Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is making trading fun, exciting and educational with the first nationwide Derivatives Virtual Trading Challenge, which aims to create awareness and develop interest about the Malaysian derivatives market among millennials through experiential learning. The Derivatives Trading Challenge will also provide essential knowledge to new investors to start trading derivatives in an informed manner.
The Exchange has seen strong growth in Derivatives trading in recent years. Trading volume increased to 18.2 million contracts traded in 2020 from 13.5 million contracts traded in 2019, recording a 35% year-on-year growth. Retail participation grew to 32% as of August 2021 from 25% in 2019. These milestones indicate growing interest among retail investors in diversifying their investment portfolios with alternative asset classes, such as derivatives.
“The Exchange is committed to continuously promoting financial literacy to the Malaysian public. Apart from the ongoing education webinars and existing learning materials on Bursa Academy, we hope that an interactive platform like this Derivatives Virtual Trading Challenge will effectively help participants to build their confidence in making trading decisions, which will benefit them when they enter the actual market,” said Samuel Ho, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives.
Registration for the Derivatives Virtual Trading Challenge will be open from 22 September to 5 November 2021, and will be open to eligible Malaysians aged 18 and above. The virtual challenge will commence from 15 November 2021 to 14 December 2021. Each participant will be given an account with RM100,000 virtual capital to trade in four existing derivatives products offered by Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, which are the Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO), the FBM KLCI Index Futures (FKLI), the FBM Mid 70 Index Futures (FM70) and the 5-Year Malaysian Government Securities Futures (FMG5) Contracts.
The top 15 participants with the highest account balance at the end of the challenge will be rewarded with prizes worth RM20,000.
