8400 Students Compete in Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge, Building Real-World Investing Skills

Originally published on bloomberg.com

The Global Trading Challenge, Bloomberg’s annual Terminal-based event for students, attracted over 8400 students across 38 countries to compete in the 2023 virtual investment competition. Student participants invested $1 million virtual US dollars, using the Bloomberg Terminal to define market assumptions, develop a return-generating strategy, and execute notional trades within a closed network, while receiving support from faculty advisors and training from Bloomberg employees.

The challenge is designed to help students build marketable skills and the knowledge needed to compete for finance jobs. It also aims to provide hands-on experience that they will use in their future careers. Over 48,000 individual “trades” took place during the 2023 challenge, with AI stocks emerging as the most popular investment.

This year, the winning team from the University of Hong Kong had the highest pure relative return to the Bloomberg World Large, Mid & Small Cap Price Return Index (WLS Index). The team generated a +67.7% return over the six weeks of the challenge, for a final relative profit of +$637,399.

Regional Winners include: Rochester Institute of Technology (US), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Latin America), City University London (Bayes Business School) (Europe), NYU Abu Dhabi (Middle East), University of Hong Kong (Asia and Oceania).

Jocelyn Darmawan, Gavin Sayogo and Swarna Wijaya, the winners of this year’s challenge said: “The markets are so unpredictable – they really keep you on your toes. The markets are constantly changing based on all sorts of news and economic factors. If you get complacent, you’ll miss out on opportunities or make mistakes. But at the same time, all that movement also creates new chances to profit. The Bloomberg Terminal made analyzing companies and trends so simple. From key stats and analyst reports to news articles and company filings, we had everything we needed in one place.”

“Students across the globe have a unique opportunity to engage in real-world, experiential learning through the Global Trading Challenge,” said Emily Perrucci, Bloomberg Global Head of User Support. “Each year, the number of participating students and universities continues to grow and the competition gets steeper, creating an environment where students can sharpen their skills and stress test their investment theses among global participants. At Bloomberg, we are proud to be an innovative ed-tech leader and continue paving the way for the next generation of talent for the financial services industry.”

In addition to the challenge, Bloomberg offers access to a selection of certification courses, including the following: Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), Environmental Social Governance (ESG), and a newly launched course Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals (BFF). These courses provide self-paced modules that deliver guidance on how to navigate financial markets.

“The most helpful resource provided to us was the Bloomberg Market Concepts course,” said the winning team. “Not only did it help build our foundation of knowledge as beginners to financial markets, but the learning material also allowed us to earn our BMC certification to demonstrate our proficiency and understanding of core market principles. We think the modules did a great job laying out the essential concepts in an easy-to-follow and digestible way.”

“I am so proud of my team for winning this challenge in a fierce competition against over 2000 participating teams. It is an outstanding achievement that is a testament to the students’ hard work, commitment, and passion for finance,” said Dr. Maxime Thibault B. Couvert, Assistant Professor of Investments and Portfolio Analysis at the University of Hong Kong. “It is essential for our students to learn how to retrieve financial data from Bloomberg Terminals as it prepares them for their future career in the finance industry. The Bloomberg Lab at the University of Hong Kong is frequented by both researchers and students eager to gain real-world skills to become the next generation of financial professionals.”

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About Bloomberg for Education
Bloomberg for Education offers a suite of education technology products and services that immerse learners directly into the financial markets and provide research and analytics across multiple industries. Universities around the globe use Bloomberg to bring the real world of finance into the classroom, providing students with access to the same information platform used by leading decision makers in business, finance and government. For more information, visit: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/product/education/

About Bloomberg
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Media contact
US, Natanae Williams, nwilliams143@bloomberg.net, +1-646-324-3149