QNSE - QuantNet Stock Exchange!

[Hien]

Hello all,

Inspired and excited over the mock trading games given by Prof. Holowczak and at UBS, I'm writing to gather interests on having a monthy trading game, similar to the one at UBS, where we're specialists doing trade, market making, and all that fun stuff.

I think this will be fun and educational. I'd like your feedback/suggestions on how we should do this. Things like when would be a good time for you, where would be a good place, what kind of game do we want to play, etc.

For starter I'm proposing that we should have one exactly like the one played at UBS for the benefit of those who couldn't make it to the trip.

Thanks,
--Hien

 

[Andy Nguyen]

QNSE --- I like the name and the idea
What do you mean by monthly game ? I say we do weekly games.

By the way, the Rotman Interactive Trader software we used last week is here http://rit.rotman.utoronto.ca/index.asp

You can download the client software and start trading at home. They have the server running online. Our Weissman trading floor has the server and client software installed. We can ask Prof. H to arrange for weekly trading sessions if we can get enough participants

 

[Chris]

Hien,

That's a great idea. I would definitely be interested in playing.
I'll write the rules down so we can organize our first game

The game required 20 scraps of paper each individually having a number from 1-20. People were broken up into teams.

Each team gets a randomly drawn scrap of paper.
The final value of the stock is the sum of the all the numbers drawn.

So for example if 8,19,3,10,2,15 with 6 teams the final value of the stock is 57

Since each team only knows their number they can only use:
the sum of the (# of teams - 1) * 10.5 + the number your team receives.

The game starts with a market maker (who knows the final sum and can be more than one) who can bid or ask a contract for the stock.

The terminology for bid and ask is:
ask (@ {offer price})
bid (for {offer price})

Each team should either ask (@ {offer price}) or bid (for {offer price}) according to their expected value. When someone bids or offers that is accepted by either the market maker or another group it is recorded on a sheet of paper that has a column for bids and a column for ask.

So for example if a team asks for 63 and your group accepts this price you need to write down 63 on your bid column while the team that sold it writes 63 in their ask column. Each group is limited to 10 open contracts.

Every few minutes a number that one of the teams has gets revealed. This number can be used to compute the new expected value to which your group can devise a new strategy.

The game ends a few minutes after the last # is revealed. The team with the highest value portfolio wins!

Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[alain]

I like the idea but a weekly game is too much for me to take.

On my way home on Thursday, I was thinking about the idea of creating a bot that taps into the game and it's able to trade just by looking at the price movement without regard of the information received through the private messages. Another version would be to feed the bot with the information received.

It would be "algo trading" in the game.

 

[Hien]

QNSE --- I like the name and the idea
What do you mean by monthly game ? I say we do weekly games.

By the way, the Rotman Interactive Trader software we used last week is here http://rit.rotman.utoronto.ca/index.asp

You can download the client software and start trading at home. They have the server running online. Our Weissman trading floor has the server and client software installed. We can ask Prof. H to arrange for weekly trading sessions if we can get enough participants

I think having weekly game is too much. For trading at home, etc. that fine...you can do it yourself but I think it won't be as fun. The human component is removed. I think a good balance would be to have a real physical game where we all get together into a crowded room to play (remember the excitement at UBS?), and the other part would be having a digital game at Baruch trading floor. Maybe once a month for each of the physical & digital game?

 

[Hien]

I like the idea but a weekly game is too much for me to take.

On my way home on Thursday, I was thinking about the idea of creating a bot that taps into the game and it's able to trade just by looking at the price movement without regard of the information received through the private messages. Another version would be to feed the bot with the information received.

It would be "algo trading" in the game.

Not sure if the RIT software exposes its API though. You can do this but I think it's taking away the point of the game, which is a training tool to help you understand how the market works. It also helps you think quickly, build your intuition about the market, etc. :smt102

 

[rholowczak]

Folks:
RIT exposes some of the market data via a provider to the MS Excel RTD function.
FOr me details contact me directly.

Cheers,

Prof .H.