Hedge Tournament

Hedging is a cornerstone practice in Finance. 'To hedge' means making investments that reduce the risk of adverse price movements in a portfolio of securities. Typically, hedging is done by taking offsetting positions in related securities such as options, stocks, or futures.

The Tournament

The McIntire Hedge Tournament is held at the end of the spring semester and involves 20+ teams of grad and undergrad students from three academic programs. On the day of the Tournament, you and your team will manage a portfolio of securities worth $50million. The objective of the Tournament is to manage risk by keeping it to a pre-determined low level while producing a profit. The team that most effectively navigates turbulent financial seas, wins. Detailed rules are published in a Tournament Rulebook that will be distributed in class.

Faster than real time

The tournament operates at faster-than-real-time. One minute in the Tournament is equivalent to one day in the real markets. This keeps things hopping.

Algorithmic trading with live data

The speed of the tournament and the number of securities in your portfolio make the use of algorithmic trading techniques a necessity. You and your team will design hedging strategies and will develop software applications that execute them. These applications access online live financial data (e.g., stock prices), perform financial calculations (e.g., option portfolio evaluation), trade securities, and keep track of your financial performance.