Baruch College Victorious Again at the 2021 Rotman International Trading Competition

March 10, 2021

Baruch College’s winning streak at the Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC) continued in 2021 as two teams—composed of four students each—finished in first and second place at this year’s event.

Over the last six competitions, Baruch also secured the top spot in 2020, 2017 and 2016.

“The success of our students is a tribute to their great consistency and self-discipline, their intensive preparation for the competition, and their trading and analytical skills,” said Dan Stefanica, PhD, co-director of Baruch College’s Master of Financial Engineering program. “Our students demonstrated outstanding teamwork throughout.”

The 2021 virtual event, hosted by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, featured student traders, analysts and risk managers on 45 teams representing 40 universities from across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America. Each team tackled simulated trading cases that closely mimic different aspects of real-world markets.

“It was an unusual year, as some of our students have not met each other in person. We held all of our meetings and the competition itself over Zoom,” said head coach Jarrod Pickens, PhD, lecturer in Weissman’s Department of Mathematics.

Pickens added, “The students were very dedicated and maintained a rigorous training schedule. One of our team members even participated from Hong Kong, often practicing with us very early in the morning or late at night. Having Zoom practices definitely helped in this regard. Previously we would have been unable to practice as frequently and at unusual times.”

Meet Baruch’s Winning Teams

The first place team consisted of Shawn Roy, Jordan Wang, Simon Xiong, and Nelson Yeung. The team who finished in second place was comprised of Kai Ge, Tafhim Islam, Mohammed Jahan, and Simon Mei.

Baruch teams scored first and second in the liquidity risk case, first and third in commodities trading, and third and seventh in algorithmic trading.

The 2021 Rotman International Trading Competition was Wang’s (’21) first trading event that he will remember for a long time.

“Under Coach Pickens’ leadership, we’ve gone through a lot of preparation and systematic training, which was great for coming up with a plan and team building,” Wang said. “In the actual competition, we simply trusted each other, executed the plan under pressure, and left it all on the table. I am really pleased with the result, and so grateful for all my teammates, and Jarrod especially!”

Even though he is currently living in Hong Kong, Nelson Yeung (’21) expressed appreciation for his teammates who found time to practice with him despite the major time zone difference.

“Our team paid great attention to those practice sessions before the competition to ensure our network was stable,” said Yeung, a first-time competitor who stayed up until 2:00 a.m. to finish the event. “The whole experience was absolutely thrilling and rewarding. The intense atmosphere challenged our team to handle all the unexpected. Seeing all the efforts finally paid off is the greatest treasure to us.”

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