Joana Silva

2016 Sussex vs Brighton Trading Competition trophy

The Sussex Trading Society have won an annual competition held by trading company OSTC which pits members from trading societies at the universities of Sussex and Brighton against each other in a two-month trading simulation. 

The competition - now in its fifth year - saw around 20 students from the two universities take part. Entrants traded independently for the duration, with individual profits then being combined into team totals. Sussex were the clear winners of this year’s contest.

The Sussex team were invited to the OSTC offices in Brighton to claim an engraved trophy as their prize and celebrate the win with champagne and cake. 

One student in particular stood out as the star trader of the competition. Joana Silva, who studies BSc Finance, finished with a total profit of £20,165 - more than four times higher than next best profit. 

Joana said of her team’s success:

"I was pleased with our team's performance, and it was delightful to see our trader's actively involved. This competition is a brilliant opportunity for us to demonstrate our practical skills as well as knowledge.

“Our strategies allowed us to perform well and retain the trophy, and we hope to do the same next year."

Gary Welsch, President of the Sussex Trading Society, added:

"It’s nice to see that our training programme (ITTP) has proven its effectiveness. We continue to encourage our members to develop their trading strategies and work on their psychology while trading. This combined with their exceptional drive and discipline allowed us to retain the trophy this year."

Managing Director of OSTC Brighton Sam Baker, who will teach Sussex students on the second year Trading Strategies module in the 2016/17 academic year, commented:

“With each year of the competition I get more and more impressed by the students’ knowledge of financial markets. The bar gets raised every year and I enjoy engaging with the students when I conduct talks with the Sussex Trading Society.

“I am looking forward to taking over the trading module next year at Sussex and hope to pass on my 10 years of trading knowledge and experience, hopefully inspiring some future Warren Buffets on the way.”

The final scoreboard for individuals, ranked by final profit and loss, was as follows:

1. Joana Silva (Sussex): £20,165.31
2. Alex Pitkin (Sussex): £4,760.49
3. Patrick Luck (Brighton): £1,580.73
4. Oliver Price (Sussex): £1,423.24
5. Gary Welsch (Sussex): £162.51
6. Thomas Langton (Sussex): -£615.82
7. Demetris Paparadamanthous (Brighton): -£4,441.34
8. George Boston (Sussex): -£4,657.88
9. Louis Paterson (Brighton): -£5,713.49
10. Lloyd Scott (Brighton): -£9,907.89