Derby Business School wins trio of awards at annual University Trading Challenge

A team of undergraduate students and academics from the University of Derby Business School scooped up three awards in the University Trading Challenge (UTC) 2014.

Zi Cheng Tang captained the team of Banking and Finance students, including Thai Seng Ting, Daniel Sie Sung Lau and Ming Cheek Kuok at the national competition, hosted by Kingston University, on 5 December, 2014.

The Derby students won second prize for overall team performance against 19 other universities, along with the Portfolio Trading prize. Economics and Finance lecturers from the University of Derby Business School: Dr Weiwei Yang, Melanie Powell and Dr Eugene Michaels, were also awarded the UTC Special Award for continuous support.

The UTC is an annual competition open to teams of four who go head-to-head in a financial trading simulation lasting one month across four main challenges: Real Market News Trading, Portfolio Trading, Forex Trading and presenting a Risk Management case-study.

Dr Weiwei Yang, Senior Lecturer in Finance and Economics at the University of Derby Business School said: “I’m extremely proud of the students who took part in this challenge and for the awards they won. They are undergraduate students here in the UK for a one-year top-up so it’s been a great opportunity to learn real-life skills, which they can take away with them when they enter into work.”

Zi Cheng Tang, studying BA Banking and Finance (top-up), added: “Studying at Derby and taking part in the Trading Challenge is very beneficial. It has been really useful for developing skills in banking and finance such as working in a team, managing a group portfolio, buying and selling, risk management and, how to respond to certain markets.”

This is the fourth year that students from the International Business Suit programmes have entered the competition. Last year (2013) the team scooped two individual prizes; Ginger Chew was the winner of the ‘Best Individual Portfolio Trading Challenge’ prize, while Suzanne Nlamelou’ou won the ‘Best Individual Real Market Trading Challenge’ award.