Trinity student wins inaugural Bank of Ireland FX Trade Off contest

12 Dec 2017

From left: Marco Stango, 2017 winner of Bank of Ireland’s FX Trade Off; Martha O’Hagan Luff, assistant professor, business and administrative studies, Trinity College Dublin; and Kevin Twomey, CEO of Bank of Ireland Global Markets. Image: Julian Behal Photography

The FX Trade Off’s first year proved very popular, with more than 1,000 entries received.

Marco Stango, a first-year engineering student from Trinity College Dublin (TCD), has been announced as the overall winner of the Bank Of Ireland (BOI) FX Trade Off contest for 2017.

The competition was established to encourage participation and knowledge of global FX markets among students at third level.

BOI linked up with Irish fintech Share Navigator, which provided the simulated markets environment for competition entrants.

FX Trade Off received more than three times the original allocation of spaces, with four launch nights held in University College Dublin (UCD), TCD, Dublin City University and University College Cork.

More than 22,000 trades carried out

The contest saw more than 22,000 trades, with the US dollar against the Japanese yen the most traded currency pair.

Stango received €1,000 in cash, an iPad, mentoring workshops from the BOI Global Markets’ senior leadership team and work experience in the largest dealing room in Ireland. Tom Walsh and Matthew Collins, both UCD students, placed in second and third respectively, and also walked away with mentoring, cash prizes and iPads.

Kevin Twomey, CEO of BOI Global Markets, said: “This is the first year of our FX Trade Off competition and we have been overwhelmed with not only the volume of interest and entries, but also the positive feedback from participants and universities.”

He added that the contest provides first-hand experience to students and offers mentoring from senior team members, which “will offer real value as students embark into the next stages of their professional life”.

A diverse group of entrants

Twomey said: “We are particularly pleased that the entrants represented a cross-section of courses including the arts, economics and engineering.”

“In Bank of Ireland Global Markets, we have a strong track record of retaining graduates, with over a quarter of our colleagues originating through the graduate programme. We look forward to expanding the competition reach in 2018.”

Martha O’Hagan Luff, assistant professor of business and administrative studies at TCD, said: “We are delighted to be part of the inaugural Bank of Ireland FX Trading competition – over 80 students from Trinity alone took part in competition.

“The FX Trading competition was extremely well received by the students who took part and I want to congratulate Marco on his success.”

Ellen Tannam was a journalist with Silicon Republic, covering all manner of business and tech subjects

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