“Go Panthers Go”, a team made up of Jeremy Heartz and Quentin Ng, took 16th place overall. Darcy Norton, competing as a one-man team, took 20th place.
Ng and Heartz ended the competition with a balance of $148,391, on an initial “investment” of $100,000. Norton’s final balance was $141,762. The team’s returns were 48.4 per cent and 41.8 per cent respectively.
Heartz explains one of the successful trades his team made was Suncor Energy Inc.
“We had a good idea that the stock could only perform better than expected due to it being in the oil and natural gas sector — where expectations were low because of the current price of oil — as well as Suncor having lost facilities in the Fort McMurray wildfire. The stock rose by about seven per cent, and our options responded by increasing by 500 to 600 per cent; on a total investment of $9,000 we made $55,000.”
“The teams deserve all the credit,” said Dr. Andrew Carrothers, faculty supervisor. “I simply explained the basic concepts and demonstrated how to trade. These two teams made 340 transactions over the eight weeks of competition. Clearly the phenomenal performance was a result of their decision-making.”
“It is very satisfying when UPEI punches well above its weight class,” he concludes.