Reading students triumph in prestigious international trading competition – University of Reading
06 March 2006
The ICMA Centre at the University of Reading has won first-prize in the prestigious 3rd annual Rotman International Trading competition held at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The team of 4 traders beat 37 other teams from a veritable "Who's Who" of the best finance schools in the world including M.I.T (Sloan School of Management), Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business) and Duke University (Fuqua School of Business). The competition involved trading four separate trading cases which ranged from simple open outcry futures trading to a complex quantitative analysis case which utilises simulated trading software. The competition was at the highest level and by all accounts very intense, but once again the ICMA Centre produced a winning team having come 3rd in 2004 and 2nd in 2005. "This is a major achievement and reflects the success of our applied approach to teaching finance," said Dr Michael Smith, Dealing Room Director at the ICMA Centre. He added: "The Centre is relatively new compared to some of the more established US schools, but our hands-on approach to teaching has produced students of the highest quality who are, in terms of their practical usefulness to an investment bank, far ahead of those who have had a more traditional theoretical finance education." John Board, Director of the ICMA Centre, commented: "This win is especially welcome in light of the recent £5m donation to the University of Reading from The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) to fund further development of the ICMA Centre. This development will include a new state-of-the-art 50-station dealing room which will further enhance the ICMA Centre's practical edge in finance education." Gordon Marshall, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, added: "The continuing commitment of the International Capital Market Association to the University of Reading since it helped found Europe's first simulated trading room at Reading in 1994, highlights the University of Reading's ability to produce some of the best finance graduates in Europe as demonstrated by this excellent win." Geert van der Heyden, Chairman of ICMA's Education Committee, said: "The value of ICMA's sustained investment in finance education through the ICMA centre, focusing particularly on the practical aspects of trading, has been amply demonstrated by the success of the ICMA Centre team in this prestigious global trading competition." Ends Image available on request. For media enquiries please contact: Dr Michael Smith, Dealing Room Director, ICMA Centre. E: m.j.smith@icmacentre.rdg.ac.uk T: 0118 378 6769 M: 0790 8029451 Eleanor Holmes, press officer, University of Reading E: e.m.holmes@rdg.ac.uk T: 0118 378 6166 Notes for editors 1 International Capital Market Association (ICMA) ICMA is the self-regulatory organisation and trade association representing the investment banks and securities firms issuing and trading in the international capital market worldwide. ICMA's members are located in some 50 countries across the globe, including all the world's main financial centres, and currently has over 400 member firms. ICMA was created in July 2005 by the merger of the International Securities Market Association (ISMA) and the International Primary Market Association (IPMA). The Association is based in Switzerland, with a wholly owned subsidiary – ICMA Ltd - in London. http://www.icma-group.org 2 The ICMA Centre The ICMA Centre (formerly the ISMA Centre) opened on campus at Reading in 1991 to offer an academic Masters programme in International Securities, Investment and Banking. Funded entirely by ICMA, the centre houses a lecture theatre, extensive research facilities, seminar rooms, library and computer rooms. State of the art dealing rooms, designed to provide students with unique hands-on experience of financial markets, are an essential part of the facility. The Centre changed its name to the ICMA Centre in September 2005. http://www.icmacentre.rdg.ac.uk 3 The University of Reading The University of Reading is one of the top 20 research intensive universities in the UK, and internationally recognised for the excellence of its teaching on a broad range of Arts, Humanities and Sciences programmes. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, 15 departments were awarded the grade of 5, with five designated the top rating of 5* (Archaeology, English, Italian, Meteorology and Psychology). The University consistently achieves high ratings for the quality of its teaching from the national Quality Assurance Agency. For more information, visit http://www.reading.ac.uk