GREENWICH, CT, March 26, 2009 — Interactive Brokers Group (IBG), a global leader in electronic market-making and brokerage services, today announced the winner of its fourth annual electronic trading Olympiad for colleges. Since there is a shortage of top-notch technologists, IBG created the Olympiad to highlight the growing need for engineers and computer science professionals in the financial services industry. IBG is awarding $400,000 in prizes to students.
This year's winner is Kevin Warner currently studying at Columbia University, in New York. Starting with $1,000,000 in phantom money, his program traded implied options volatility on a variety of energy-related contracts on the NYMEX -- growing his account to a final balance of $3,436,950 by the end of the eight-week competition and pocketing him the premier $100,000 prize.
"In 2009, we noticed an increase in the number of professors at universities inquiring about enrolling entire classes because they saw the clear potential of participating in such a demanding program. 2008 was undoubtedly a turning point for the global economy and one that will mark significant changes to risk management systems as a result. We will continue to highlight the growing need for financial programmers within the demanding risk management industry. By recruiting talented programmers and showing them how this company has helped pioneer electronic trading since 1977, Interactive Brokers is preparing the next generation of technology engineers for opportunities in the demanding field of technology for capital markets," said Andrew Wilkinson, Director of Media Communications at Interactive Brokers Group.
The College Trading Olympiad continues to attract the attention of university professors and their students with applications coming from 41 countries for the 2009 Olympiad with 372 applications accepted. In 2009, students from far-away places including Argentina, Costa Rica, Estonia, Indonesia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Turkey and South Africa took part. The contest ran for eight weeks ending March 6, with each contestant submitting an automated trading plan to generate as much money as possible subject to a minimum of 25 trades.
Trades were generated by student-created computer algorithms in any asset class – equities, options, futures, warrants, bonds and currencies that is directly accessible from Interactive Brokers direct access trading platform. Various programming languages were allowed, including Java, C++, C, DDE, and Visual Basic.
IBG also awarded two students second-place prizes of $50,000 each, 10 students
third-place prizes of $10,000 each, and up to 100 students “placing prizes” of
$1,000 each. Student and school winners as well as Olympiad details are posted
at
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/IBTradingOlympiad.php.
Universities interested in using Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation's paper-trading application should email media@interactivebrokers.com.
About Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is an automated
global electronic market maker and broker specializing in routing orders
and executing and processing trades in securities, options, futures, foreign
exchange
instruments, bonds, and funds on more than 80 electronic exchanges and
trading venues around the world. The company provides professional traders
and investors
with direct access to stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds.
Employing proprietary software on electronic exchanges worldwide, Interactive
Brokers
is continuously integrating its software with a growing number of exchanges
and
trading venues into one automatically functioning, computerized platform
that requires minimal human intervention.
Interactive Brokers LLC is a member of NYSE/FINRA/SIPC. Supporting documentation for any claims and statistical information will be provided upon request.
Contacts
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.
Andrew Wilkinson, 203-913-1369
awilkinson@interactivebrokers.com