Three teams of students representing Baruch College ranked within the top five spots in the 18th annual Rotman International Trading Competition.

Proclaiming to be the world’s largest trading competition on its website, RITC is a usually three-day challenge held by the University of Toronto, where teams of university students and a faculty advisor participate in a marketing simulation. Activities include networking events, practitioner-led workshops and trading cases involving algorithms, liquidity, open outcry and options.

The 2022 competition ran virtually for one day on Feb. 25, with 53 universities from 16 countries at wits with each other. This is the seventh year Baruch has participated in RITC and the fifth consecutive year the college has won.

Baruch’s Team B won first place overall and ranked first in the MATLAB volatility case simulation. Overall, Team C won second place and ranked first in the liquidity risk case simulation. Team A ranked fourth place overall and ranked third in liquidity risk.

There were 22 students on the winning team: Thomas George, Mohammed Jahan, Yusu Kong, Lingzhi Lin, Zixuan Liu, Shawn Roy, Chaofan Shen, Yurun Song, Jiahao Sun, Zihan Sun, Qiao Wang and Kai Zhang. Many of them have expressed how RITC is helping them with their careers.

“I think preparing for events like Rotman Trading is really helpful if you want to start your career in the financial industry, as it gives a very good simulation of trading in the real market,” participant Yurun Song said. “Though they are different in many aspects, the key points are the same: it is all about logical thinking, speed and communication.”

For participant Qiao Wang, the competition was a means to find self-esteem.

“The greatest gift RITC gave me must be confidence,” Wang said. “For my future career, I have a strong belief that if I want to achieve something, then make the effort and go for it.”

Baruch math professor and team coach Jarrod Pickens also said the participants were able to utilize free time in January and February to practice for RITC. Participant Shawn Roy was not surprised by the results given their hard work and credited his undergraduate program for preparing him for the competition.

“Baruch shows up to win,” Roy said. “The undergrad financial math major is a great program that equipped me with the skills to be successful at many trading competitions (Rotman, MIT, UChicago, and Berkeley), and land my dream trading role at Chicago Trading Company.”

While a few are undergraduates studying financial mathematics, most of the participants are enrolled in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences’ Master of Financial Engineering program, according to a press release. Baruch emphasized that the MFE program, which QuantNet ranks as No. 1 in the United States, helped lead these students to victory.

“MFE students take a course in market microstructure models, which helps them understand market behavior,” Pickens added.

Those who won and are in the MFE program encourage others interested in studying financial engineering to take advantage of the opportunities it provides.

“There is no doubt that being part of Baruch’s MFE program is beneficial,” Song said. “It provides us with very high-quality courses and very helpful career services, as well as a platform to know more about the finance industry.”