Eight Fisher Teams Compete in Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge

Last fall, eight teams from the St. John Fisher University Investment Club participated in the 2025 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge, with a total of 38 finance students competing across the teams.

The international competition brings together thousands of undergraduate students from universities around the world, and teams manage a simulated multi-asset portfolio and apply investment strategies in real time using the Bloomberg Terminal.

Assistant Professor of Finance Dr. Yi Liu worked to recruit the students and prepare them for the competition. The Fisher teams that participated represented student investors across accounting, finance, economics, and management majors. Fisher students are uniquely equipped for this competition thanks to the Walter and Barbara Parkes Trading Lab in the Victor E. Salerno Center for American Enterprise, where they have access to Bloomberg Terminals and have the opportunity to gain regular experience working with both real-time and historical data.

The highest-ranking team, Cardinal Capital, placed among the top 600 globally; a strong result given the thousands of teams competing worldwide. Members included Owen Pettee, Tyler Grau, Zack Sauro, Logan Amidon, and Madeline Denison.

Denison, who completed her undergraduate experience in December and is now pursuing her MBA with an accounting concentration, led the organization of the teams. She said she was motivated to take on the challenge because it gave them all the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real-time market environment.

“I hoped to strengthen my understanding of how markets react to news and economic events and to improve my decision-making under pressure,” she said.

Teams spent time researching industries and following market trends before making trades. As the competition unfolded, they worked together to adjust strategy based on performance and market movement.

“Participating in the challenge deepened my understanding of finance and analytics because we had to interpret data quickly and make informed decisions with limited time. It reinforced how important preparation, research, and teamwork are in real-world finance settings,” said Denison. “Representing Fisher on a global stage meant a lot to me, especially as this was our first year participating. It showed that our students are willing to step outside the classroom and compete at a high level, and the experience strengthened my interest in combining accounting, analytics, and finance in my future career and gave me more confidence in high-pressure decision-making environments.”

Liu noted that several other Fisher teams also earned competitive placements, and the students showed great engagement, teamwork, and leadership throughout the challenge.

“Participation in the challenge helped students gain hands-on experience with portfolio construction, risk management, and research using Bloomberg data. It also strengthened collaboration within the Investment Club and supported our broader mission of preparing students to be career-ready through experiential learning,” she said.