Zicklin Students Trade Up in Bloomberg’s Global Trading Challenge

Nine is so fine. Nine teams of students from the Zicklin School of Business—the largest number ever—took it to another level in the 2024 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge. 

From October 7 to November 15, student teams, consisting of three to five students per team, had a virtual $1 million with which to build “long only” portfolios using stocks in the Bloomberg World Large, Mid, and Small Cap Price Return Index. Trades could be entered throughout the contest, and no single position could be greater than 20 percent of the portfolio. 

Out of 2,520 teams worldwide representing over 13,000 students, the top Zicklin team, Billionaire’s Club, finished 46th, and the number-two Team Theta Capital finished 73rd. These results put the teams in the top two and three percent, respectively.

Additionally, the top three Zicklin teams finished in the top 10 percent, and seven of the nine teams ended in the top 40 percent. The median Zicklin team placed in the top 20 percent of all entries; the Zicklin teams’ average returns were eight percent.

Matilda Lindberg (MS, ’26), a financial risk management grad student who led Team Theta Capital, said that “agility and responsiveness to market momentum were key,” adding that she and her teammates were boosted by the Zicklin community’s support and insights, which “motivated us to stay vigilant about market drivers and ultimately helped us protect the P&L of our portfolio.”

Zicklin undergraduate Don Mario Saint-Paul (BBA, ’28), a statistics and quantitative modeling major who was the captain of Team Billionaires, called the challenge “my favorite part about being a student here.” Having access to the Subotnick Financial Services Center with its Wasserman Trading Floor, Bloomberg terminals, and trading software including Bloomberg and FactSet enabled his team to find key metrics on which to base trading decisions. “This provides me with an edge towards my career path in finance,” he added.  

“Congratulations to all the Zicklin teams, who represented the Zicklin School so well and achieved the school’s best result in the Challenge for more than five years, against such strong competition from schools worldwide,” enthused Gideon Pell, distinguished lecturer and interim director of the Subotnick Center, who served as faculty advisor for the challenge. “I was particularly delighted that students found it helpful to explore the tools and financial data resources in the Center to guide their strategies and execute dynamic research of companies and trends in volatile markets around the U.S. presidential election. This is a wonderful achievement, and you represented the Zicklin School so well.”

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