Competions/Projects for Quant guys

[VaibhavChauhan]

I am curious to know whether there are any programming-finance challenges/competitions etc where you can showcase your skills and can get involved with "real" application of programming in finance. Or any project(programming or any other useful for quants) on which you can work for few weeks/months. BNP Paribas organizes one but it has no involvement with quantitative stuff.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

There used to be a trading competition for students organized by Interactive Brokers but they cancelled it in 2010. It was popular among MFE students
https://www.quantnet.com/forum/search/1286819/?q=Interactive+Brokers&o=date&c[title_only]=1
There are Rotman Trading Contests by teams from different universities
https://www.quantnet.com/forum/search/1286817/?q=rotman&o=date&c[title_only]=1

 

[JPAlonso]

The one that I know of is the Automated Trading Championship by Metaquotes. It involves creating a fully automated currency trading system (Using their programming language, which is based on C) that is set to run for three months without human interaction. The highest profit at the end of the three months is declared the winner.

http://championship.mql5.com/2010/en

It may take some time to get used to the MQL language, but it is a fun competition. It usually starts in September, I have no idea if they will organize it this year.

 

[DMD]

Doing a project on your own is a good way to demonstrate your interest and self-motivation. I've done 3 major projects in my undergrad and I think they helped with my admissions to MFE programs as well as job applications.

 

[VaibhavChauhan]

Hi JPAlonso, thanks for the link. This is something very close to what I am looking for right now. I wanna show my mettle in a monstrous way and during the process, I'll learn a lot.
ddrolet, I agree. I hope I can get the right direction towards developing my own trading system. I am looking out for more info on net.

I'll appreciate if someone can throw more light on resources about developing your own trading system.

 

[JPAlonso]

I recommend learning at least the basics of C++ (you can probably find plenty of resources in the recommended reading section of quantnet) before you start working on MQL, but here is the best source of information if you are ready to learn the language: http://www.mql5.com/en/docs/basis

But again, I am not sure if they will organize the competition this year, they have not confirmed anything, so I recommend you just focus on learning plenty of C++ until the competition is announced.

 

[VaibhavChauhan]

Thanks. I know C++, just need to work on lot of programs for more exp. I'll go through this doc.