Trading places: Regional finance students swap classroom for virtual trading floor in strategic collaboration between Saxo Bank and Abu Dhabi University

Three UAE University Students Win ‘Abu Dhabi Investment Competition 2015’ After Building Impressive Mock Portfolios in Real-Time Online Trading Platform

Three UAE-based university students have won the top three prizes in the Abu Dhabi University Investment Competition 2015 – a strategic collaboration between Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, and Abu Dhabi University (ADU), one of the UAE capital’s leading tertiary education institutions.

Conceived to spread regional awareness on the importance of financial literacy, the Abu Dhabi University Investment Competition 2015 attracted more than 210 undergraduate and postgraduate entries from university students across the GCC, Lebanon and Egypt. With every participant handed USD 100,000 of virtual credit to invest across Saxo Bank’s award-winning trading platforms, students were given free rein to build mock portfolios via bespoke trading strategies.

“Our main goal was to give students the opportunity to learn online trading and test their techniques in evaluating the market,” said Fadi Mehdi, Head of Saxo Bank Abu Dhabi. “The high volume of participation underlined our view that today’s youth are much more aware and interested in online trading than is widely acknowledged. The competition was a unique learning prospect for students and represented a one-off opportunity to apply their financial knowledge and trading skills in real life trading situation.”

An initial shortlist of 36 participants was culled from students who demonstrated the most creative and innovative investment techniques. The shortlisted participants were invited to present to a panel of eight expert judges - from various academia and industry fields - which confirmed six finalists.

Commenting on the competition, Dr. Jacob Chacko, Dean of Abu Dhabi University’s College of Business Administration, reiterated how the unique investment challenge had succeeded in attracting participants from numerous business administration schools across the GCC.

“For the last six months our regional participants have tested their investment prowess across varying virtual trades including forex and equities on innovative Saxo Banks platforms,” said Dr. Chacko. “We’re extremely impressed with the level of financial literacy exhibited by the participants, as well as the innovative investment techniques and creative risk management decisions they’ve made in their personal investment strategies. Our participants represent some of the region’s brightest young business minds.”

The eventual winner was Waleed Ihsan, a student from Abu Dhabi University, who received the top prize of USD10,000 credit in a personalised Saxo Bank online trading account.

“I’m very humbled to be named the top trader in this pioneering online trading initiative,” said Ihsan. “The competition generated a lot of buzz on the Abu Dhabi University campus and other universities across the region – I’m thrilled that my options and portfolio came out on top. While our mock credit was purely virtual, I’ve learnt that trading in the real world involves constant balancing of risk and reward. Thankfully, much if this risk is mediated by Saxo Bank’s online trading platforms – they are very accessible and the in-built tools and performance analytics are key assets in decision-making.”  

The second-place prize of a trip to Saxo Bank headquarters in Denmark went to Vivek Kumar Sharma, a student from Dubai’s Institute of Management Technology, while the third-place prize of an iPhone 6 went to Zakir Ali, a student at Sharjah’s Skyline University College.