Lin Ying in the middle listening to an NYSE trader introducing work on the trading floor. [Zhang Yuwei / China Daily]

NEW YORK - Three university students from China had their first taste of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last Friday.

They were among the 30 candidates competing in the first Traders Trophy competition to be organized in the United States.

The Traders Trophy is a trading simulation developed by Oxyor - an Amsterdam-based company that provides financial learning and development services around the world. The 90-minute session is based on real life data and creates an environment that is almost identical to that of a trading room. Since its inception in 2008 in Amsterdam, the Traders Trophy Worldwide has been growing at a fast pace and next year the global competitions will expand to 20 countries (from this year's 13) and China will be added to the list.

During the competition, students are required to multitask and think and act like real traders in a dealing room.

In the US the competitors had to trade three stocks - AT&T, Walmart and American Express - while taking clients' calls, giving quotes, reading news headlines and making quick decisions.

"It's more difficult than I expected. It's tough because you have to be very multitasking to take care of different things at the same time, taking clients calls and reading news. You have to be really fast," said Zhu Zhenyong, 27, a Master's student in financial engineering from Cornell University.

"But it was a good experience."

Simon Meijlink, managing director of Oxyor, who developed the software used for the trading simulation said that the competition requires a combination of skills and that it is very "tough". Even when real traders do the test, they tend to score from 80 to 85 out of 100. "If you can handle this, you can handle the dealing room," he said.

"Candidates will have to try to balance profitability, clients, and risk management in order to have balanced results," Meijlink said.

The US Traders Trophy is sponsored by Barclays Capital, NYSE Euronext and Oxyor. More than 550 undergraduate and postgraduates from a range of disciplines, from finance to philosophy, enrolled in the first qualification rounds. Eighty Chinese students competed in the first round and three were chosen for the final at NYSE.

There has been an increasing number of Chinese students competing in Traders Trophy globally. Meijlink said that Chinese students stand out with their strong motivation and willingness to learn.

"They are just very motivated," he said, adding that level of motivation of Chinese students is generally higher than students from Western countries.

"Every year the top five students are usually hired by the sponsor," Meijlink said.

Meijlink, an active hedge fund trader for 12 years, said that the qualities that the Chinese students have shown are very suitable to the banking culture.

"We train a lot of Chinese graduates. They are highly motivated and very hardworking. Which means it is almost impossible to fail. Banking is not the most complicated business, so what makes you successful is hard work and motivation," he said.

Andrew Miller, a partner with Oxyor, who helped select the final candidates, said that Chinese students are very strong in quantitative skills. Even though some are quieter than the others, he said, they will do whatever they can once they know what they want to achieve.

But Chinese participants from the competition acknowledge their weakness.

Yang Guanlin, a student in statistics from Columbia University, said that he didn't do well because it was too intensive.

"It was hard for me to do many things at the same time. Reading news headlines was the most challenging part for me and I lost time on that," he said after the competition.

Lin Ying, a sophomore in finance and economics from Stern Business School at New York University said that she did quite well in risk management but found it challenging to watch three stocks at the same time.

Although Lin, one of four female participants in the competition, didn't win, she said she will never give up her career goal of becoming a trader.

"I think I have the personality to be a trader. I like the hectic environment and I work very hard. I also like challenges.

"I am glad I had the experience and now I have learned what I need to do to catch up in the future. It is all about experience and practice makes perfect."

Elizabeth Jeong from the US, who majors in finance and international business in Stern Business School of New York University, won the competition and will compete in the global final in Amsterdam in May.

Her advice to her fellow participants is to "follow your intuition and be ready to take risks".

"It's all about making decisions quickly and trusting your gut," she said.

Meijlink said that economic growth had helped China become an important part of global trading.

"You can no longer see China as a small exchange or anything like that. It is a trading nation and it is catching up extremely fast. My guess is that within five years, no one will end their trading day without seeing what's happened in China," he said.

"It is a whole new world coming in and a whole new world of types of traders. That means that the culture of trading will also change with it."

China Daily