About Us

Welcome to the Joint-University Algo FX Trading Challenge 2021 (Global).

Ideate your trading algorithms, test on a robust back-testing platform, and compete to make a name for yourself!

Gain professional industry knowledge and practical skills to prepare yourself as the next-gen algo-trading professional. All undergraduate and postgraduate students from any faculty at participating universities are eligible.

Create teams of 1~4 members with diverse skills (maths, statistics, finance, coding, presentation) and register by 18 Oct 2021.

1st Round:
Ideate

Registered teams of 1-4 students will prepare a trading proposal consisting of:
• Executive summary
• Trading idea description
• Trading logic
• Implementation detail
• Team biography

Coding is not required in this round

Submission deadline: 20 Nov 2021
Result announced: 30 Nov 2021

2nd Round:
Test

Teams will code their trading algorithm and test on ALGOGENE's back-testing engine, then submit the code

Judges will backtest trading algorithms for return, volatility, robustness and practicality to select advancing teams

Submission deadline: 20 Jan 2022
Result announced: 31 Jan 2022

Final Round:
Compete

Each team need to compete in out-sample forward test and live paper trading

Live paper trading will last for 2 months from 1-Feb-2022 to 31-Mar-2022

Teams will present trading plan to judges in a 5-minute pitch session on final day

Judges will select winners in each of these categories:
• Best Return
• Best Sharpe
• Best Strategy Design

Final Day: 3 Apr 2022

Result

The final result of the Joint-University Algo FX Trading Challenge 2021 (Global)

Best Return: live trading period 1/2/2022 - 31/3/2022



Best Sharpe: 1-year out-sample forward test 1/1/2021 - 31/12/2021



Rank
Team
Best Return
1
Plutus
+26.05%
2
OnePunchMan
+12.51%
3
Elk Grove
+4.75%


Rank
Team
Best Sharpe
1
Plutus
3.18
2
WolfTraders
2.34
3
OnePunchMan
1.08


Rank
Team
Best Strategy Design Award
1
Plutus
LSTM model on portfolio optimization based on daily economic data feed on FX. A day trading strategy using price and fundamental data feed into the pipeline.
2
Elk Grove
Time series mean reversion strategy with long short action based on the spread(bollinger bands or the log spread ratios) on FX.
3
WolfTraders
BI-LSTM model to make prediction on FX based on news.


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Leaderboard

Schedule

Date
Event
18 Oct 2021
Deadline of Registration
20 Nov 2021
Deadline of 1st Round: Idea and Strategy Proposal Submission
30 Nov 2021
Announcement of 1st Round Winners
20 Jan 2022
Deadline 2nd Round: Back-testing Completed and Code Submission
31 Jan 2022
Announcement of 2nd Round Winners
31 Mar 2022
2-month Live Paper Trading Completed
3 Apr 2022
Final Day and Award Ceremony


Awards

There are 3 award categories: (A) Best Return, (B) Best Sharpe, and (C) Best Strategy Design.

The winning teams from each category will be entitled to:

Cash Prize

• 1st place: US$1,200
• 2nd place: US$600
• 3rd place: US$300

Certificate

All prize winners will receive a participation certificate

Free Subscription of Back-testing Engine

All prize winners will get 1-year free subscription of ALGOGENE's back-testing platform

Free Subscription of AI Robo-advisor

All prize winners will get 2-month free subscription of AI robo-adivsior, AO Summit from Finbot Limited

Internship / Full-time Employment Opportunities

All prize winners may have a chance to have internship / full-time employment from the Organisers

Join Algo Challenge Association (ACA)

All prize winners will connect with algo fund managers and industrial professionals in Algo Challenge Association (ACA)

Resources

The dataset provided includes the latest trading records and bid-ask updates by the hour, and covers data from normal trading hours within every trading day from Jan 2010 to Dec 2019. Kindly note that data provided is strictly for trading strategy prototyping purposes only. Final round evaluations will be carried out using a new data set with the same structure but from a different time period. Thus, over-fitting of the data set is discouraged.

Trading Products

• Foreign Exchange CFDs

Datasets

Provide access to required historical data for model development and testing
• Market data
• News
• Economic Statistics

System

Access to ALGOGENE's back-testing engine, cloud simulation environment and relevant technical documents

Judging Criteria

Judging panel criteria comprises team performance (30%), trading strategy (30%), and presentation (10%), plus the risk-adjusted return (30%) as computed by the ALGOGENE back-test system.

(A) Best Return

A good return is the primary goal of every algo trading strategy. ALGOGENE's state-of-the-art trading system will back-test the trading strategies of Finale teams to ascertain outcomes. The team with the highest out-sample 1-year forward test and 2-month live paper trading return will win this award.

(B) Best Sharpe

A good strategy does not only need to be profitable, but it is also important to take care of the risk taking. The team with the highest Sharpe will win this award.

(C) Best Strategy Design

Recognises Finale participants' knowledge and skills in developing the best algo trading strategy that demonstrated the following:
• Trading Strategy Logic: reasonable return, manageable risk, stability and predictability;
• Creativity: innovative use of statistical models, parameters, forecasting methodology or interpretation of data and novel ideas based on existing theory and models; and
• Execution Potential: a realistic strategy and full consideration of factors including capital, trading time, market impact and risk management.

Rules

  1. The Challenge is open to only current undergraduate and postgraduate students (students with valid school registration for the current school year).
  2. All members of the same contestant team must be from the same university.
  3. All individual contestants must register with their university email addresses only. Failure to register with university email address will result in disqualification.
  4. Each individual contestant is only allowed to be in one team.
  5. Each team must elect one representative to liaise with the organisers.
  6. All entries must be the original work of the contestant team. Any form of plagiarism is prohibited and the contestant team will be disqualified from the Challenge.
  7. Each individual contestant is required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement with the organisers.
  8. Finalists must present valid Student ID cards and provide a copy for verification.
  9. The judging panel’s decision of the Challenge results is final. The organisers reserve the right to the final decision in all other areas.
  10. An online briefing session will be arranged in Oct-2021 to answer any inquiries about the Challenge.

FAQ

Q: If a person is in overseas or mainland China, can he still join the competition via zoom? Or he has to come to hong kong physically?

A: As this contest will take place via Zoom, overseas or mainland China participants are still able to join the contest. As long as the candidates are current students with the participating universities, you are welcome to partner up with students who are not physically in Hong Kong. Online or Physical Award Ceremony on the Final Day will be arranged according to Covid-19 situation.

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