AMIR ALIZADEH is Reader in Shipping Economics and Finance at Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. His research interest includes modelling commodity and shipping freight markets, derivatives and risk management, and forecasting. He has published in several academic journals in the area of transportation, risk management, finance and economics, and has worked as an advisor and a consultant.   NIKOS NOMIKOS is Reader in Shipping Risk Management and Director of the MSc degree in Shipping, Trade and Finance at Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. He commenced his career at the Baltic exchange as Senior Market Analyst. Since November 2001, he has been with the Faculty of Finance at Cass Business School, where he specialises in the area of freight derivatives and risk management. He has published numerous papers in academic journals and his research has been presented in conferences world-wide. He also acts as a consultant on issues of risk management for a number of companies in the shipping and financial sectors.