348. Trading olympiad
Uncategorized — By Dmitry Podolsky on April 11, 2009 at 5:03 am
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As usual, no physics today, True Geeks, only fun very distantly related to physics is allowed!
Interactive Brokers has just announced that the 2009 IB Collegiate Trading Olympiad is now over. What is the idea of the olympics? Naturally, an unspecified number of guys – mostly, students of various universities – each create a piece of software for online real-time trading and compete with each other trying to generate the largest profit. To enter the olympics, you don’t have to deposit a non-zero amount of your personal hard earned money to the IB account, while the prize money that you get after winning the competition are very much real: being the 1st will bring you $100000, the 2nd and 3rd – $50000, etc.
(click on the Fig. to see a bigger version)
This year, the Number One is Kevin Warner (who was also the 3rd in 2008!) – $150000=$75000/year would be a kind of nice addition to your fellowship if you are a student, wouldn’t it? 
My warmest congratulations!
The winner shares his strategy:
With respect to crude, I didn’t have a particular directional opinion, but rather was levered to profit from a big outright move (either way) or from a change in the price and implied volatility relationships between it and its products – RBOB gasoline and heating oil.
I bet this strategy is rather popular among WS professionals in 1000 dollar suits who make their billions in the same rather simple way
(By the way, last year he has played with volatility options – also, rather popular at that time.)
Regarding olympics, interestingly, a) Ahmed Taha (the number 2) was the leader for the entire competition, b) not all prizes were awarded – probably, not so many people were successful enough 
, c) to get $10000 you had to devliver a 30% gain for 2 months, d) and you had to deliver 260% gain for two months to become Kevin Warner.
Via uzhas-sovka.livejournal.com and pythagoruz.blogspot.com who ended 29th
8 Comments
In college there were competitions like this amongst my econ friends (one of which was a roommate). Amusingly its nearly always the same people year after year that perform at the top, a little bit like poker.
There is an art to the whole schtick, its not completely random.
I bet some of those guys are good poker players as well
Regarding college times – say, in Eaton, as I’ve heard, it is nowadays typical that every single student participates in a similar competition…
These are not bad prizes. E.g. for the victory in the Czechoslovak math olympiad, I received a backpack for $20.
So, did you participate in international olympics? Which year? I never went higher than regional level…
Yes, I did. It was a fun experience back in 1992. Other years were traveling to places like Saudi Arabia or Canada – while we went to … MOCKBA. But don’t get me wrong, I personally liked it.
A story how I was late at the Prague Airport – because I was helping a 200-kg woman to get to the Wenceslaus Square to a shop with clothes for extended women – became one of the descriptive stories of the event.
A pro-communist demonstration on Tvyorskaya St almost killed me, before I went to see Lenin in his mauseleum. I had to thank an aggressive Russian general “chto on osvobozhdal Pragu” but when I complained that they also brought us hardcore communism in 1968, they split into the liberal and conservative wing: the liberal wing, that didn’t want to kill me, barely won at the end.
The score was lousy for me: 4x 7 points, 2x 0 points (I believe one of them should have been 7, while the other was deserved 0): a bronze medal.
Ohohohohoh… ahahahahaha…bugagaga LOL
But my deepest respect in regards to how you treated that general
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