Alexander Bowers ’24 Wins 13th Annual Babson Trading Competition
Alexander Bowers ’24 recently won the 13th annual Babson Trading Competition, which attracted more than 40 undergraduate and graduate students from Babson College and Wellesley College to the finance lab at the Stephen D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance.
The Babson Trading Competition, hosted by Professor Ryan Davies, pits students against one another using the Rotman Interactive Trader software, which simulates an order-driven market.
Bowers led the top five finishers, which included Matthew Giacchetti ’24 in second place, Tinn Habanananda ’24 in third place, Shengxun Sun ’26 in fourth place, and Milo Perozzi ’26 in fifth place. This was the third top-five finish for Bowers, who placed fourth last year and second the year prior. In addition to cash prizes, the top five winners will be invited to the Fidelity Investments trading floor in Boston at the start of the spring semester for a tour and an opportunity to meet and network with additional Fidelity traders.
The competition, sponsored by Fidelity Investments, is based on the Liability Trading cases (LT3, LT4). In these cases, participants play the role of principal trader. Institutional orders are randomly routed to a principal trading desk, and then traders must decide whether to accept the tender. If the order is accepted, the trader then must develop an optimal strategy for unwinding the position over time, accounting for market conditions such as liquidity, price volatility, and price impact.
Before the start of the competition, Fidelity head trader Ken Martin and Fidelity syndicate trader Jackie Ham discussed what it is like working on the trading floor at Fidelity and how their career paths led them to Fidelity. Babson alumni Marco Gargurevich MBA’01, Janis Voldins MBA’98, and Brooke Hughes ’04 also met with students.
Posted in Babson Briefs
