Today I got confirmation that the IB Olympiad is officially finished. Many of you have probably noticed, as I did, that the Olympiad link was replaced on the IB homepage with a new "student trading lab." This trading lab is really just a course based program where professors can arrange for their class to get paper trading accounts for instructional purposes. I'm curious how much participation they actually get in it, probably not much. The overhead is so huge to get a program actually connecting to the API, getting market data and placing orders that I find it hard to believe that a student could be expected to do it in one or even two semesters for a single course. Yeah we did it, but it was far more work than I ever did for a course.
Anyways, the trading lab really of no use to most of us because you have to get an "adviser" to set it up for you. Personally, I don't even know any professors in the finance department at my school and I have little interest in developing a relationship with one just so I can teach them about my trading strategies. Nah, I'll pass. I also have a paper trading account associated with my real IB account, so I really wouldn't have any reason to participate in the "trading lab." Then of course, the incentive of a competition with prizes and fame is no longer there. Its a bummer, especially since the Olympiad has been a consistent source of income for me the past three years I competed (a total of $12k in prize money).
In response to my email, IB said:
"Dear Hunter,
Thank you for your feedback.
Yes, we discontinued the Olympiad. As you already now, we have a new program in place - The IB Student Trading Lab.
If you know of any students interested in the program, please let them know they can email with any questions regarding participation in the program.
Best of luck to you.
Regards,
IB Marketing Team"
Well that about wraps it up, it was a fun ride while it lasted. If you are interested in my market opinions please see my other blog. From henceforth this blog will go back to being about purely non-market related topics. I have an epic post on the big bang (or the lack thereof) in the works. Cheers!
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2 comments:
I agree with you.Such a kind of marketing strategy wont work as there are already hundreds of trading simulators available free on web then why one would go 4 this IB's mediocre simulator!
I created fake account on trading lab but seems like its useless.
So after PhD, you will be Quant?
Regards,
Chintan
Its up in the air, I could be a quant and get into the finance industry but more and more I am disgusted by it. I think the good times/easy money on wall street are over with a very large decay time constant. Its more likely I'll go into nano and/or solar R&D.
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