Work the problem
the way analysts do.
The Research Desk Cohort is a finance research program for high-school students, modeled on a real Wall Street research desk. Over eight weeks, students take on a single question — how an entire country slides into default — and work it the way an analyst would: reading the sources, deciding what the evidence supports, and building toward a research report that takes a clear position.
It is institutional research, scaled for students who are ready for it: weekly desk meetings, a working group that keeps the analysis moving between sessions, a curated source base, and a mentor who did this exact work at J.P. Morgan.
A research desk built for serious high-school students.
In the Global Research Fellowship, students work the way an analyst on a real desk does: reading the sources closely, deciding what the evidence actually supports, defending a view in front of the group, and turning it into a report that reads like research rather than a school assignment.
Weekly desk meetings
Each week the desk meets with Alex to walk through the problem, test the weaker claims, weigh the evidence, and decide what to take on next.
Work between calls
The work continues after each call. Students share sources, sharpen each other's questions, and keep the analysis moving through the week.
A room of serious peers
You work alongside a small group of finance-minded students. You see how strong thinkers reason, where an argument falls apart, and where your own view still needs more evidence.
A final desk report
Everything builds toward one research report. Credit goes to real contribution and clear thinking, not to whoever talks the most.
Alex Dryden has done the work he teaches.
Alex spent more than a decade at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a Global Market Strategist across London and New York. As an Executive Director on the Global Market Insights team, his job was to turn complex market data into a clear view that institutional clients could act on.
He is now pursuing a PhD in Economics at SOAS, University of London, focused on sovereign defaults, currency markets, and bond markets. That is exactly why the first desk problem matches his expertise: debt, policy credibility, and what investors do when a country's finances stop adding up.
A decade inside institutional markets, now teaching the method.
Alex spent over ten years inside institutional markets, across macroeconomics, central banks, fixed income, and U.S. bond markets. The cohort brings that research-desk discipline into a high-school setting: students define the problem, read the evidence, build a view, and then defend it.
J.P. Morgan background.
More than a decade at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a market strategist, across macro, investment strategy, central banks, fixed income, and bond markets.
Sovereign debt focus.
Now a doctoral researcher at SOAS, working on sovereign defaults, currency markets, bond markets, and the financial systems behind debt stress.
A voice in financial media.
His market commentary has featured across The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, and institutional research platforms.
Climate finance research.
His work on debt-for-nature swaps appeared in Asia Development Review and was presented at Cambridge, drawing on 169 transactions across 45 countries.
Why this matters for you: the cohort is built around Alex's deepest expertise — sovereign defaults, currency markets, bond markets, and the pressure points that decide whether a country stabilizes or breaks.
How does an entire country default?
It is one of the most consequential sequences in finance, and it unfolds in real time. A government borrows more than it can sustain. Its currency begins to slide, reserves run thin, and policy credibility erodes, until the market settles on a single question: can this country still pay what it owes? The desk takes that apart the way analysts did during the crises you have read about.
When borrowing becomes a trap.
Students work through debt loads, refinancing risk, and fiscal choices, up to the point where the debt stops looking manageable.
When a currency loses its footing.
The desk examines currency pressure, reserves, and capital flight, and why FX markets often move before the official story does.
When the bond market reprices risk.
Students connect bond yields, credit spreads, and default risk to read the moment investors start demanding to be paid for the added risk.
From the opening brief to a finished report.
Enough structure to keep the work on track, and enough room to actually think. The desk moves through sources, evidence, debate, thesis, and revision — the same arc that real research follows.
The desk opens
You meet Alex, take the first briefing, and start from a curated source base instead of wandering into the open internet.
Problem framing
The group learns the core issue and begins shaping angles around sovereign stress, currency pressure, and debt sustainability.
Evidence building
You work through sources, country cases, currency moves, reserve pressure, and what the bond market is signaling.
Argument development
The desk settles on its central view, and each student takes clear ownership of a piece of the analysis.
Draft and revision
You tighten the report until it reads like a real research note: a clear problem, clear evidence, and a clear view.
Apply for the Research Desk Cohort.
GRF admits for fit, not for a finished resume. You don't need to arrive as an expert. You need curiosity, follow-through, and a genuine willingness to think like an analyst — to read closely, ask sharper questions, change your mind when the evidence calls for it, and take feedback well.
Seats are capped at eight. The desk only works when the mentor can see who is thinking clearly and doing the work.
This is the founding cohort — the smallest the room will ever be, with the most direct mentor access and the lowest price it will ever carry. Tuition is $499 now, and $1,199 from the next cohort on.
Start your application.
Tell us who you are, what you are curious about, and why this analyst-style desk is the right room for you right now.
A research desk, scaled for serious high-school students.
Work with Alex Dryden on how countries break under financial stress: sovereign default, currency pressure, and the signals coming out of the bond market. You move through a real analyst process, from opening brief to source work, debate, revision, and a finished research report you can stand behind.