RETC 2012

Emilio Barone – Welcome address
Maria Paola Satolli – Teams presentation

RETC 2012
The Rotman European Trading Competition @ LUISS will be showcasing a unique set of cases that stress different challenges faced by traders. The cases include commodities, equities, and derivatives and are designed to reward participant’s abilities to accurately price the securities and formulate profitable, risk adjusted trading strategies. Cases are run over many iterations in order reduce the element of variance across each team’s scores.

CASE PACKAGE
The full RETC case document can be downloaded here.
[Changes with respect to the original version of the package have been highlighted below]

RETC Cases
Social Outcry Case
The opening event of the competition gives you your first opportunity to make an impression on the sponsors, faculty members, and other teams in this fun introduction to the Rotman European Trading Competition. Trade against experienced professionals from the industry, try to make your case against the professors, and show everyone your outcry skills by making fast and loud trading decisions.
	Energy Trading Case
The Enel Energy Trading Case will place competitors in a trading simulation in which they buy and sell power/electricity as well as raw materials in response to their analysis of various news releases. Traders will have different roles as consumers, producers, and speculators in different settings. They will also have the opportunity to generate profits from transportation arbitrage by analyzing and taking advantage of price changes of securities traded in two markets.
	Mergers & Acquisitions Case
The Bloomberg M&A Case features various worldwide corporations that are competitively bidding on a number of targets. Traders are to evaluate the probability that takeover offers will occur, the approximate pricing of those offers, whether counter-offers will materialize, and finally gauge anti-trust sentiment regarding the pending acquisitions.
	Options Case
The CC&G Options Trading case will challenge traders’ ability to use options valuation models to forecast the future volatility of an underlying stock and trade options to profit from their views. The case is designed to rewards sound decision making abilities with regards to how an option is priced (overpriced or underpriced) rather than rewarding directional views on a stock (with leverage).
Sales & Trader Case
The Sales and Trader Case challenges participants to put their critical thinking and analytical abilities to the test in an environment that allows traders to have significant flexibility on the trading strategy they choose to implement. Traders will be faced with multiple tender offers requiring participants to make rapid judgments on the profitability and subsequent execution of these offers. Profits can be generated by taking advantage of pricing discrepancies, large tender offers, and market-making opportunities.
Quantitative Outcry Trading Case
Building on the experience of the frantic Social Outcry market, this case will require teams to optimize their trading, analytical, and risk management skills. Participants will use news releases that give quantitative economic forecasts, as well as qualitative micro and macro data, to predict the futures market on the RT100 index. Analyzing macroeconomic indicators, participants should be able to gain an understanding of the impact of the factors on the index and generate profitable trades.

CASE PACKAGE UPDATES

1. page 4, “To login to server ports 16500, 16510 and 16520, you can type in any username and password and it will automatically create an account if it does not already exist. If you have forgotten your password or the username appears to be taken, simply choose a new username and password to create a new account.
   To login to server port 16530, please follow the instructions provided here.
2. page 15, there have been some changes in the table “assets”.
   – For BRENT-STORAGE, capacity is now at 500 barrels and cost is now at $2500/day.
   – For COAL-STORAGE, capacity is now at 750 Tons and cost is now at $2500/day.
   – For GASOIL-STORAGE, capacity is now at 50 Tons and cost is now at $2500/day.
   – For FRA-ITA TRANSPORT, capacity is now at 1500 MWatt, Transportation period is now at 4 days (120 seconds) and cost is now at $15000/day.
   – For GASOIL-POWER PLANT, capacity is now at “Brent(200 Barrels) Gasoil (20 Tons) CO2 (200 Tons)” and cost is now at $2000 per 55 seconds.
   – For COAL-POWER PLANT, capacity is now at “Coal (300 Tons) CO2 (500 Tons)” and cost is now at $2000 per 55 seconds.
3. page 17, section “Storage Model”:
   – Traders are now limited to having up to 2 of each storage unit simultaneously.
4. page 17, section “Transportation Model”:
   – Now it will be possible to transport 1500 MWatt of Power-FRA to Italy rather than the previous 300 MWatt
   – the transport process will take 120 seconds and it will cost $15000
   – Traders are now limited to leasing up to 2 of each pipeline simultaneously”.
5. page 17, section “Production Model”:
   – Both power plants now convert raw materials into 600 MWatt of Power-ITA rather than the previous 300 MWatt.
   – Each lease period is 55 seconds.
   – Each power plant has an intial cost of $20000 per lease

Simulated trading at RETC is structured around the Rotman Interactive Trader (RIT) platform. The Electronic Communications Network (ECN) setup by RIT allows students to input limit and market orders in order to trade equities, fixed income, and derivatives with one another.

The latest version of Rotman Interactive Trader is now available for download. The software allows schools to connect remotely to the Toronto/LUISS trading servers and practice trading the different cases.

Simply follow the instructions on this page to install and run the Rotman Interactive Trader. Practice servers will operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week until the start of the competition.

Instructions

1. Download the Rotman Interactive Trader Client v2.0 here.
2. Run the Rotman Interactive Trader Client by double clicking on your desktop icon or by navigating through your start menu. The login dialogue box displays.
   
3. To login to server ports 16500, 16510 and 16520, you can type in any username and password and it will automatically create an account if it does not already exist. If you have forgotten your password or the username appears to be taken, simply choose a new username and password to create a new account.
   To login to server port 16530, please follow the instructions provided here
4. You are now ready to trade.

Practice Cases
Practice cases will be introduced in a staggered manner according to the release dates shown below.

• Sales & Trader (Release date: July 30th).
  Server: flserver.rotman.utoronto.ca, port: 16500.
• CC&G Options Trading (Release date: August 1st)
  Server: flserver.rotman.utoronto.ca, port: 16510.
• Bloomberg Mergers & Acquisitions (Release date: August 1st)
  Server: flserver.rotman.utoronto.ca, port: 16520.
• ENEL Energy Trading (Release date: August 3rd)
  Server: flserver.rotman.utoronto.ca, port: 16530.
  Support sheet for the Enel Energy Trading Case (xlsx).

Related download
The file below is required in order to ensure proper RTD functionality (real time data links between Excel and the RIT client).

• RIT RTD/API for Microsoft Excel (msi)

The syntax of the Excel RTD function is described here or at the bottom-right corner of the RIT Client display (click on the blue-marked “RTD” link).

News and Paths
The Enel Energy Trading Case and the CC&G Options Trading Case will be updated with a different set of news on Thursday, August 9th, 16th, and 23th at 5PM CEST. Teams wishing to trade against other participants are encouraged to login at this time.
At each update, a new case file with different news items and randomized paths will be uploaded and will continue to run until the next update. As such, teams that continue to practice from the start of the practice server up to the competition will have traded 4 different iterations of each of the aforementioned cases.
The Sales & Trader and the Bloomberg Mergers & Acquisitions cases randomize a new set of security paths and news each time they are run on the server.

Video

The RIT software is currently being sold and used by over 40 institutions (universities, pension funds, and financial management firms) worldwide.

For more information about RIT, please see here.

From “Termini” Central Railway Station

Take a taxi outside the station. The journey takes approx. 10 mins and the fare is around 20 euro.

From “Fiumicino – Leonardo Da Vinci” Airport (FCO)

Take a taxi outside the airport. The journey takes approx. 40 mins. A taxi for up-to-6-people can be booked in advance for 55 euro (htm).

From “Ciampino” Airport (CIA)

Take a taxi outside the airport. The journey takes approx. 30 mins. A taxi for up-to-6-people can be booked in advance for 55 euro (htm).

• Faculty Members

ALDROVANDI VILLA BORGHESE

Via Ulisse Adrovandi, 15 | 00197 Rome | Italy
+39 06 322 3993 | hotel@aldrovandi.com | www.aldrovandi.com

Walking distance to LUISS: 1.1 km, 15 mins.

• Students

 POLO HOTEL ROMA – 4 stars

Piazza Bartolomeo Gastaldi, 4 | 00197 Rome | Italy
+39 06 322 1041 | info@polohotel.it | www.polohotel.it

Walking distance to LUISS: 1.3 km, 19 mins.

 HOTEL BORROMINI

Via Lisbona, 7 | 00198 Rome | Italy
+39 06 852 561 | info@hotelborromini.it | www.hotelborromini.it

Walking distance to LUISS: 290 m, 4 mins (1 min if you enter through the side entrance, at via Panama 25).

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

8:30 PM to Midnight
Dress Code: Smart Casual to Formal

CIRCOLO ANTICO TIRO A VOLO

Via Eugenio Vajna, 21 | 00197 Rome | Italy
+39 06 808 2367 | info@anticotiroavolo.it | www.anticotiroavolo.it

Walking distance from LUISS: 800 m, 11 mins.

The Gala Dinner will be held at the “Circolo Antico Tiro a Volo” (The Ancient Club for Clay Pigeon Shooting).

Located on the top of Parioli, within a late 19th century building, the club is a traditional meeting point for many social, cultural and sports events.

The 2012 RETC Gala Dinner will be prepared by the award-winning executive chef Vito Tronnolone (menu).

During the awards ceremony, which will immediately follow the dinner, Prof. Tom McCurdy (Founding Academic Director of the Rotman Financial Research & Trading Lab) and Kevin Mak (Manager and Chief Architect of the Rotman Interactive Trader) will announce the results of the competition. All the 2012 RETC participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Tom McCurdy – A Simulation-Based Approach to Learning Finance
Marco Polito – Central Counterparties: The Guarantors of Market Safety

Kevin Mak – Closing Note

• Ken McGuffin – Students from 17 European countries participate …
• Ken McGuffin – Rotman European Trading Competition draws students from 17 European countries
• Bloomberg Businessweek – Students from 17 European countries competed …

Francesco Saverio Ligi & Maria Paola Satolli