About
Rotman Decision Case Hackathon
January 22 - January 30, 2024
Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Toronto are invited to participate in the first edition 2024 Case Hackathon series sponsored and organized by the BMO Financial Group Finance Research and Trading Lab at the Rotman School of Management (Rotman FRT-Lab).
This consecutive 8-day online Case Hackathon will run 24 hours a day, bringing together students to compete in a simulated market challenge where they test their skills in real-time from the safety of a structured learning environment to construct a trading strategy and generate the maximum profit out of the decision case.
A cash prize of $500 will be awarded to the winner!
Awards
Hackathon Timeline
Round 1 - Winter 2024
- January 22, 2024, at 5 pm EST | Access to the case server is enabled.
- January 30, 2024, at 5 pm EST | Access to the case server is disabled.
- February 5, 2024, at 5 pm EST | Trading strategy report submission deadline*.
- February 6, 2024, at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST | Trading strategy presentation (virtual).
*Participants will submit their Trading Strategy Report on this website by the deadline. When you are ready to submit your work, scroll down to the “How to Participate” section for further details.
Round 2 - Spring 2024
To be announced
Round 3 - Summer 2024
To be announced
Round 4 - Fall 2024
To be announced
Round 5 - Winter 2025
To be announced
Round 6 - Spring 2025
To be announced
Fees
- There is no registration fees for this hackathon
Registration
- No registration is required; see below for the participation process.
Objectives
- Construct a trading strategy for manual or automated trading (depending on the case offered).
- Generate the maximum profit possible out of the decision case.
- Engage in active trading throughout the trading period by investing in different investment instrument running in the decision case..
- Based on the case offered in the hackathon, with the aim of achieving the highest profit possible.
- Provide a comprehensive explanation of the investment strategy employed to compose the highest profit geenrated in the project report.
Qualification
- Participants must be current undergraduate or graduate students in a degree program at the University of Toronto
- Students may participate individually or in groups.
- Faculty advisors or staff members cannot compete as a team member
- More than one student or team from one university can participate in this activity.
Team Faculty Advisor
- The Faculty Advisor is welcome to guide the students. The team advisor (Faculty) supervising (leading) a team will serve in an oversight role, coaching and assisting students in developing their strategies. In addition, the faculty will serve as an advisor to the team during the competition period.
- As a faculty member teaching finance, economics or related topics, the advisor can’t help the participating teams with solutions or produce the work for the students to be used in the competition. Instead, the advisor will provide guidance, support, and knowledge to ensure that the participating team will perform well during the competition and leave the implementation piece to the students.
How to participate
- Read the case package provided, scroll down to "Case Details" section.
- Download all the pre-requisites to run RIT Market Simulator, scroll down to "Software Pre-requisites" section.
- Create your own RIT credentials to connect to the server and port, scroll down to "Case Server Details".
- Only one user can be created per individual/team.
- Once you are connected, you will have access to the case running 24/7.
- The decision case will loop 24/7 in cycles, each cycle will last 5 minutes, the case will restart automatically after one minutes.
- Record the profit and other details relevant to your performance after each heat
Case Details
Algorithmic Forecasting Case
The Algorithmic Forecasting Asset Price Case is designed to challenge participants’ programming acumen as they create algorithms using the REST API Key to predict future asset prices and automate trading strategies. Throughout the case, these algorithms must utilize historical security prices, estimate market sensitivities with beta, forecast future asset returns using the CAPM model, identify price trends, and submit orders to capitalize on private information about evolving market movements. Given the high-frequency nature of the case, participants are urged to develop algorithms capable of swiftly adapting to rapid changes in market dynamics using their chosen programming languages.
Getting Started Resources
Scoring
The panel will evaluate the top individual/team based on their presentation and performance on a weighted average basis:
| Deliverable | Weight |
The highest profit generated from the highest trading cycle only | 30% |
Investment Strategy Adoption | 30% |
Project Report** | 20% |
Presentation*** | 20% |
**Must follow academic writing standard |
***Selected from top-performing individual/teams |
Portfolio Presentation
The presentation will take place on February 6th, 2024 at 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (EST) – VIRTUAL
Please use the following meeting link to join the trading strategy presentation session.
- The meeting link is only available to users with UofT email domain.
The panel of judges will evaluate the team presentations and this performance will factor into a team’s final score.
Presentation Format
- 10 minutes of presentation time.
- 5 minutes Q&A session with judges.
- PowerPoint is advised.
Content
- Be concise and informative!
- Include investment strategies, highlights of surprises, risk management, and performance analyses.
Case Server Details
Trading Cases will have new, randomized sets of security paths each time they are run on the server. Please, use the following credentials to access the server:
- Server host name: flserver.rotman.utoronto.ca
- Server port number: 16500
Statement on Equity, Diversity, and Excellence
Equity and Human Rights
The purposes of this statement are to express the University’s values regarding equity and diversity, and relate these to the institution’s unwavering commitment to excellence in the pursuit of our academic mission.
At the University of Toronto, we strive to be an equitable and inclusive community, rich with diversity, protecting the human rights of all persons, and based upon understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of every person. We seek to ensure to the greatest extent possible that all students and employees enjoy the opportunity to participate as they see fit in the full range of activities that the University offers, and to achieve their full potential as members of the University community.
Our support for equity is grounded in an institution-wide commitment to achieving a working, teaching, and learning environment that is free of discrimination and harassment as defined in the Ontario Human Rights Code. In striving to become an equitable community, we will also work to eliminate, reduce or mitigate the adverse effects of any barriers to full participation in University life that we find, including physical, environmental, attitudinal, communication or technological.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
Our teaching, scholarship, and other activities take place in the context of a highly diverse society. Reflecting the intersectionality in our community is uniquely valuable to Rotman, as it contributes to the diversification of thoughts, ideas, and perspectives that enrich our teaching, scholarship, and research activities. We will proactively seek to increase inclusion and feelings of belonging among our community members, with an aim to having a student body, teaching and administrative staff that mirror the diversity of qualified applicants. For more information, please click here.