OREANDA-NEWS. CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the winners of its 13th annual CME Group Trading Challenge, including the first-place winners from Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore. This is the first time a Singaporean team has won the competition, and the third year in a row that the winning team has been from a university outside the United States.

This year, nearly 500 teams made up of more than 1,800 students from 30 countries around the world participated. The four-week electronic trading competition is open exclusively to teams of currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students, offering them a chance to learn hands-on techniques for trading futures across all major asset classes on CQG's real-time professional trading platform. The trading challenge also helps educate the next generation of finance professionals on the significance of CME Group's global derivatives markets.

"CME Group is committed to education and innovation for the next generation of traders and market participants," said Anita Liskey, CME Group's Managing Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications. "Understanding the significance of our markets in today's interconnected global economy is more critical than ever, and we're pleased that so many students from around the world continue to participate."

"The prestigious CME Group Trading Challenge is a capstone event for our final year Banking and Fund Management students at Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Business Management, where they compete and benchmark themselves against the best in the world," said Anthony Ng, Senior Lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic. "We believe that the invaluable experience they have gained from participating in this competition will prepare them for a successful career in the financial industry, be it in risk management, fund management or trading."

"I am very excited that the extra effort we put into the competition this year resulted in a fourth-place win," said Dr. Roberto Caccia, Faculty Director for the Burridge Center for Finance at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder. "As a former Wall Street professional, it's great to see opportunities like the CME Group Trading Challenge complement what we teach in the classroom. This not only showcases students' financial skills, but enables them to compete in real-world settings."

"The CME Group Trading Challenge has become an annual tradition and CQG is proud to be a partner," said Rod Giffen, President of CQG. "We are committed to providing real-time trading opportunities for the next generation of traders, students from universities around the world, in an ever-changing trading environment. We would like to honor the winning teams and congratulate all the participants for continuing the tradition."

Students on the following winning teams will receive a cash prize and are invited to attend a one-day market education conference at CME Group on April 15:

University (Country) – Team Name

Final Simulated
Account Balance

Nanyang Polytechnic (Singapore) – Team Alpha

$500,018.75

Carnegie Mellon University (U.S.) – Team Scotty Dogs of the Dow

$443,430.00

Concordia University (Canada) – Team Yolo

$355,750.00

University of Colorado Boulder (U.S.) -- Team CU_Ugrad_1

$326,614.38

CME Group has made risk management education a top priority. In addition to offering interactive events like the Trading Challenge, CME Group provides education about the global economy and markets with a variety of tools. Recently, the company launched Futures Institute, an innovative new online platform for futures and options education, trading simulation and market research. The Futures Institute works with partners across the industry to distribute best-in-class education offering a blend of live instruction, interactive training modules, market research and training. CME Group also offers Futures Fundamentals, an innovative website that explains the role of futures markets in everyday life. The goal of the site is to make financial education an engaging experience for anyone, regardless of how well versed they are in the world of finance. Additionally, in partnership with the National 4-H Council, CME Group offers a Commodity Carnival game and an interactive app, Risk Ranch, which educates kids about managing risk in agriculture.