Babson Trading Competition
Sponsored by Fidelity Investments
Welcome to the 13th Annual Babson Trading Competition!
The competition is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students at Babson, Wellesley, and Olin Colleges. No trading experience is necessary. Please invite your classmates!
The competition uses the Rotman Interactive Trader (RIT) software. If possible, I recommend trying the software before the competition. The software is available on the Cutler Center computers and can be installed on your own computer. To do so, download and install both the RIT Client and the Excel Real-Time Data (RTD) links (32-bit or 64-bit) found here.
You need to install the version of the Excel RTD links that matches your Excel version, not your operating system. Please read the installation instructions for more information. The RIT software requires a Windows operating system or a Windows emulator. (Babson graduate students can obtain a free copy of VMWare software from ITSD.) There will be computers available during the competition on a first-come first-serve basis for those without a Windows-based laptop.
Once you have installed the software, I recommend reading the client software feature guide and watching this video:
This year's competition will be based on the liability trading cases (LT3 and LT4). The case descriptions can be found here:
Additional documentation can be found here:
Real-Time Data Guide
Visual Basic Guide (advanced users only)
REST API Instructions (advanced users only)
You can try the cases on the practice server prior to the competition. On the RIT Client, set the server to be: 155.48.8.52 and the port to be 8443. Your username and password should not contain any spaces or special characters. You may need to create a new user each time you use the software. On the practice server, the case runs in a continuous loop with a short pause (20 seconds) between iterations.
The competition will be held on November 2, 2023 in the Cutler Center Finance Lab. The schedule is:
4:00 - 5:30 pm Practice session and instructions
5:30 - 6:00 pm Pizza and refreshments will be served outside the Cutler Center Finance Lab
6:00 - 6:30 pm Hear from special guests, featuring Janis Voldins MBA '98, Ken Martin, and Jackie Hamm from Fidelity Investments, and Marco Gargurevich MBA '01 from Geode Capital Management
6:30 - 8:00 pm Trading competition
8:00 - 8:15 pm Awards presentation
It is not necessary to attend the practice session if you are already familiar with the software. All participants should arrive by 5:30pm to allow sufficient time to obtain their login ID and password.
The actual competition will occur from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. No additional instruction will be given during the scored competition rounds. There will be eight rounds, with different parameters for each iteration (e.g., liquidity, volatility, price levels, number of securities, tender offer parameters). Some iterations will have automated (API) trading enabled and some of the iterations will include a penalty for speculative trading. The practice server will cycle between the eight different sets of case parameters, generating random price paths each iteration. A description of the iterations can be found here.
Scoring and prizes will be based on the consistency of your performance across multiple iterations. Traders will be ranked each iteration based on their overall P&L. Your overall rank will be based on your average rank across the eight iterations.