RIT students win international Bloomberg trading competition

In just its second year competing, a trio of RIT students won the 2024 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge as the “Tigers Trading” team.

The interdisciplinary group made up of Evan Macko ‘25 (finance), Carter Ptak ‘25 (software engineering), and Rosa Kauffman ‘27 (Japanese), advised by associate professor Hao Zhang, of the Saunders College of Business Finance and Accounting department, placed first among 2,453 teams from 396 universities in 46 countries.

In the competition, teams of three to five students used the Bloomberg Terminal to define market assumptions, develop a return-generating strategy, and execute trades within a closed network. Tigers Trading began with a budget of $1 million USD, chose from about 10,000 stocks in the Bloomberg World Index, and earned a relative profit of $1,676,618—giving them the highest time-weighted relative return and securing first place.

The RIT team led the competition almost from start to finish. According to Ptak, the team captain, their strategy was to bet on volatility and focus primarily on foreign stocks.

While conceding (somewhat modestly) that “luck obviously plays a large factor,” Ptak states that the group worked “to make as much money as possible without being concerned about the risks of losing.  While it’s not necessarily a great strategy in real life, it worked for this competition.”

As a reward for the victory, Bloomberg will give every RIT student free access to Bloomberg.com for a year, a $149 value. In addition, Bloomberg Philanthropies will make a $5,000 donation to a charity selected by Tigers Trading. 

Says Professor Zhang, “This winning team is a shining example of how Saunders College of Business and RIT provide students with a great learning environment that inspires creative minds.”