A team of undergraduate finance students from UWindsor’s Odette School of Business walked away with top honours this past weekend among 300 student traders from around the world, during the 12th annual Rotman International Trading Competition at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

The team, managed by Erdal Gunay, an associate professor and director of the Odette Financial Markets Lab, placed first among Canadian schools, second among North America schools and third in the world among undergraduate and graduate students.

“They brought the difficulty level of the competition up this year which made it more challenging for all the teams,” says team leader Andrew Atkins, the only veteran member of the crew. “RITC is the world’s largest trading simulation, so by doing well here we know that we’re getting top-level education at Odette. It really validates our program and the kinds of skills we are developing.”

Dr. Gunay says the introduction of a course in trading this past fall not only helped to teach the vital skills needed for the Odette team to shine on a worldwide scale, but brought together a team of four students dedicated to an unprecedented performance.

“The key is that these individuals worked very well together,” Gunay says. “They’re all different but they bring their talent and skills and hard work to the table. They joke around and they’re friends but they have success because each of them has something they are very good at.”

The team says that they were fortunate to have a veteran in Atkins, whom they credit with building team strategy with sound judgement. Other team members include Dylon Shepley, who is noted for his calmness under pressure; Gianluca Tucci, who brought real-life trading experiences from internships at Suncor and Scotia Capital and an intuitive ability to analyze the markets; and the focus and intelligence of Ziliang Jiang.

The competition took place in the Rotman Trading Lab and included such activities as electronic and outcry trading, as well as seminars with industry practitioners.

“This competition and the preparation involved is another way in which Odette students develop important real-world skills, in this case readying them for successful careers in financially based occupations,” says Allan Conway, dean of the Odette School of Business. “These students have really shown that dedication and teamwork paired with excellent faculty leadership is the key to outstanding learning.”