CHICAGO - CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the winners of its 17th annual CME Group University Trading Challenge, including the first-place winners from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia.
They are the first team from Latin America to win the global challenge.
This year's competition saw participation from more than 500 teams, made up of more than 2,000 graduate and undergraduate students from more than 30 countries around the world. The free, four-week trading competition is open exclusively to teams of currently enrolled students, offering them a chance to learn hands-on techniques for trading futures across all major asset classes on CQG's real-time simulated electronic trading platform. Throughout the challenge, students also learned about market events by accessing live Dow Jones newsfeeds and The Hightower Report.
'Our annual Trading Challenge is an opportunity to educate the next generation of finance professionals about the importance of derivatives markets in the global economy,' said Anita Liskey, CME Group Senior Managing Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications. 'Collaborative, online learning experiences are more important than ever in today's virtual environment, and this year's strong turnout was a testament to that. We are proud to facilitate a unique platform for thousands of students from all over the world to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world challenges.'
'We would like to congratulate the winning team and honor all students who participated in this year's Trading Challenge,' said Ryan Moroney, CQG's President of Europe and the Americas. 'CQG remains committed to educating the next generation of derivatives traders. Just like many professional traders, the competition offers students the ability to make trading decisions based on real-time data from CME Group, combined with CQG's analytics, real-time news feed and commentary, and executed with CQG's premier trade routing technology.'
'This victory is a source of great pride for the University of Antioquia, and we hope it will contribute to increase the international reputation of Medellin as a South American center of innovation,' said Professor of Physics Antonio Enea Romano, faculty advisor for the first-place team. 'This is our second year participating in the challenge, so we were able to leverage our previous experience and grow from our mistakes. We are proud to have the opportunity to show how versatile and successful students with a physics background can be. You don't need a finance degree to understand global markets, especially with so many educational tools and resources available.'
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Contact:
Liz McGee
Tel: 312.206.7186
Email: liz.mcgee@cmegroup.com
CME GROUP INC. 
