University of Lethbridge students shine at North American finance competition

LETHBRIDGE – Four University of Lethbridge students are taking home hardware after the 2014 University Trading Challenge in New York City.

Faculty of Management students Matthew Helfrich, Devin Phalen, Michael Kawchuk and Ashley Tymburski were among the 80 people from 22 universities to participate in the competition.

It’s the first time the U of L has taken part in the North American trading contest, but the school’s inexperience didn’t show as they placed second overall.

“I was pretty excited. The team we lost out to is pretty accomplished, so I don’t feel bad losing to them,” said Helfrich.

The foursome finished just two points behind Fordham University, an accomplishment finance professor and the team’s coach, Dr. Shamsul Alam, says is a big deal, considering the U of L was the only Canadian team and sole undergraduate group to compete.

“They did a fantastic job,” said Alam. “I’m very pleased we came second against all the graduate students.”

The competition required teams to present investment strategies for two cases, with a simulated trading exercise as the final part of the competition.

“The school offers a lot of these simulated market training programs and we do a lot of portfolio management projects, so we’re quite used to it. I think that gave us an advantage there,” said Helfrich.

According to the students the competition was a confidence booster, and they’ll use the experience to build their personal portfolios.

The competition started October 13 and ended on November 14.