Amplify Me Trading Sim

My first ever trading sim. An event with over 140 other people. Definitely a lot to learn but great result. 6th overall for asset management for profits and in the 81st percentile of managers. Middle of the crowd (57th percentile) for investment banking. The first hurdle was learning how the software worked which was a steep learning curve leading to some wonky trades and a few early mistakes (especially in IBD). Was top scorer in buy to risk ratio scoring a Sharpe ratio of 1.82, great for a first time try right??

As an asset manager overall made a 7.5% return on my investments over the year. My biggest blunder was holding too much liquidity only investing around 60% (average 61.9%) of my funds... This was due to a mixture of caution as well as lack of IB trades and starting 5 minutes later than everyone else in 30 minute session! And, if i want to be cheeky i could say i had a 12.5% return??

For the number geeks: I started with $20 million and ended the year with $21,529,641. My returns on investment were in the 91st percentile.

Next time, I need to up my risk appetite and hold less liquidity as well as increase my execution score. A few times pulling off bad trades.

Was quite disappointed with sell-side of things: generating a loss of $320,000. This was due to lack of trades firstly only getting 8 in the whole 30 minutes and misunderstanding of the software. Whilst I started communication with several clients quickly i could not achieve trades - i was too slow and unfamiliar with the software and others would beat me to the gun. I made barely any commission. Next i made large losses in the exchange market. I thought i was holding long positions (buying) in strong stock so, in order to reduce my position i sold them back at a bit rate with low risk, right?!! Wrong! To my realisation in the last 10 minutes or so i was holding short positions generating large losses. I was gutted. I had shorted around 50,000 shares in BP which had appreciated by 60% across the entire sim and was near my risk maximum of $1,000,000 stake. Once i worked out how it worked it was too late.

Both experiences were great time and thoroughly enjoyed the fast pace and confirmed thought about a career in finance. THE ADRENALINE! Definitely want to try roles in asset management and invest banking again. Also maybe in market making and quant-ing?!? Shout out to Harry Backhouse and George Backhouse who ran the event for AmplifyME.

https://my.amplifyme.com/shared-events/d51d8eb9-de09-4a1c-9318-b8c89d5de78c