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Bauer college to hold trading floor contest

Cougar News Services

Would-be Wall Street financiers will get a chance to live the trading-floor life for a brief afternoon Saturday.

Using a simulated trading environment, students will have to consider real-world factors like war, politics and weather when they make market-trading decisions during an "open outcry" trading competition at the University of Houstonis C.T. Bauer College of Business.

At the sound of the bell, 40 student competitors will begin business, filling orders for the clients. The exercise is modeled after the market trading behaviors seen at the New York Mercantile Exchange. The orders will be given and taken aloud, so as tension rises, so will the volume.

Students will buy and sell theoretical units of crude oil and other commodities. In the midst of it all, news feeds will present traders with information like war headlines or weather updates that could impact the price of such commodities, and thus affect trading behavior.

"Weive structured the competition to mirror a trading pit, from the circumference of the space, to name badges, to customer orders, to news feeds. Competition judges are all former NYMEX traders, and winners will be based on how well they execute their customersi orders and how well they trade. It will be very competitive and very intense," Umair Khan, UH competition chairperson, said in a press release. 

"Individuals who trade for a living do this from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. For us, it will be a 30-minute adrenaline rush and a taste of what trading is," Khan said.

At the closing of the market, the three participants with the most money will be awarded scholarship prizes. Sponsors for the competition include the UH Finance Association, Center for Executive Development, NYMEX, Amerex Energy, Cinergy Corp., Carr Futures, PA Consulting Group and Gerald Balboa, vice president of gas and power trading at RWE Trading Americas Inc.

The competition begins at 11:30 a.m. and ends at noon. An awards ceremony will follow at 1 p.m.
 

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