Student Projects

Northwestern University Trading Competition (NUTC)

Project Manager

Christopher Minn, Student

Amount Requested

$23,132

Summary

The Northwestern University Trading Competition (NUTC) hosted by Northwestern Financial Technologies (NUFT) is the first-ever trading competition to take place at Northwestern University. Trading competitions have been an unparalleled way to demonstrate mastery in multiple fields that are essential for software and trading positions in the industry. It would also put Northwestern at the same level of competitiveness for these positions across schools similar to Northwestern’s caliber. Trading competitions have teams of four students competing in various subtasks. Some of these subtasks include market making, options trading, high-frequency trading (HFT), machine learning, and factor model analysis. Regardless of the subtasks offered, trading competitions give students at Northwestern an experience that cannot be offered elsewhere - the opportunity to compete in an environment essentially identical to today’s industry. By hosting a trading competition that focuses on the aspects that many top-tier companies seek during recruiting, we believe it would be highly beneficial for Northwestern’s technological scene and career placement if students were able to partake in these competitions on our campus. Northwestern would also demonstrate its seriousness in putting our students into these industries, allowing for overall improved job placements. While other schools do offer these competitions, we hope to offer more positions to Northwestern students in our competition without application barriers, while also appealing to the previously mentioned firms. The results of our competition would include both advertising our school and students to top-tier technology companies, alongside the priceless benefits many of our pre-professional students receive through this competition. Furthermore, more industry-university research collaboration and presence of these companies at career fairs would also assist all departments of Northwestern. As a result, we hope that the Murphy Society will be able to help kickstart and leave an unforgettable impression on both our students and outsiders for Northwestern’s first-ever trading competition.

Planned Activities/Investments

The primary activity planned for NUTC is the trading competition aspect. Within the larger idea of a trading competition, we will be hosting multiple subtasks for each team to compete in. Of these subtasks, we are planning to include, but not limit ourselves, to market making, options trading, high- frequency trading, machine learning prediction, and factor model analysis. Market making comes from predicting two-sided markets and posting trades based on the market size while making a profit based on their posted trades. Options trading is where traders purchase contracts that can be exercised to buy or sell a set amount of shares for a set price, and is much more volatile as compared to traditional stock trading practices. High-frequency trading is the practice of utilizing multiple algorithms coupled with high computer processing power in order to execute many orders in the stock market within very short timeframes (usually thousands of trades within one second), while heavily relying on speed in order to guarantee these trades go through at the desired time. Machine learning prediction is the practice of training a model in order to predict the behavior of the market for the future, and purchasing assets based on the prediction that the model produces, utilizing past data and algorithms to produce an optimal market prediction. Factor model analysis utilizes analyzing underlying stock exposure, current funds, and strategies, alongside risk management, in order to mitigate risk while still ensuring that profit values are maximized. Through these various subtasks found within our trading competition, we hope to achieve the outcome of hosting Northwestern's first trading competition, while also creating partnerships/sponsorships with some of these trading firms that attend.

Impact

Our project will impact those at Northwestern partaking in the trading competition, the admin that are assisting in organizing our competition, our sponsors, and students from other universities that apply and are selected to take part in our competition. The impact will be directly measured by the people that end up attending, scores that are evaluated based on the different categories of competition hosted, and through those who place and win awards in the respective events. This direct impact is simple to measure - as the number of students who show up and groups that end up performing well can be compiled into a spreadsheet for direct data numbers. These numbers can then be used to evaluate the strength of each team narrowed down to every specific event. Furthermore, the non- tangible impacts come from networking opportunities for students with firms and other students. By hosting this competition, we are promoting Northwestern's technological department in a modern style, leading to firms seeing Northwestern as a target school for recruitment. Furthermore, the networking impact can be measured through seeing the growth of Northwestern’s trading firm recruitment numbers, and the number of these firms present at career fairs/in McCormick’s office of career development.

Sustainability

This project is expected to be an annual competition. While we do request funding for the first year of launch, we expect those who show up as well as our sponsors to be able to see the value in our competitions, and thus provide funding for our events in the future. We are already currently advertising our trading competition as a part of NUFT sponsorship benefits and would like to have funding from the Murphy Society for our first year in order to showcase a dynamic and top-tier competition that would attract funding for our upcoming years, ultimately leading to a self-funding competition.

Deliverables

• Trading competition
• Awards
• Registration
• Networking events

Previous Projects

We have not previously received funding from the Murphy Society for our past projects.

Budget Overview

Participant Breakdown: 80 members from our school + 60 guests primarily from schools in the area (UChicago, UIUC, UIC, Loyola, etc) but open to any undergraduate in the country who can cover their transportation. Guests will be housed in an Evanston-area hotel. Location Breakdown: Norris Louis Room, Friday

• $552 Sunday Event fees: $23 x 8 hours x 3 days.
• $12,600 Provided food: $10 x 140 participants x 3 meals x 3 days.
• $980 Provided merch: $7 x 140 participants (t-shirts from 4imprint)
• $9,000 Housing for guests: $200 x 3 overnights x 15 guest teams

* Estimates were created with help from previous budgets for Wildhacks and other similar events at Northwestern. Prizes will be sponsored by our corporate sponsors.

Total: $23,132

Advisor Sign-off

Northwestern Financial Technologies Club - Ilya Mikhelson, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)