Dubai - MENA Herald: The 14th annual Dubai Financial Market and Nasdaq Dubai Trading Game, aimed at sharpening the skills of university and school students in the UAE and abroad, has ended with total traded value reaching 5.4 billion dirhams from 16,802 transactions, and the top 13 participants achieving average profit of 35.6 %.
For the first time, the game included equity futures notionally traded on Nasdaq Dubai, as well as shares listed on the two exchanges.
The winners of the 10-day competition received prizes to honour their success at a ceremony attended by Jamal Al Khadhar, Executive Vice President, Head of Strategic Planning and Human Resources Division, DFM and Unmesh Kantak, Senior Vice President, Head of Market Operations and Risk of Nasdaq Dubai as well as representatives of the educational institutions involved.
The competition reflected the exchanges’ commitment to increasing financial understanding and upgrading the skills of the younger generation, as well as helping students put capital markets theory into practice. Running from April 26 to May 10, 2016, this year’s game attracted 2,362 students from 26 educational institutions.
Students taking part said the competition helped them understand how to trade in real life and deepened their knowledge of the financial markets. Each competitor began with a notional 1 million Dirhams and used it to trade during the real trading hours of the exchanges, with real equity prices being displayed.
Ibrahim Fawzi Abdelkhalek of University of Sharjah (UOS) took first place winning a prize of 15,000 Dirhams, with Hamdan Mohamed Mahmoud from UOS in second place with 10,000 Dirhams. Third was Sarmad Abdulhussein from the American University of Sharjah, who won 5,000 Dirhams. Ten other students also won cash prizes.
UOS and the American University of Sharjah each provided five of the top 13 participants, with one each from Manipal University-Dubai, American University in the Emirates, and HCT-DXB Men’s College. American University of Sharjah was awarded a prize for having the most participants overall.
Hamed Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq Dubai, said: "Many students showed an impressive understanding of how to successfully use leverage in trading equity futures, to magnify their gains and hedge their positions. We look forward to engaging further with the student community as we prepare to open a real equity futures market, to learn from the insights of up and coming investors and increase awareness of sophisticated trading tools.”
Jamal Al Khadhar, Executive Vice President, Head of Strategic Planning and Human Resources Division, DFM thanked the educational institutions for playing an essential part in the success of the annual competition since it started. He added: "We are proud at DFM to see the stock contest maintain its momentum and grow in success and popularity, so that it has become an established annual fixture that students are keen to take part in. This plays an important role in disseminating knowledge of the financial markets to the rising generation.”
