Student Traders Experience the Market

The second annual Barker Trading Competition featured 34 University of Idaho students from three different colleges competing for $1,000 in prize money. Using the thinkorswim trading software used by the Barker Trading Program, participants managed a $100,000 simulated trading account for two weeks this last April. Trading was allowed in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), e-mini S&P500 futures, e-mini Nasdaq futures, e-mini Dow futures, wheat futures, corn futures, and soybean futures.

Students participating in the competition received training on how to use the software to analyze and execute trades, and then they were turned loose to test their strategies against the market. Trading was allowed in Exchange Traded Funds as well as a number of futures contracts.

The competition was intense with three different leaders and nine different traders in the top five over the two-week term of the competition. Some of the results were astounding, with first place going to Jeff Pittman, a finance/accounting double major, who managed to turn his $100,000 into $275,070.90, for a 175 percent return.