Toronto – With a challenging global environment for travel continuing, two trading competitions which were historically held in person were hosted online last month by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
The fourth editions of both the Rotman UNIST Trading Competition (RUTC) and the Rotman European Trading Competition (RETC) took place using the resources in the Rotman School’s BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab, including the RIT Market Simulator, an order-driven market simulator, which was developed in-house at the Rotman School. The online format allowed student traders from across the world to connect and engage in a competitive format, as well as to network with sponsors and each other.
On August 19, a student team representing KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has won the RUTC with teams from the Seoul National University and Yonsei University placing second and a team from UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) placing third. The competition attracted 75 participants taking on roles as traders, analysts, and risk managers in 21 teams representing 21 universities in South Korea.
Just over a week later on August 27, a team from the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia won the RETC 2021, with the a team from the University of Warsaw Faculty of Economic Sciences placing second and a team from LUISS University of Rome placing third. The competition attracted 124 participants taking on roles as traders, analysts, and risk managers on 31 teams representing 26 universities from 19 European countries.
“The competitions brought everyone together interacting in a unique way leveraging the RIT Market Simulator and associated Decision Cases which are custom applications under the Simulation-Based Learning Portfolio managed by the Lab,” says Bachir Chehab, associate director of the BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab.
“Our competition cases, delivered on the RIT Market Simulator platform, challenge students to derive robust strategies to manage uncertainty by applying probabilistic thinking and developing real-time decision-making skills in a variety of roles,” adds Prof. Tom McCurdy, who is the Bonham Chair in International Finance at the Rotman School and the founder and current academic co-director of the Lab.
“In addition to skills developed for specific Decision Cases, students learn how to work as a team while exercising judgment to deal with uncertainty about future market outcomes, improving their decision-making to help them in their future careers,” says Prof. Craig Geoffrey, academic co-director of the Lab.
The sponsor of the RUTC competition was Ulsan Metropolitan City and the gold-level sponsor of the RETC competition was Enel. Silver level sponsors were European Investment Bank (EIB) institute and Intesa Sanpaolo and bronze level sponsors included Leonardo and GResearch.
The Rotman’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 RIT Market Simulator, which is used by 60 universities and financial institutions around the world. The Lab is utilized by classes in many of Rotman’s programs including its Master of Finance, Master of Financial Risk Management, MBA, and Rotman Commerce programs. Further information on the lab is available online.
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.