EXANTE Investment League: Warwick Student Outperforms Professional Traders With Risk Trades; Returning 105% in 12 Days

LONDON, Feb. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Adrian Yan, a university student from Warwick University has managed to double £100,000 of initial capital and return more than 105 per cent in just 12 days in Global stockbroker EXANTE's virtual inter-university trading competition, the EXANTE Investment League.

According to EXANTE Senior Analyst, Colin Williams, most professional traders would swiftly feel the heat from their risk manager for carrying the kind of exposure novice trader Mr Yan was.

The theme of January's 12-day league was commodities. Hundreds of traders from 19 of Europe's top universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Loughborough, LSE, Kings, and Jönköping International Business School  were challenged by recent political events in China and America, as well as other difficult market conditions.

Mr Williams says: "Our top trader made an incredible 105% profit over a short 12 day period. After some relatively successful initial scalping his big hits came from recognising the black swan event, or in this case maybe a black bat event.

"The Wuhan coronavirus spiked volatility and sent markets into a big risk-off as full implications were/are still unknown. Our man was sharp enough to recognise that whatever the outcome, quarantining most of China would have a big hit on global trade. He traded Lumber both long and short which charted nicely in a good range but his most profitable trades came in Eurodollars, EUR/USD and Natural Gas. Eurodollars posted a series of green candles, making a sharp move higher, EUR/USD traded soft as US rates declined and Natural Gas was volatile finishing lower. He took advantage of the added emotion picking the outsides of the bell curve to enter trades but being quick to chop and free to let it run. Simple really," added Mr Williams.

Having never formally learned to trade, Mr Yan credits his trading knowledge to EXANTE. He says: "I don't have a long history of trading experience. I only started learning to trade during the first EXANTE Investor League. Seeing stock numbers and graphs on television always fascinated me. So I decided to take part in the first EXANTE Investor League. This time round I traded with a competitive mind-set. During this league I was learning and trading simultaneously."

Mr Yan adds: "I invested in a total of six futures, with five of them resulting in a profit and one of them becoming a loss. There were two trades I made the most significant gains on and they were the Ultra U.S. Treasury Bond Mar 2020 and the Random Length Lumber Mar 2020 futures.

"I didn't conduct any research on the underlying assets of the futures as I am still a beginner trader at this stage. I just made decisions by looking at the trends on the charts. My next step to progress would be to start relating these futures to the real world and understanding how current events affect their value," he says.

Patrick O'Brien, head of communications for EXANTE says: "As a company we have always been keen on developing new talent. The EXANTE Investor League in partnership with Warwick University is our way of helping students to develop their trading skills that will hopefully open doors for them in their future careers. With students participating from some of Europe's top universities and business schools such as Oxford and Cambridge, we are happy to be developing young talent and giving students opportunities that may otherwise not be available to them."

Mr Yan concludes: "The competition has motivated me to take advantage of the opportunity to simulate trading through EXANTE's platform, and has helped me gain a better understanding of capital markets."

Note to editors:

1. The EXANTE Investment League is a quarterly trading competition which challenges university students from universities across Europe, including Oxford and Cambridge, to put their trading skills to the test and invest £100,000 over two weeks to see how much they can return.
2. Over 85 per cent of the students that took part in this contest made returns.
3. Mr Yan wins £150 as well as the chance to compete for a paid internship with EXANTE's partners in the competition, Amplify Trading, in the City of London. Second place, Adam Broadhurst gets £100, while third place , Adam Khaw gets £50.
4.  The next EXANTE Investor League is in March and is free to participate in.

For more information please contact:
Simona Stankovska
Global PR Manager  
sim@exante.eu