CMC starts student investment contest

Published on Saturday 18 October 2008 15:01

ONLINE trading firm CMC Markets is to launch a competition for members of Edinburgh University Trading and Investment Club (Eutic) to identify its top money maker.

Eutic has the UK's largest student-run investment portfolio and helps train members who want to pursue careers in finance.

From tomorrow until October 27, its 400 members will be able to set up demo accounts with CMC Markets, which has an office in Edinburgh.

CMC will load each account with 5,000 to trade on the platform. It will also provide free education.

CMC Markets, part-owned by Goldman Sachs, offers spread betting, CFD and FX trading from 20 offices worldwide. Its trading software handles about 750,000 trades per month – about one trade every two seconds.

Michael McCudden, Scotland branch manager with CMC Markets, said: "We are famous for our extremely tight spreads and seriously low margin requirements."

The member who generates the best return out of their 5,000 will receive a prize of 500 and be named top trader.

McCudden added: "There are nearly 4,000 different instruments to choose from. Students might find the FTSE100 or Dow Jones Index interesting, or they might prefer to trade gold or oil. They can even trade on pork bellies if they want to."

Traders can "go short or long" on most stocks, except certain financial stocks.