Two-day trip to Toronto: several hundred dollars. Two finance courses: six credit hours. Combining real life experience with what is taught in the classroom: priceless.
A team of four undergraduate business majors, Ada Sim ’06, Lester Bourne ’06, David Gindek ’07 and Patrick Warch ’07, finished nineteenth out of 38 international college teams at the Rotman International Trading Competition held at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
“This experience gave us the opportunity to meet students from around the world and utilize our knowledge in finance,” said Sim who also explained that many of the teams were composed of graduate and doctoral students. “We were able to network and meet people who share the same interests.”
Sim and her classmates traveled to Toronto on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25 to compete in a simulated trading experience with students from around the world.
This was Fairfield University’s second year competing in the RITC and its first year competing with only undergraduate students as team members.
The students, who prepared for four cases with the help of Finance Professor Michael Tucker and two Fairfield University graduate students, John Pagano and Conor Ryan, were selected for the trip because of their dedication, determination, financial ability and teamwork skills, said Tucker.
The students found the experience very satisfying, because they were able to apply classroom lessons to a variety of real-life scenarios.
“It was a very rewarding experience,” said Warch. “It is one thing to learn about finance in the classroom, but once you can actually see it going on right in front of you, it gives you a completely new understanding and appreciation for it. I even felt a couple times doing trades when it just clicked and what I learned in the classroom made perfect sense all of a sudden.”
Tucker also felt that his students learn best from experience.
“My teaching philosophy is that people learn by doing,” said Tucker. “Learning is about participating and the Rotman International Trading Contest is a great way for students who have an understanding of finance to get engaged.”
The students utilized the finance courses they had taken while at Fairfield University, such as financial management and financial modeling to prepare for their trip, according to Sim. The students also prepared by creating Excel spreadsheets, in which they projected the price of an index or a company’s earnings per share.
Each student had the opportunity to compete in the role of being a trader or an analyst, which gave them experience with roles that they may later fulfill in the financial industry, said Sim.
The students conducted their simulation with the University of Toronto’s version of trading system software, which is called Rotman Interactive Trader.
“There were more options and information available to trade off of which made trading more exciting,” said Sim, who compared the software to the technology utilized in the BEST classroom at Fairfield University. “The entire set up of the Rotman Finance Lab was amazing and exceeded all my expectations.”
The team’s highest standing in four cases was twelfth and after two days of simulated trading they placed nineteenth out of 38 teams.
The students felt that a large portion of the team’s success was because of their preparation and the aid of Tucker before their trip.
Dr. Tucker was able to provide guidance, and his expertise in finance assisted us in knowing what we would encounter when we arrived at the competition,” Sim said.
Up against teams comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, the students were satisfied with their standings and hope next year’s team will be even more successful.
“We felt we did extremely well…because of the presence of strong universities from around the world as well as numerous graduate schools,” said Warch. “There were no weak participants, so we were very satisfied in finishing where we did.”
Sim was also pleased with the team’s results, and she also felt that the experience prepared her well for a career in finance.
“The competition provided us with a glimpse of what the financial industry could possibly be for us when we are finally in the ‘real world,'” she said.
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