Organised by the CME Group, IFS students competed in the fifth edition of the Singapore International Schools Trading Challenge, learning much along the way.

 

For the second consecutive year, students from the International French School (Singapore) participated in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group‘s Singapore International Schools Trading Challenge. Over the two weeks of the competition, five groups from IFS Seconde A (Grade 10) class competed against teams of high school students from international schools throughout Singapore. 

The principle was simple. To compete in an exciting two-week electronic trading competition where teams of four or five students had to build a (fictitious!) portfolio of $100,000. The students bought and sold assets as diverse as stocks and commodities in a simulated trading environment on a real-time professional trading platform. 

Teams from IFS were executing trades on various futures contracts across six asset classes, from commodities like gold and crude oil to financial instruments such as the S&P 500 and U.S. Treasury Notes. The team with the biggest profit at the end of the Challenge wins!   

Supervised by IFS Professor of Economic and Social Sciences, Mr Guillaume Clément, the IFS “investor groups” got off to a good start against the competition. After three days of the challenge, the team composed of Clémentine Chatelet, Yvonne Collis, Charlotte Daull and Eléonore Drouffe were in second place!

By the end of the competition on 6th October, unfortunately, teams from IFS had dropped down the rankings and out of contention for the win. Unable to match their success of the previous year. Matthieu Boubeaud, whose group came in 27th place, reflected, “One should not follow one’s instincts. It’s all about the data”.    

IFS students learned about the futures market, blending together live instruction, online learning, and simulated trading using live market data. They put their understanding, knowledge and skills into practice, making stock market calculations, then placing orders in English and experiencing the thrill of executing trades. 

Mr Clément, for his part, was satisfied with the experience, which generated a certain amount of excitement among IFS students, “At first, the students felt a little helpless in the face of this new learning environment. But they quickly got into the game and looked for the best ways to understand the world of investments on their own.”

To learn more about IFS High School, click here.