Trading Challenge

Experience trading futures and options in a realistic yet risk-free environment. Learn what it’s like trading the world’s leading derivatives products using live market data in our simulated environment. Track your performance and see if you can outperform your peers.

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Key Benefits

Trade in a risk-free environment

Put your trading skills to the test in a simulated environment ‒ with no money at stake.

Compete with your peers

Find out how your skills match up against others via the challenge leaderboard.

Sharpen your knowledge

Gain valuable insights through our online courses and direct hands-on experience.

Trade Against a Pro Trading Challenge

On December 8-13, compete against fellow traders and practice your trading strategies in a simulated environment for a chance to win cash prizes.

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Get to know our trading challenges

CME Group offers three types of trading challenges – designed to meet your needs. Whether you are a professor looking to host a challenge for your class, a firm trying to set up a private challenge, or just someone interested in trying out the markets in a risk-free environment, our trading challenges have something to offer you.

Design your own Private Trading Challenge

Create a custom trading challenge using live market data for your private group ‒ classrooms, trading desks, new hires, interns, or other organizations. At no cost to you, we will design a unique challenge environment specific to your learning objectives. There is no better way to learn about the derivatives market than through hands-on experience in a simulated environment.

 Already have a private challenge access code?

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How it works

  • Challenge participants are assigned a virtual account with $100,000 USD.
  • Participants monitor their progress against each other via the leaderboard.
  • Margin is calculated for each trade. When margin is exceeded, participants must take action.

Customize your challenge

Challenges can be customized to your time frame, selecting any of CME Group’s top products from our six asset classes (choose products in all six, just one, or any combination):

Asset Classes:

  • Agriculture
  • Energy
  • Equity Indices
  • FX
  • Interest Rates
  • Metals

Contract Types: 

  • Futures
  • Options
  • Both

Compete against other universities in the University Trading Challenge

Each fall, students from universities across the globe form teams of three to five people and compete against each other. It’s a tradition that has given thousands of future traders hands-on, risk-free experience. Teams use the CQG Integrated Client, CQG Mobile, and CQG Desktop trading platforms to execute trades on the CME Globex platform ‒ offering a practical training for students.

Eligibility:

  • Each team is required to have three to five students.
  • Every student involved must be enrolled in an accredited college or university at the undergraduate or graduate level. All participants must be enrolled for the duration of the competition at the university identified by the team lead in the registration form. Teams cannot be a mix of graduate and undergraduate students.
  • Faculty Advisors are highly recommended to oversee each school’s participation.

For more information about the next CME Group University Trading Challenge or to be added to our distribution list, please email institute@cmegroup.com.

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