For the last 17 years, participation in the Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC) – the largest undergraduate and postgraduate simulated market challenge in the world -  involved journeying to Canada and attending the 3-day event in person in at the University of Toronto, which clearly sets up a barrier to participation. 

Because of Covid restrictions, this year, RITC moved online, opening up the field of potential participants. To acknowledge the reduction in workshops and networking, and the sacrifice of two competition areas, they dubbed it the Celebration Edition (RITC-CE); however, the competition element was to the same high standard as always and even more intense, as the three chosen disciplines were tested in just one day: a Commodities case (sponsored by BP); a Liquidity Risk case; and an Algorithmic Trading case.  

National College of Ireland (NCI) fielded a team for the first time ever: Tengis Ganzorig, Joana Marcial, Taylor Nally and Gavin O’Brien, under faculty adviser, Dr Gaia Barone, Lecturer of Economics and Finance at NCI. 

The challenges for the team of being a first-time competing college included: 

• No prior participant experience or institutional history to draw on and learn from 

• Learning the Rotman International Trading (RIT) software for the first time 

• No existing model on which to base the trading algorithm that must be built by each team, so that it had to be created from scratch. 

The latter was a particular stretch for the NCI Team, all final year students in the 3-year BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance, as programming is not part of their coursework. However, they undertook that steep learning curve, and the algorithm they built served them well - even in competition with Financial Engineering postgrads! 

Overall, the team placed 28th in a field of 45, beating out teams from UCLA’s Master’s in Financial Economics (29th) and Harvard University (38th). 

For an Irish context, Trinity College Dublin, building on previous experience in the competition, fielded two teams this year. One of their teams placed 23rd, just ahead of NCI, and the second team placed 32nd, just behind NCI. Specifically in the BP Commodities case, NCI beat both TCD teams, placing 19th overall to their 28th and 33rd. 

What it was like to take part 

Tengis Ganzorig led the team: “I was very keen to participate when I realised the calibre of the other schools that take part in this competition. Because we were the first team from NCI to ever compete, the biggest challenge was ensuring we had the tools we needed – I worked hard to improve my Excel skills in VBA and developed a building knowledge of REST API usage in Python. Luckily, my teammates were equally committed.” 

Joana Marcial notes: “I was initially uncertain about participating and Tengis’ encouragement and belief in my abilities went a long way towards giving me the confidence to join the team. I am so glad I did, not just because we placed so well on our first time out, but because I can feel the value of the work we did: our competition training had us working long sessions together online, often until 1 or 2 in the morning – we would get so caught up in the work, we wouldn’t notice the time go. We were still training and learning up to 1am on the morning of the competition.” 

Taylor Nally adds: “We each brought different strengths to the table and made sure to work on our communication as well as the more obvious skills-requirements of the competition – this meant we were really able to operate as a team. We also had practice sessions on the Rotman International Trading software, which is where we first had a chance to compete with other colleges, sizing up the opposition, but also adjusting both the algorithm we had built and our strategies.” 

Gavin O’Brien agrees: “The practice sessions were very exciting – our team placed 2nd in one of the Algorithmic Trading sessions, which was a real boost to us; and I was personally very proud to place an individual 4th during a Liquidity Risk session – that’s 4th out of 180 students from some of the best colleges in the world! Trading is my passion, so that really meant something to me.” 

The competition day itself brought another unusual circumstance as, to ensure secure connectivity, the 4 teammates met in person (safely) on campus at NCI.  

 “It was brilliant but bizarre to be meeting up in person,” says Gavin. “None of us had been on campus since March 2020, the campus itself was pretty much empty except for us. But it meant we could be certain there would be no interruptions to our RIT connection and it made for instant communication amongst ourselves, as we made a variety of speedy decisions. This was especially important for the BP Commodities case – there was information that only Tengis would receive, so he had to share it with myself and Taylor ASAP for us to have any advantage. He made a piece of software that interpreted the news and calculated a potential price for the futures contracts, which was scarily accurate all through the practice sessions, including the competition. I still don't completely know how he did it, but it worked brilliantly!” 

“The competition was intense. First up was the BP Commodities case, for which we were each assigned roles,” explains Taylor. “Joana was the Producer, so she was given access to RCAs (Revealed Comparative Advantages) and had to decide when to sell them or make crude oil. She was in direct contact with Tengis, who was the Refiner, and could purchase crude oil from Joana at a discount and also had to communicate the potential future for the prices of Crude Oil and Gas and Heating Oil to myself and Gavin, who were the Traders, and we then had to enter speculative positions on those Futures.” 

“We had only come together as a group three weeks before the competition and, at first, the BP Commodities case, which had us trading in a closed supply and demand market, was the one we found most challenging,” says Joana. “But it turned into the one we most enjoyed, which shows in that it was the case we did best in. I think we did so well so quickly because each member of the team put in the same strong effort, and we all seemed to grasp things quickly and learn and improve quickly, so there was a great energy in the team. We knew we could rely on each other.” 

“Myself, Joana and Taylor ultimately want to use our qualification to become accountants,” says Tengis, “whereas Gavin wants to work in Finance and was trading on his own account before he even started at NCI, and I think his enthusiasm rubbed off on us all for the Liquidity Risk case, as well as his experience proving valuable. He also worked closely with me in creating and adjusting the algorithm for the final competition of the day from a trading perspective, as did Taylor and Joana in undertaking user-testing.” 

“Our schedule for the actual competition was tight,” outlines Gavin. “They were operating on Eastern Standard Time: 8.50-10.05am for BP Commodities; 10.20-11.35am for Liquidity Risk; and then 11.50am-1.05pm for Algorithmic Trading; it meant we were heading into lunchtime when we got started. It was as intense as it sounds! I think it was good we started with BP commodities, as we got through any nerves by working together. The "risk" part of the Liquidity Risk case refers to the risk that there wouldn't be enough liquidity in the orderbook to unwind out of losing positions; so we needed to adequately reduce our positions when we saw potential risk of huge losses, so it’s a balancing game of trying to max out your positions while still leaving yourself with enough in hand to accept new offers and to be able to cover your losses.” 

“For the Liquidity Risk case, we each traded within our own strategic comfort-zones,” explains Taylor, “The weighted average of all four Profit and Loss balances was the overall score for the team in the competition. Then we were back in close communication for the Algorithmic Trading. Putting ourselves in a position to be able to participate at all in this competition, coming up against postgraduates specifically undertaking Financial Engineering courses, and having the algorithm we built to automate trading strategies do so well… well, it’s very satisfying. I’m very proud of us!” 

Joana nods in agreement: “We did so very well! I found the idea of this competition to be quite daunting, but when we started in working on the different elements, and I realised what I could do, what I could offer, it has made me far more confident. I think what made us really strong is that we listened to each other, so while we were in competition with 44 other colleges, we were never in competition with each other. We were delighted when one of us excelled in a specific area, we didn’t see it as an individual threat but as a team strength. And we also had the chance to meet students from all over the world.” 

“Breakout rooms with random assignments meant we were communicating with our peers all over the world,” says Tengis. “There were games to act as ice breakers and get us chatting. For all that the competition was serious, we competitors were also quick to congratulate each other when we did well, and there was a real sense of camaraderie. We all shared LinkedIn profiles and connected with each other, and there are definitely a couple of people I’ll continue talking to long after this competition.” 

Faculty adviser, Dr Gaia Barone, has this to say about the team, “They are all exceptionally hard-working students. The final year of a degree course is stressful enough, but they took on the additional work of this competition with good will. Tengis, Joana and Taylor have already secured graduate programme positions with Grant Thornton, EY and Baker Tilly Hughes Blake, respectively, and Gavin intends to proceed to postgraduate level to further his knowledge of financial risk management. 

“It’s clear that participating in RITC-CE will look good on a CV; this is an internationally prestigious competition. Even online, there is a unique chance to network with international peers. On a personal level, it is brave to put yourself forward for something like this, as you are pitting yourself against the most promising students in the world and, even had our team not placed so well, I think the stretch of competing would have been rewarding. Undertaking the learning curve, practicing and training to get yourself ‘match-fit’ brings a profound value, rather than just being another thing to talk about in future job interviews. 

Dr Barone continues, “I hope that this is just the first time NCI takes part in RITC. I will be working towards a team travelling to Toronto next year to take part in the next three-day, ‘real world’ event. This may well require external sponsorship, but I think it is a competitive effort that any company would be proud to be associated with.

"Tengis, Joana, Taylor and Gavin are trailblazers for NCI.”