Queens College takes home top prize, students from Columbia Law School and Kings College place second and third, respectively

Three students from Queens College, City University of New York turned in an impressive 427 percent total portfolio gain in four weeks, outperforming nearly 930 other teams to win the fourth annual thinkorswim Challenge by TD Ameritrade, Inc. This year’s virtual trading competition had a record number of participants: 2,507 teams of students from 327 colleges and universities across 49 states.

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“The thinkorswim Challenge is an amazing opportunity for a younger generation to learn about investing through practical application,” said Lee McAdoo, managing director of education at TD Ameritrade. “The competition is more than just learning to navigate the markets, it gives students the opportunity to trade different products in a virtual environment and teaches them to consider risk management, portfolio allocation and diversification across sectors and industries.”

Top Prize Goes to Team from Queens College

The team of three students from Queens College, who placed the most trades during the competition- 942, took first place with a 427 percentage portfolio gain and an ending portfolio value of $2,636,000. The team of Queens College undergraduate students included: senior Max Fruchter, an economics and finance double major; junior Shlomo Sandler, an accounting major; and junior Daniel Baruch, an applied physics major. There were three teams from Queens College competing in this year’s Challenge.

“What made the thinkorswim Challenge interesting was being able to track our performance against other participating teams,” said Daniel Baruch. “It was fun when we would perform better than other schools locally and across the country.”

Similar to last year’s Challenge, participants in the 2017 Challenge showed a preference for options. All virtual trades placed by the winning team were options trades, resulting in “profits” of over $200,000 for underlying symbols including Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), and Expedia Inc. (EXPE). A similar return was seen from options trades on Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), which accounted for five percent of the team’s overall trades. The Queens College team was optimistic about the market overall and their trading strategy, with 52 percent of trades being bullish.

“When deciding our trading strategy, we understood we needed to have a higher risk appetite than normal with the competition being only four weeks long. Trading options allowed us to push our risk boundaries, while still properly managing our portfolio’s overall risk,” said Max Fruchter. “Before the competition I had never traded options, only equities with longer investment horizons. The competition opened my eyes to new products, and I’ve since explored trading options on my own.”

Each member of the Challenge's overall winning team – CUNY Queens College – received $3,000 to be deposited into individual TD Ameritrade brokerage accounts. As the school affiliated with the overall winning team, Queens College received $30,000 from TD Ameritrade for its role in educating students on the importance of investing.

A staggering $1,300,000 in virtual trading profits separated the competition’s overall winner from the second place team, which was from Columbia Law School. With its 289 percent gain and a paper portfolio valued at $1,947,000, the team brought in $20,000 for its school and each team member won $2,000 deposited into individual TD Ameritrade brokerage accounts. Third place went to a team of undergraduate students from King’s College, which ended up with a 224 percent gain and a virtual portfolio value of $1,622,000. The team won $10,000 for its school, and each team member won $1,000 for placing third in the competition overall, deposited into individual TD Ameritrade brokerage accounts.

thinkorswim Challenge Trading Trends

Students placed a total of 38,600 paper trades in the 2017 competition – 1,900 per day – which is five percent higher than the year prior. Once again, options made up a majority of student’s trades at 77 percent followed by equities, which represented 21 percent of trades during the competition.

For the second year, students made more trades in the technology sector than in any other sector. Tesla (TSLA) was the most frequently traded stock followed by Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), while Netflix (NFLX) and Nvidia (NVDA) rounded out the top five.

Challenge participants showed an increased interest in mobile trading this year, with 41 percent of trades placed through a mobile device during the 2017 Challenge, compared with 36 percent the year prior.

Bringing Financial Literacy to the Next Generation

In a 2017 TD Ameritrade survey1, nearly a fifth of respondents admitted that they did not know anything about the stock market or investing, which could be the result of limited financial education in high school and college. The same survey revealed that only nine percent took a financial course in high school and seven percent took a financial course in college.

TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim Challenge is offered every year through TD Ameritrade U, an educational program for professors and college-run organizations that provides free access to virtual trading through paperMoney® on the thinkorswim trading platform. TD Ameritrade developed the program in 2014 to help students prepare for the real world of personal finance by giving them the ability to put classroom theory into real-life investing practice. The firm believes that access to leading-edge investment resources and education is the first step in helping young people form investing habits that can last a lifetime.

“Through TD Ameritrade’s recent survey, we learned that more than half of people wish they had learned about investing earlier in life,” said McAdoo. “The thinkorswim Challenge is giving the next generation the opportunity to learn about the markets and how to invest, so they’re not at a disadvantage like so many are today. We can help young people avoid having a lifetime of regret by offering them a program that will give them real-time, real-world trading experience.”

For the latest news and information about TD Ameritrade, follow the Company on Twitter, @TDAmeritradePR.

Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Options trading privileges subject to TD Ameritrade review and approval. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before investing in options.

Supporting documentation for any claims, comparison, statistics, or other technical data will be supplied upon request.

The paperMoney® application is for educational purposes only. Successful virtual trading during one time period does not guarantee successful investing of actual funds during a later time period as market conditions change continuously.

Inclusion of actual symbols is for reference only and is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any specific security.

The thinkorswim Challenge is subject to full Official Rules, which are available at www.thinkorswimchallenge.com. For more information about TD Ameritrade U or the thinkorswim Challenge, visit www.tdameritradeu.com or www.thinkorswimchallenge.com.

Source: TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation

About TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation

Millions of investors and independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) have turned to TD Ameritrade’s (Nasdaq:AMTD) technology, people and education to help make investing and trading easier to understand and do. Online or over the phone. In a branch or with an independent RIA, first-timer or sophisticated trader, our clients want to take control, and we help them decide how — bringing Wall Street to Main Street for more than 40 years. TD Ameritrade has time and again been recognized as a leader in investment services. Please visit TD Ameritrade’s newsroom or www.amtd.com for more information.

1. Online survey was conducted with 1,001 Americans age 18+ with $10,000+ investible assets by True North Market Insights, September 2017, on behalf of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation. TD Ameritrade and True North are separate and unaffiliated firms and are not responsible for each other’s services or policies.

TD Ameritrade Holding CorporationFor Media:Christina Goethe, 201-369-8510Corporate Communications Investor Relationschristina.goethe@tdameritrade.comorFor Investors:Jeff Goeser, 402-597-8464jeffrey.goeser@tdameritrade.com@TDAmeritradePR

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