UTAR students to compete in International Commodity Trading Challenge

Four teams of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) students are in the running for a paid summer internship with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group in Chicago after they were selected to compete in the Commodity Trading Challenge, an international derivatives trading game.

The four teams, comprising two undergraduate teams and two graduate teams, will represent UTAR in the global challenge to be held in the first quarter of 2012.

The Commodity Trading Challenge, an international electronic and open outcry competition, is an annual competition organised by CME Group and supported by Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad (BMD) as part of its efforts to educate and raise awareness on derivatives trading. This will be the first year that BMD is sending participating teams for the Commodity Trading Challenge.

The Malaysian leg of the Commodity Trading Challenge - Bursa Commodities Trading Challenge 2012 - held between 16 and 19 January 2012, had eight teams of UTAR undergraduates and two teams of UTAR graduates competing against each other in simulating trading in crude palm oil and equity index futures.

For the challenge, each team was allocated a mock sum of money to buy and sell the relevant derivatives contracts and the teams were judged on their ability to fill orders and utilise proper trading techniques. Before the competition, the students attended a two-day workshop conducted by Phillip Futures where they were given an introduction to futures and taught to use the trading system to execute trades.

In addition to representing the university, the top four teams each took home RM1,000 in cash and vouchers, certificates and two bagfuls of prizes sponsored by BMD and Phillip Futures.

Chong Kim Seng, Chief Executive Officer of BMD and Andy Lim Say Kiat, Group Managing Director of Phillip Capital Malaysia, the holding company of Phillip Futures, gave away the prizes to the teams at a simple prize-giving ceremony held at the UTAR Kuala Lumpur Campus in Setapak.

Dr Goh Yong Kheng, Head of UTAR's Department of Mathematical and Actuarial Sciences, was also present to witness the ceremony.

"BMD and Philip Futures have been very active in raising the awareness of the public regarding financial instruments," supervising lecturer Liew Kian Wah said. "Prior to this challenge, we also had a talk given by them regarding the local futures market. We are looking forward to having closer collaborations with them in the future."

Through the competition, students will have the opportunity to learn from experts and practitioners in the futures trading industry.

Eugene Loh of Phillip Futures sharing his commodity trading knowledge with members of the winning teams in a computer lab at UTAR Kuala Lumpur Campus.

Group photo: The winning team members posing with Dr. Goh (in the middle), Chong (on Goh's right) and Lim (on Goh's left), and representatives from BMD and Phillip Futures.

Chong presenting a certificate to Chin Kiew Weng, one of the winning team members.