This class was fine. The title is somewhat misleading - you don't really learn a whole lot about "Computational Methods" and there is barely any "Data Analysis". There's a nominal coding component in R, and weekly lab lectures where the TAs teach some stuff about R, but it's very basic stuff, and you can get through all the coding homework parts by following the TA example code. I was somewhat disappointed that with a name like "Computational Finance and Data Analysis for Financial Engineering", there were few useful skills that I learned (ARMA and ARCH models notwithstanding).

Liao isn't the most engaging lecturer, and he can be a little hard to understand at times, but at least his slides were good. The first half of the class is a review of basic concepts in finance and probability. I haven't taken 106F, but some of my classmates said it was all review from that class. The second half covers time series concepts and models, including conditional volatility (ARCH/GARCH), with a final section on portfolio theory which I found interesting. The time series and conditional volatility models are the most useful part of the class for real-world skills, but I took Econ 144 with Rojas in the same quarter, and the time series concepts in this class paled in comparison to the shitshow that was Rojas. The second half of this class would actually be a good preparation for Econ 144.

The tests were much more difficult than the homework (which was not a good preparation). Make sure you have probability and statistics from Econ 41 squarely down, as this class relies on that a lot. Both the midterm and the final allowed "cheat sheets", which were very helpful (if you take the time to prepare them right). Overall, the class wasn't that difficult, and it's a fine choice if you're interested in econometrics electives.

Liao was an incredibly frustrating professor. I don't know what the other reviewers are talking about, but his midterm is 100x harder than the practice midterm, as is the final from the practice final. This quarter he gave us the final from the previous quarter, which is a slightly better indicator of the difficulty of the exam but overall not helpful. He's one of those professors who teaches you problems one way and then expects you to know how to do them a different way that you never even covered in class.
He has an accent, but if you're used to hearing accented English, it shouldn't be a problem. He basically rewrites his online lecture notes verbatim on the board during lecture with maybe a few extra example problems thrown in. The homework problems are absolutely no indicator of the difficulty of the exam questions, even the "starred" ones.
I think part of the problem for me is that he doesn't teach the class with an aim towards what you "need to know," if that makes sense. He just gives you everything and it's up to you to pick out the formulas and such that are important. He also gives you no context for what you're actually trying to do. I took AP Stats in high school, and my professor would teach the class in terms of 'population' and 'sample,' so you kind of knew the difference between things intuitively. Liao doesn't even really use those terms.

Basically, if you can avoid taking him, do. If not, I would recommend trying to find a tutor or some sort of supplemental help.

He is a good professor. His class is clear and straightforward. he loves to answer your questions at any time. You will always get the points. His final is harder than midterm. However, I did final better than Midterm. I think it's not hard like they said if u work hard. Really a good professor u should take.

he is definately not the easisest professor you would get here at ucla, but he's ok one.
if you only study his practice exam posted on the class website, expect to get c or below(or maybe not if you are smart enough). KNOW THE CONCEPT from the notes he post, it can be very hard due to overly used sigma and other mathmatical terms if you are not a math person. If you mastered the concept he posted on the website and do the practice test, you will be fine with his exams which is more like to SAT style questions where you dont have to think but apply the concept. Theres no point of avoiding him, even if you take the same course with another professor only 25% will get A 25% will get B and rest will get C or below. If you cant be those 50% in liao's class im pretty sure you wont be in top 50% to other professor's 41.

TIPS: dont panic when you see the problems that were not on homework or your practice exams.. because the answer will be kinda obvious. if you roll the dice ten times and the number of times that you will get 3 will definately not be .9000
half of the test questions have obvious answers.

great econ professor in econ department. You can learn a lot from the class. Selling textbook for econ41

great econ professor in econ department. You can learn a lot from the class. Selling textbook for econ41. Text me 3109624479

I found Liao to be a great professor overall. He posts concise lecture notes and gives fair tests. There isn't any homework (although he assigns homework questions for your benefit), and your grade is 40% midterm and 60% final. The midterm was super straightforward, but the final was a bit harder, since we needed a proper distribution for the curve. I am not a straight A student, and I found his class very enjoyable. I would recommend him.

Got an A- but would definitely not recommend zhipeng. His notes in class are basically word for word from the notes that he posts. He does not go over many examples in class and a lot of the notes are just long proofs for things that really dont matter. He is hard to understand (accent) and often spells things wrong when he writes them on the board. I never went to him one on one so i can't comment on that. He tries his best to answer questions and you can tell he cares about the students he just lacks the ability to convey things properly and effectively. He just writes stuff on the board and doesnt explain how you would use something or what it is for. Basically says use this and plug in this and you get answer. You won't learn anything. Midterm was easy final was hard, He uses the department curve 25% A 35% B 25% C everyone else D/F. So it is possible to get screwed by the curve. Don't take this class and avoid a ton of stress.

Liao was actually a surprisingly good professor. The quarter I had to take Econ 41 I didn't have the option to go with Rojas that I wanted, so I was nervous about taking Liao since he had no reviews and I heard his accent is pretty tough.

Nevertheless, the class is incredibly straightforward. All lecture notes are posted online and he merely goes into them in more detail in class which is very helpful since you can study things you may not have understood in class at home and clarify things in his online notes during lecture. The midterm was very easy and covered only up to basic probability concepts such as independence and conditional probabilities. It's made super easy and I, like a lot of people, was able to get 100 on it. He also provides a significant time gap between the midterm and the last content covered on it. So you have a good 2 weeks to study for the midterm which was very generous.

Our class was a bit behind so he did end up rushing a bit at the end when we got to actual hypothesis testing and he was barely able to finish the last lecture materials on the very last day of class. Things really do pickup very quickly after the midterm. This makes it a bit hard, especially because you likely fall behind at least a bit while studying for the midterm itself but it's doable as long as you have a good TA (Alec was great during my quarter) and try not fall too behind.

The final, like the other guy said, was definitely hard. it was more than twice the length of the midterm in less than twice the time (30 questions on midterm, 80 on final). On the other hand, no you don't need a tutor as long as you can... you know... study? The content on the final is definitely harder than the midterm. DO NOT solely rely on his practice questions to study for the final!! While that's a good strategy for the midterm, it will NOT help you for the final as the content is much more difficult and is meant to put you in a huge time crunch. That being said, he told us he didn't expect anyone to finish the exam (nobody did) and thus you should take your time, do the easiest first, and try to be as accurate as possible before just bubbling randomly in the last minute or two. I studied as many textbook, practice problems (TA and prof), and past exams from other classes as I could to be familiar with any type of problem he could throw and ended up getting one of the highest scores. The final is curved VERY generously though so don't worry. Average score was about a 50% i think

Overall, surprisingly good professor. Definitely a nice guy who does care. His accent can be rough at times but honestly he explains things pretty well regardless.

It was so easy that I got A+ even though I did not go to any of his lectures after the midterm. It's extremely helpful if you take Stats 10 before taking this class.