Toronto – Canadian schools took five of the top six spots in one of the world’s most competitive student trading competitions held at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School last week. The 16th annual Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC) attracted more than 350 participants on February 21 to 23 including student traders, analysts and risk managers representing 52 different universities from sixteen countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Winning the competition for the third time was a team from Université Laval who performed well across all six cases. A team from the University of Calgary finished second overall, the University of Waterloo was 3rd, and LUISS University of Rome was 4th. A team from the University of Ottawa finished 5th while a team from the University of Toronto representing three different programs finished 6th. Team members included Michael Cui and Earnest Lok from the Rotman Master of Financial Risk Management program; Fiona Bi and Raymond Lei from the Master of Financial Economics program; and Vlad Kovalenko and Egor Shubin from the Commerce program at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
“Just like pilots who use flight simulators to learn and practice skills, our participants used simulations to practice deriving effective business decisions, for example, to manage risks, trade volatility and implement algorithmic arbitrage,” says Prof. Tom McCurdy, the Bonham Chair in Finance, who is also the academic director of the lab and the competition. “The simulation environment also allows us to add timely topics from current policy discussions such as our addition of a market for carbon credits.”
The competition was held in the Rotman School’s BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab and utilized the Rotman Interactive Trader, an order-driven market simulator, which was developed in-house at the Rotman School. During the competition teams participated in various activities including electronic and outcry trading cases, seminars with industry practitioners, and social events with their fellow competitors.
BP and Bridgewater Associates werethe gold sponsors of the competition. Silver Sponsors included Citadel Securities, Flow Traders and MathWorks. Bronze sponsors were S&P Global Market Intelligence andthe Rotman Master of Financial Risk Management program.
The Rotman School’s BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab is designed to promote experiential learning: integrating markets, data and research with practice making financial decisions. The competition cases are implemented on the highly acclaimed Rotman Interactive Trader application, a market simulation tool being used in 60 universities and financial institutions around the world. The Lab is utilized by classes in many of the Rotman School’s programs including its Master of Finance, Master of Financial Risk Management, MBA and Rotman Commerce programs. Further information on the lab is available at http://financelab.rotman.utoronto.ca/
The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.
For more information:
Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
Voice 416.946.3818
E-mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca