Spears School students compete in international trading competition
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
A team of four finance graduate students from the Oklahoma State University Spears
School of Business recently placed 20th out of 43 teams in the 2010 Rotman International
Trading Competition in Toronto, Canada. The annual competition took place February
18 through 20 and is designed to give students the opportunity to compete in today’s
dynamic energy and commodity trading environment.
Team members Karin Kinnerud, Divya Krishnan, Kyle Mendenhall and Michael Gentry are
all students within the Master’s of Science in Quantitative Financial Economics (MSQFE)
program in the finance department at OSU. The team was co-advised by Ali Nejadmalayeri,
assistant professor of finance, and Tim Krehbiel, professor of finance and MSQFE program
coordinator.
“The contest consists of five trading competitions - four electronic trading and one
outcry competition,” said Nejadmalayeri said. “Overall, we are ranked 20th out of
43 teams - a list that includes an elite group of schools like Chicago, MIT, Penn
State, the University of Toronto, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Northwestern, the University
of Western Ontario, Drexel and West Point Academy.”
For the first time, the competition had a fully automated ‘algorithmic trading’ in
which a student-developed computer program trades automatically. This is cutting-edge
and is all the rage in Wall Street, Nejadmalayeri said. In addition, the existing
trading competitions also were changed to reflect the challenging trading environment
of the real world today.
“Once again, I had a great time attending the Rotman Trading Competition,” Mendenhall
said. “This event has really helped me to figure out the direction I want to take
my career in finance as it has given me as close to a real world experience as possible
outside of being an actual trader.”
The OSU team is proud to continue a winning tradition at the RITC after the 2008 win
in the Sales and Trading division.
The Rotman Trading Competition was an eye-opener,” Krishnan said. “It gave me a chance
to put to practice the knowledge and skills developed in the MSQFE program and also
prepared me to face the ‘real trading arena!’
For more information about RITC or the OSU team, contact Ali Nejadmalayeri at 918-594-8399
or visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/financial/lab/competitions-itc09-home.
Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines
to better prepare students for a new world. Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide
presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world.
The Spears School of Business is dedicated to the original land-grant vision of integrated,
high-quality teaching, research and outreach. For more information, call 405-744-5064
or visit spears.okstate.edu.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ostatenews/4422718046/
CUTLINE: A team of four finance graduate students from the Oklahoma State University
Spears School of Business recently placed 20th out of 43 teams in the 2010 Rotman
International Trading Competition. Team members Karin Kinnerud (left), Kyle Mendenhall,
Divya Krishnan and Michael Gentry were advised by Ali Nejadmalayeri, assistant professor
of finance, and Tim Krehbiel, professor of finance and MSQFE program coordinator.