What constitutes a trade? A trade is round trip. Opening and closing a position counts as one trade.
How many trades must be made per day? There is a minimum of 5 trades per day.
What is the maximum number of open positions? There is a maximum of 25 open positions at one time per commodity. Anymore contracts will be penalized.
What if I place an order to buy/sell 5 contracts and they are executed one at a time? If your positions are executed one at a time, those count as individual trades, if your positions are executed in groups, each group counts as one trade.
What are the position requirements at the end of each trading day? All positions must be flat, (a net open position of zero,) at the end of the trading day?
What are the dollar penalties associated with each offense? 1. Each team is required to make a minimum of 5 trades per day. The team is penalized $1000 for each trade not executed under this minimum.
2. Trading outside of the instructed hours and/or contracts results in an asymmetric penalty. The penalty is a 15% loss of the outstanding position. If the team has profited from the trade, all profits are voided and the penalty is enacted. If the team has lost on the trade, the penalty is added on to the losses.
What contracts are allowed to be traded? Natural Gas (NGc1, NGc2) and Crude Oil (CLc1, CLc2) prompt and the following month may be traded. Any other products or months will not count towards gains but losses in those months will be realized.
What are the trading hours? Trading is from 8am-4pm Central Time. Any trades outside of this time will not be recognized and losses will be attributed to total Profit and Loss.
Can you explain the Ulcer Index? Please visit the Ulcer Index page for a detailed explanation.
Where can I read the rules? Please visit the Rules page for summarized and full rules of the competition.
I am having trouble with the Trading Technologies software? Please visit the Trading Technologies page for assistance.
I am having trouble with Thomson Reuters? Please visit the Thomson Reuters page for assistance.
What if my question is not answered here? Please email trading@tulane.edu.
Final Round FAQs
How many trading events are there? There will be one round to trade Natural Gas and one round to trade Crude Oil. Each round will be one and a half hours long.
How will the winner be determined? Unlike the preliminary round, there will not be one factor that will determine the winners. The judges will choose who wins based on a combination of trading, risk-management, strategy, ability to adjust to changing market conditions, and presentation skills.
Do I need to bring a computer of any technical analysis software with me to the competition? No. You will have access to state of the art computers in Tulane's Trading room, which are equipped with Trading Technologies' Xtrader and Thomson Reuters 3000XTRA software included on them during the competition.
What do I need to do to satisfy the judges' expectations? The judging will consist of three items:
A presentation before trading describing your strategy, goals, etc.
Trading contracts during the 2 trading sessions (Natural Gas and Crude Oil)
The post-trading presentation describing how your trading strategy worked.
