FBIT students take third place at international finance competition

A team of four University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Finance students recently earned an impressive third-place finish against more than 45 teams at the University Trading Challenge.

The team included the following students enrolled in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology’s (FBIT) Bachelor of Commerce program:

• Pherroz Ansari (fourth year)
• Alex Lee (fourth year) – winner of the Best Individual FOREX Trader Award
• William Lee (third year)
• Weiyi Lu (third year)

“This achievement highlights the strong technology-based training we provide our students at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology,” said Dr. Chinmay Jain, Assistant Professor, FBIT. “Doing well in a competition that involves universities from the U.S. and Canada not only boosts the confidence of our students, but also provides visibility to our university at an international level. Participating in these competitions also prepares our students to fill challenging roles in the industry after they graduate.”

The challenge is open to full-time students in finance, economics and related programs. It includes four components:

• case competition
• investment banking challenge
• portfolio challenge
• trading challenge

Participants tested their finance skills by completing:

• Month-long portfolio management case: trading portfolios of real stocks, currencies and fixed incomes.
• Investment banking project pitch: mitigating the risk of opening a new gold mine in Australia.
• FOREX trading case: trading currencies.
• Portfolio news management case: responding to a simulated news report.

The first-ever Canadian competition was held at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.