Fairfield University student wins FX Trading Contest 2006

Business New Haven

11/27/2006
by Michael C. Bingham

Alexander Dean, a graduate student at Fairfield University's Charles F. Dolan School of Business, took top honors in the recent Texas A&M Inter-University Forex Trading Competition for making the most money in mock foreign-exchange trading.

Hosted by Texas A&M's Mays Business School's Reliant Energy Securities & Commodities Trading Center, the competition featured 90 students from 14 universities making mock trades of international currencies. The graduate and undergrad students used Global Forex Trading (GFT) software that streams live price data for 60 foreign exchanges. Each student started off with $50,000 in a mock account to make trades, while calculating in real news events that in some cases can greatly impact in a matter of moments the foreign exchange market.

Dean won $1,328 in prize money, access for six months to a $10,000 Global Forex Trading account and plaudits for his 74.9-percent rate of return on his trades of the English pound. Although students competed individually, a team trophy was awarded to the university whose students collectively earned the highest overall return on equity. Fairfield's Dolan School team finished fourth among the 14 schools.

Dean, who earned a BS in finance from the Dolan School in 2005, believes he won the competition because of lessons learned there, ignoring his self-doubts and going with his gut.

"The biggest time I lost money was when I became afraid and I pulled my money out of the market," said the Long Island native. "Like my father says, 'You've got to go big or go home.' You can't be afraid, you just have to stick it out."

Dean has his eye on working as a trader after completing his MS in Finance next month. He might not have to look too hard for a job, though. According to Fairfield University, Morgan Stanley asked for résumés of the competitors.