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Toronto · student, researcher, founder

AlanXiao

Studying the institutions behind lawmarketspublic policytechnology
and asking the questions that don’t have easy answers.

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I’m a student fascinated by the institutions that shape law, money and power. I’ve researched public companies for seven-figure investment decisions, drafted legal documents at a law firm, founded a national non-profit, and published research on everything from European climate law to expiring money. I like following the evidence until one argument actually holds up.

2,500+students reached through CYFA
5research papers written
8competition placements
4projects built and launched

Things I’ve built

Four projects, one idea: make money and public institutions easier to understand, for students, for citizens and for businesses.

Co-founder & PresidentNational non-profit · since 2026

Canadian Youth Finance Alliance

A national, student-run non-profit bringing financial literacy, competitions and leadership to young Canadians. What started as an idea is now a country-wide network of executive teams and school chapters, and one of the largest student-led finance organizations you’ll find if you search for it.

  • Free financial-literacy guides and workshops
  • National investing and trading competitions
  • Executive teams and school chapters across Canada
2,500+
students reached
1,000
free guides
$0
to take part
Visit CYFA
Civory logo

Founder & CEOFree public beta

Civory

A free search engine for public records. Ask a question the way you’d ask a person, like “How much does Canada spend on healthcare?” or “Did that border bill pass?”, and Civory searches official sources and answers in plain English, with links to the original documents.

  • Official sources from Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, plus data on 190+ countries
  • Government records first; news after, with a bias warning
  • Explains bills from both sides and says whether they became law
  • Document previews and citations for school work
190+
countries of data
Free
no account, no ads
Try Civory

Founder & CEOBeta

SpendLeak

A financial intelligence and expense-auditing platform that helps businesses find, investigate and recover money lost to overlooked billing errors. It compares invoices against contract terms, flags discrepancies, and turns them into evidence-backed investigations.

  • Catches duplicate invoices, supplier overcharges and wrong contract pricing
  • Finds unused credits and unnecessary subscriptions
  • AI-assisted analysis, evidence reports and recovery tracking
Find
money that leaked
Stop
it happening again
Try SpendLeak

Product leadLive

CYFA Trading

A practice market for CYFA’s student competitions: team leaderboards, live charts and simulated orders, all with virtual funds. Students learn how markets move without risking a dollar.

  • Team leaderboards and live charts
  • Simulated orders with virtual funds only
Virtual
funds only
Teams
and leaderboards
See the competition

Research & writing

Five papers across European law, monetary economics, banking and computation. SSRN papers are open preprints, not peer-reviewed journal articles.

European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg
LawSSRN preprint, 2026

Judicial Activism vs. Parliamentary Sovereignty: Assessing the Boundaries of ECHR Climate Jurisprudence

Where does rights protection end and elected authority begin? A look at the European Court of Human Rights and the new wave of climate litigation.

ECHRClimate litigationConstitutional lawRead paper
Wörgl stamp-scrip note from the 1932–33 demurrage experiment
EconomicsSSRN preprint, 2026

Who Pays for Expiring Money? The Hidden Regressivity of Demurrage and CBDC Expiry

Money that loses value over time sounds neutral. It isn’t. This paper traces who actually carries the cost, from 1930s stamp scrip to programmable digital currency.

CBDCsDemurrageDistributionRead paper
Federal Reserve Eccles Building in Washington, D.C.
FinanceSSRN preprint, 2026

Impact of Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Cycles on Regional versus Large-Cap Bank Stock Valuations: An Event Study (2022–2025)

An event study of how regional and large-cap bank stocks reacted to every Fed decision through the 2022–2025 hiking and cutting cycle.

Monetary policyEquitiesEvent studyRead paper
Rows of fibre-optic server racks in a data centre
TechnologySSRN preprint, 2026

Scale-Invariant Economic Security in Sampled-Audit Proof-of-Useful-Work

When is cheating a computation network never worth it? Incentives, audit costs and verification risk, worked out formally.

Mechanism designComputationSecurityRead paper
Scales of justice over a network of binary data
LawWorking paper, 2026

Beyond Intelligibility: Verifying Credit-Scoring Explanations under the GDPR after CK

How can a court check that an explanation of an automated credit decision is the real one? A proposal for discrepancy-triggered verification after CK (C-203/22).

GDPRAlgorithmic accountabilityEU lawAvailable on request

More of my work, and what I’m writing next, is on LinkedIn.

Follow on LinkedIn

Experience

Equity research, corporate law, legal casework and leading teams. Each one taught me a different way to think.

Current

Investment Analyst Intern

Finance Interview Coach · Wall Street Elite

Equity research on an undisclosed public company for a potential seven-figure investment by a private firm managing a $40M fund. I built the multi-year revenue model and worked through financials, earnings, competitive positioning, catalysts and risks to reach a recommendation.

Trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Current

Founder & CEO

Civory

Building a free search engine for public records that turns hard-to-find government information into clear answers with sources, across five countries and data on 190+ more.

Civory logo

Current

Founder & CEO

SpendLeak

Building an expense-auditing platform that helps businesses catch duplicate invoices, overcharges and wasted spending, then recover the money with evidence-backed reports.

SpendLeak logo

Current

Co-founder & President

Canadian Youth Finance Alliance

Leading a national non-profit that has reached 2,500+ students, from strategic operations to programming and chapter growth.

Former

Law Youth Summer Program

Corporate Law · University of Toronto, Jackman Faculty of Law

An intensive corporate-law program at U of T Law on legal frameworks, business transactions and legal analysis, through case studies and simulations led by lawyers and faculty.

Jackman Law Building at the University of Toronto

Current

GTA Chapter Trainer

Future Business Leaders of America

Training students for business and finance competitions after representing Team Canada myself at the National Leadership Conference in San Antonio.

FBLA logo

Former

Legal Assistant

JX Law Professional Corporation

Drafted documents, letters, contracts and forms under supervision. Researched case law and public records, gathered evidence, and summarized statutes and regulations for the lawyers.

JX Law logo

Former

President, Mock Trial

VP Mock Trials

Led case preparation, argument building and member training after a year as a member.

Victoria Park Mock Trial seal

Former

Chapter Executive

HOSA · Future Health Professionals, VPCI chapter

Helped run the school chapter and competed in Medical Law & Ethics, placing 14th at the HOSA Canada Fall Leadership Conference.

HOSA Canada logo

Competitions

The placings are nice. The real value was defending ideas under pressure, from Toronto to San Antonio to Harvard.

  1. 2nd National Financial Planners Conference Target Alpha, personal finance 2025
  2. Top 3 National Stock Trading Competition Target Alpha 2026
  3. Top 6 Securities & Investments FBLA, for Team Canada at NLC in San Antonio 2026
  4. Top 7 Accounting & Auditing Target Alpha National FPC 2026
  5. Semi Harvard UCP Pitch Competition Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners 2026
  6. Final National Stock Pitch Competition Target Alpha, pitched Magna International 2025
  7. Final Founders Den Startup competition 2026
  8. 14th Medical Law & Ethics HOSA Canada Fall Leadership Conference 2025

Where I spend my time

  • Target AlphaMember & competitorSince 2024
  • FBLACompetitor, then trainerSince 2025
  • HOSAVPCI executive & competitor2025 – 2026
  • DECAPrinciples of Finance2026
  • Peer tutoringAcross academic subjectsVolunteer
  • Canadian Young Physicists’ TournamentEvent coordinationVolunteer

Learning & credentials

Royal Conservatory of Music

Level 7 & 8 piano with Honours with Distinction, and Level 8 theory with First Class Honours with Distinction.

Education

Thornlea Secondary School, after the IB Diploma Programme at Victoria Park Collegiate (2024–2026).

Safety

Emergency First Aid with CPR-B and the Bronze Medallion, Lifesaving Society Canada.

Course certificates

  • Economics of Money and BankingColumbia UniversityAug 2025
  • Foundations of FinanceUniversity of CambridgeAug 2025
  • Fundamentals of Quantitative ModelingUniversity of PennsylvaniaAug 2025
  • Cryptocurrency and BlockchainUniversity of PennsylvaniaAug 2025
  • Microeconomics: When Markets FailUniversity of PennsylvaniaJul 2025
  • Narrative EconomicsYale UniversityJul 2025

I code across most languages, and these are the ones I reach for most.

  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Java
  • C++
  • SQL
  • R
  • React
  • Vite
  • Excel modelling
  • AI APIs
  • Legal databases

Where I’m headed

The goal

I want to become a lawyer in private equity, working where deals, capital and the law meet.

It brings together everything on this page: equity research, corporate law, and building companies from nothing.

What I believe
  • Representation for all. Everyone deserves a capable advocate, whoever they are.
  • Rights for everyone. Rights mean the most when they protect people equally, and they should keep growing.
  • Liberty under the rule of law. Fair, predictable rules let people and businesses make their own choices.
  • Law as a tool for good. A legal system that works is one of the best ways a society helps its people.

Off the clock

Research papers and spreadsheets aren’t the whole story. Here’s what I read, play, watch, eat, and overthink.

On the shelf

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, book cover
The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith

The one that keeps pulling me back to markets, incentives, and how societies organize wealth.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, book cover
The Psychology of MoneyMorgan Housel

Money through behaviour and human nature, not just numbers.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, book cover
Harry PotterJ.K. Rowling

Not everything has to be about the economy. The world-building still holds up.

A few of my favourites

My favourite sports, my favourite shows, and my favourite food. The things I reach for when I’m not working.

Two tennis rackets and balls on a clay court
Favourite sportTennis

Long rallies, patience, and one good serve.

Shuttlecock resting on a badminton racket
Favourite sportBadminton

Faster than it looks. Much faster.

Glass office tower against a blue sky
Favourite showSuits

Sharp dialogue, high-stakes negotiation, and the reason I still think about corporate law.

The Iron Throne made of swords
Favourite showGame of Thrones

A seven-season case study in power, legitimacy, and terrible succession planning.

A twirl of spaghetti carbonara on a dark plate
Favourite foodCarbonara

Eggs, pecorino, guanciale, pepper. No cream. Non-negotiable.

Two dinner guests from history

Winston Churchill giving the V sign outside 10 Downing Street
Winston Churchill

In 1940, with Europe falling and many in his own government pushing for a deal, he refused to give in. I’d ask how he kept a whole country going when nearly everyone said the fight was lost. That refusal to quit under pressure is the leadership lesson I come back to most.

Marble bust of the Roman emperor Commodus
Commodus

Not because I admire him. I’d just like to ask what on earth he was thinking.

  • Dropped his father Marcus Aurelius’s policies and left the empire to corrupt favourites
  • Drained the treasury and debased the currency
  • Purged senators after plots against him
  • Fought rigged gladiator fights as “Hercules” and renamed Rome after himself
  • Was assassinated in 192 CE, setting off civil war

Topics I could talk about for hours

Have an idea, a research question or a project worth talking about? I reply to every message.

CYFACivorySpendLeak

Toronto, --:--

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