Following a carefully crafted trading model they developed in class, a team of College of Business students used split second timing to take first place in one of four events at the 2008 Rotman International Trading Competition at the University of Toronto.

     The UofL team of finance majors Brittany Boldery, John Hanzalik, Paige Battcher and econ/finance major Dustin Kostalek earned more money with their trading than any other team in the “Quantitative Outcry” competition.  The event required students to monitor the market and simultaneously coordinate the floor trading of a single index futures contract, including hand signaling trading information to the exchange floor.
     “The students experienced close-to-real-life trading platforms and got to interact and compete with students from diverse backgrounds,” said Finance Professor Imad Elhaj, the UofL team faculty advisor.  “They also had the opportunity to discuss career opportunities with sponsors such as British Petroleum, TD Securities and Cormak Securities.”
     Now in its fifth year, the RITC brings teams of business and finance students from around the globe to participate in a unique three-day conference at the Rotman School of Management’s state-of-the-art Financial Research and Training lab. The lab re-creates the Toronto stock exchange trading floor in both form and function.  It was the second appearance and the first win by a by a UofL team in the competition.
     In addition to the Quantitative Outcry event, teams had the opportunity to demonstrate skills in factor modeling, liquidity trading and energy trading events.
      “Some of the teams had traded professionally or been in simulated trading environments prior to the competition,” said Elhaj.  “But this was a first for our students.”
     Thirty-four teams from the U.S., Canada, China and Europe participated in the competition, including MIT, Johns Hopkins and China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.  Overall, the UofL team finished in the top 25.