After an eight-week Montreal Exchange Options Tradition Simulation national student competition, Bryon Chen, a Law and Business student at the Ted Rogers School of Business Management at Ryerson University, took home top honors and a $10,000 prize. The competition took place from September to December 2015 and tasked teams made up of full-time students, from undergraduate and MBA programs across Canada, with using a simulated online platform to trade options. The goal was to achieve the highest possible returns. Each team was provided with a virtual cash account of $100,000 to build their portfolio and were required to follow certain rules according to a Ryerson news story.
Bryon was one of over 1,900 teams from over 37 universities who participated. He received the highest return with a final virtual balance of $260,000, which is a 160% return. The University of Waterloo received second place, and the University of Regina came in third.
According to the news story, Bryon credits professor Edward Blinder’s teaching in FIN: 601 Derivatives as being essential to his win. “In FIN 601, there is a trading simulation component to the course,” said Bryon. “I decided to sign up for the [Montreal Exchange competition] to practice for FIN 601. I guess you could say I signed up for a practice sim to practice for a practice sim. The Montreal Exchange simulation really builds on the concepts I learned in FIN 601. I would recommend the Montreal Exchange competition and FIN 601 to any students who want to explore other possible avenues of investing.”
Bryon said that FIN 601 gave him a whole new outlook on investing that he used within the competition. It helped him to push against traditional, passive investing, and to be more active. For the competition, he used both passive and active strategies to achieve victory.