A team of student investors from the University of North Texas College of Business claimed second place this year in the TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim Challenge, taking the prize over 450 collegiate teams.
The thinkorswim Challenge is a competition which challenges student teams across the nation to create and grow a virtual stock portfolio. SoSig, the team from UNT, took second place by increasing the value of their portfolio by 129.02 percent in just four weeks of trading, resulting in a final portfolio value of $1,145,078.73. Each team began with $500,000 of virtual money to invest in real time.
The UNT student team was comprised of four students–three undergraduate seniors: Dylan Barnard, Kshitij Menon and Edward Mun; and one graduate economics student: Paul Ucheoma. All are either current or former members of the Student Investment Group at UNT. As second place winners, the student team brought in a $20,000 for their school in addition to $2,000 for each student deposited into a TD Ameritrade brokerage account.
Another group of students from UNT, The NOTORIOUS S.I.G., placed fourth in the competition. In total, fourteen of the 476 teams competing from around the United States were affiliated with UNT. Additional cash prizes were issued to teams who netted the greatest investment return after each week, which allowed UNT’s team Significant Gains to bring in $500 of award money for each member.
This is the second year in a row that UNT students have won big at this challenge, having taken first place in last year’s inaugural competition. This past July, representatives and a mascot from UNT participated in the ringing of the New York Stock Exchange’s closing bell.