Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE): Futures Masters Competition Opens

The Futures Masters competition, designed to introduce futures contracts to a large group of investors, opens in January 2015.

• An Analyst Dream Team of eleven brokerage houses is engaged in the competition.
• The competition spans over five weeks and offers five opportunities to win cash prizes and awards worth PLN 70 thousand in total.

Enrolment for the Futures Masters competition organised by Warsaw Stock Exchange, the Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW) and KDPW_CCP in co-operation with the Association of Individual Investors (SSI) and brokerage houses is open as of 12 January 2015. The competition is addressed to fans of the futures market  and all those who want to use interesting practical tools to discover the opportunities offered by investing in futures contracts listed on WSE. Participation in the competition is open and free of charge.

The Futures Masters competition involves investment of virtual capital on the competition platform based on genuine contract prices. The prizes are also genuine: the winners will get PLN 70 thousand in total. The competition partners are eleven brokerage houses which have hand-picked their best analysts, the Analyst Dream Team, to support competition participants as mentors.

“The mission of the Futures Masters competition is to highlight the attractive offer of the WSE derivatives market for individual investors. We want to help activate the existing investors and reach out to new investors while improving the recognisability of futures contracts listed on the Exchange. I am proud that a sizeable group of eleven brokerage houses has accepted the invitation to work on the project and agreed to ‘lease’ their best people to the competition participants. This is the first in a range of projects which will activate individual investors on the Polish market, a goal enshrined in the updated WSE strategy,” said Grzegorz Zawada, Vice-President of the Management Board of Warsaw Stock Exchange.

“It is important to show the investors that the Exchange is not all about stocks: there is a whole range of interesting instruments which offer multiple opportunities of investing and earning money. The KDPW Group companies ensure that investment on the market is safe. We will work together with the Exchange to implement projects which encourage and activate investors, including prospective investors. Thanks to the competition and the engagement of the best analysts of our partners, the participants who discover the futures market for the very first time will have the opportunity to understand the world of derivatives and to win genuine cash prizes,” said Iwona Sroka, President of KDPW and KDPW_CCP.

The Futures Masters competition has a unique format. Every participant who registers is requested to pick a mentor: a person with market experience who will support the mentees with advice, analysis and comments throughout the competition.

Eleven analysts will be working with the contestants:

• Paweł Danielewicz - Dom Maklerski BZ WBK
• Tomasz Gessner - Dom Maklerski BDM
• Rafał Komar - Biuro Maklerskie Alior Bank
• Piotr Kuczyński - Dom Inwestycyjny Xelion
• Paweł Małmyga - Dom Maklerski PKO Banku Polskiego
• Piotr Neidek - Dom Maklerski mBanku
• Krzysztof Ojczyk - Dom Maklerski Noble Securities
• Tomasz Regulski - Dom Maklerski Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A.
• Maciej Szmigel - Dom Maklerski ING Securities
• Robert Utko - Dom Maklerski Banku Handlowego
• Grzegorz Zalewski - Dom Maklerski BOŚ

The first stage of the competition held from 12 to 23 January 2015 will be a “warm-up” for the actual contest. All participants may make test investments on the demo competition account. The actual contest begins on 26 January 2015 as soon as the trading session opens. The competition includes five editions, each one opening on a Monday and closing on a Friday. Participants may join the competition throughout its duration.

In the beginning, the account balance of each participant is a virtual PLN 50,000. From the start for the next five weeks until 27 February 2015 the contestants will compete by investing in futures contracts: FW20H1520, FW40H15 and FUSDH15.

Those contestants whose investment decisions generate the highest return in a given edition win prizes: PLN 4,000 for the first place, PLN 3,000 for the second place, PLN 2,000 for the third place, PLN 1,000 for the fourth place, and PLN 500 for each of the fifth to the tenth place.

An innovative solution of the Futures Masters competition is a ranking of contest badges awarded to participants for specific achievements:

• Speedmaster – for closing at least 20 transactions within a contest day, including transactions opening and closing positions in financial instruments available in the competition;
• Daytrader – for the highest daily return rate on a given day among all participants of a competition edition;
• Misiek (Teddy) – for having the portfolio reduced by 30% within a single day of a competition edition;
• Omnibus – for holding open interest in all financial instruments available in the competition at the close of a trading session during a given competition edition.

The badges will earn the participants points which will be added up throughout all five competition editions. The three players who win the highest score get an iPad.

The competition will also feature training sessions, mentor meetings and webinars.

For more information on the Futures Masters competition, rankings, news, educational materials, the registration form and the competition rules, visit www.futuresmasters.pl.