One team from the Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) Program took third place among more than 50 rivals and first place among U.S. teams in the Rotman International Trading Competition, the largest trading competition in the world. A second Berkeley MFE team finished fourth among U.S. competitors and took the “gold” in an options case.
Berkeley MFE Team A, which took third overall in the Rotman competition Feb. 20 to Feb. 22 in Toronto, consisted of Varun Tomar, Weijian Chuah, Darren Ho, Ekaterina Matrosova, Gursahib Narula, and Wilson Wong. (Teams from LUISS University in Italy and Université Laval in Canada tied for first in the competition.) Among U.S. competitors, Berkeley MFE Team A outflanked such schools as MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Cornell, and the University of Chicago.
What set the Berkeley MFE Team A apart was how each student consistently performed well in every trading session. "Every team member trusted and pushed one another to perform to the best of their abilities, as they have been doing since the beginning of the program," says MFE Executive Director Linda Kreitzman.
The MFE Team A students consistently performed extremely well across different asset classes, earning “silver” in the CIBC Yield Curve (Interest Rate) Trading Case, “bronze” in the BP Commodities Trading Case, sixth in the Options Trading Case, and ninth in both the Sales and Trader and Algorithmic Trading cases.
The Berkeley MFE Team B won the “gold” in the Options Case, earning a cash prize. The team consisted of Queeny Cheng, Jun Du, David Elledge, Mayank Gupta, Rahul Gupta, and Alex Li.
The Berkeley MFE Team B also placed fourth overall in the Algorithmic Trading Case and was the top American team with an algorithm that consistently made profits. They finished fourth among American teams and 15th worldwide. "Like Team A, Team B's success can be attributed to the efforts they set forth in each and every case, something they have consistently practiced in the program," says Kreitzman.
MFE students on both teams gave kudos to MFE High Frequency Trading Lab Manager Charles McCutchen, who worked tirelessly to help them by painstakingly customizing cases to replicate the scenarios the teams actually encountered during the competition and providing strategic advice and guidance on risk management before the competition.
Berkeley MFE Team B: Mayank Gupta, Jun Du, David Elledge, Queeny Cheng, Rahul Gupta, and Alex Li.