Stevens School of Business Hosts Trading Day 2024
More than 700 high school students nationwide competed during February in the Stevens School of Business’ virtual trading competition that culminated in the top 25 arriving in Hoboken for the annual Trading Day event to determine this year’s winner.
The 2024 champion didn’t have to travel far. Arjun Arya, from New Jersey’s West Windsor Plainsboro High School, earned the highest return during the one-hour trading period inside the state-of-the-art Hanlon Financial Systems Lab.
“One of my friends got me into trading a year ago and since then I’ve been trading a lot and studying different strategies,” he said. “I like the thrill, but you also have to learn to be patient.”
The competition began 10 years ago as a group event and has evolved into its current virtual format. February is Financial Literacy Month so in addition to the online trading game, Stevens professors offer webinars on subjects including cryptocurrencies, equities markets and the current inflationary conditions.
This year’s group of finalists traveled from all over the country including California, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
“It’s both an educational program and a trading competition, and we make it accessible to students because anyone with internet access can enter the game,” said SSB associate director of undergraduate outreach, reputation and alumni affairs Lindsay Hartelius. “Today’s high school students are really interested in the market and in trading, so this is a way for us to help build the reputation of the business school and our finance programs.”
Before the students began actively trading, they were welcomed by George Calhoun, director of the Hanlon Financial Systems Center and Stevens’ quantitative finance program director and received a tutorial on how to operate the Bloomberg terminals, the same equipment used by traders throughout the financial industry.
“It felt like Wall Street,” said Somik Baweja, who traveled to Hoboken from Peoria, Illinois. “Even before you walk in you see the ticker on the top of the wall. Everything is really nice, all the monitors are just top-of-the-line, and the whole place is great.”
While the students were busy in the Hanlon Lab, the parents had the opportunity to learn more about the School of Business, financial aid and paying for college, Stevens summer pre-college programs, and had discussions with current undergraduate students.
“The financial world today is just as high-tech as Silicon Valley,” Calhoun said. “We’ve made an ongoing investment in all the tools and technologies that are found in the Hanlon Center, and our curriculum is built around the input that we get from industry to make sure it remains relevant.”