatted, 2,000–2,500-word research report carrying your name as author and a clear argument you can explain and defend.
The cohort Research Desk collection
Your completed report is also featured on the GRF website alongside the work of the other Fellows around one important market theme.
Research Fellow certificate
Fellows who complete the program receive a GRF Research Fellow Certificate of Completion documenting the six-week research experience.
Meet the people doing the teaching.
Alex Dryden leads the market-facing sessions. Dr. PK leads research design, evidence, drafting, citation, and final academic review.
Alex Dryden
Former Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Alex leads Weeks 1, 3, and 5, helping Fellows frame a meaningful market question, decide what the evidence actually supports, challenge weak assumptions, and defend a convincing market view.
Research focus
- Sovereign default and debt distress
- Currency and balance-of-payments pressure
- Signals emerging from global bond markets
Experience
- Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
- Studied at SOAS University of London
- Market commentary carried in the national financial press
Dr. PK
Academic Director · Research and Writing
Dr. PK leads Weeks 2, 4, and 6, setting the standards for research questions, sources, argument, drafting, citation, and the final academic review.
Leads
- Program structure and research methodology
- Source, argument, and writing standards
- Academic background at Columbia University and UC Berkeley
Professional experience
Academic background
Academic background
Academic background
Professional and academic backgrounds of GRF program instructors. GRF is not affiliated with or endorsed by these organisations.
Choose the level of attention you need.
The Research Desk offers the energy and discipline of a five-Fellow cohort. Private mentorship gives one student a fully individual program.
Five Fellows. One desk. Six weeks.
Work alongside four other students, own a distinct angle of the cohort question, and build an individually authored deep dive through three practitioner and three academic sessions.
- Format Six live group calls: three Alex-led and three Dr. PK-led, plus guided independent research
- Duration 6 weeks
- Starts Monday, September 14, 2026
- Seats 5 Fellows
- Individual work A 2,000–2,500-word market deep dive
- Shared work A credited chapter in the cohort Research Desk volume
- Credential GRF Research Fellow Certificate of Completion
One mentor, entirely yours.
One-to-one support from the first question to the final report, with the scope, schedule, and mentor selected around your individual research goals.
- Format 1:1 with a matched mentor
- Duration Set with your mentor
- Starts Rolling admission
- Seats Limited by mentor availability
- Research A fully independent finance research project
- Support Individual scope, feedback, and scheduling
- Credential Certificate of Completion issued by GRF
From an open question to a report you can defend.
Every week has a defined purpose. The structure keeps the commitment manageable while moving each Fellow steadily toward a completed report.
Choose the angle
Start with the cohort theme, select your individual angle, and turn it into a question narrow enough to answer well.
Build the evidence
Find credible sources and market data, understand what each one can prove, and organise the evidence around your question.
Develop the view
Move from description to analysis by deciding what the evidence means and where your own argument differs from the obvious answer.
Write the first draft
Build the report around a clear thesis, disciplined evidence, and the structure used in serious market research.
Get challenged
Pressure-test the argument with practitioner feedback, find what is weak or missing, and revise before a reader can raise it.
Defend and complete
Present your conclusions, answer questions, and complete the final individual report and shared cohort collection.
Live market questions, not textbook exercises.
Fellows work within a shared cohort theme while owning a distinct question and argument of their own. These are the areas GRF is equipped to supervise properly.
Sovereign risk
How debt loads, thinning reserves, and weak institutions push countries toward crisis, and which signals markets watch first.
Private markets
How loans are structured and refinanced, and what happens to borrowers when credit becomes harder to find.
Currency regimes
Why currencies hold or break: central-bank credibility, balance-of-payments pressure, and the point where a peg stops being defensible.
China and global capital
How China's property market, demographics, and industrial policy influence trade, investment, and capital moving across borders.
Built on experience working one to one.
These figures cover GRF's private 1:1 mentorship. The Research Desk is a newer small-group format and does not yet have a separate outcomes record.
Give admissions teams and future employers something concrete to see.
An interest in finance is easy to claim. An authored report, developed on a real research desk and defended before an experienced market practitioner, shows initiative, analytical ability, and the discipline to finish serious work.
A stronger college application
Your individually authored report turns an interest in finance into evidence you can discuss in activities lists, essays, and interviews. It demonstrates independent thinking, research, analytical writing, and follow-through.
A head start on finance careers
Learn how analysts frame questions, test evidence, defend a view, and communicate conclusions. Your completed report becomes a genuine work sample for future internship, university, and early-career conversations.
A research desk, not another class
GRF brings together a five-Fellow analyst-style desk, three market sessions led by a former J.P. Morgan Executive Director, three research-and-writing sessions led by an academic director, and an individually authored market report. You do not simply study finance; you produce research.
The people guiding the work are named. The report is yours.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and close once the five-seat Research Desk is full.