Australian Trading Challenge winners announced
Top ten foreign exchange and commodities traders achieved more than $80,000 profits in the two week inaugural eToro Australian Trading Challenge
Pearson profited more than $30,000
A 22-year old labourer from Penrith has come out trumps in the latest Australian Trading Challenge.
The challenge, hosted by eToro – the fastest growing online financial trading platform – attracted more than 5000 contestants at the end of last month.
Christopher Pearson, a 22 year old labourer from Cambridge Gardens, Penrith, gained first place – and $1000 prize money - in the competition, achieving a virtual Forex trading profit of more than $30,950. Commenting on his win, Pearson said: “I have only recently started trading Forex and didn’t expect to win believing that others with more experience would have the edge. But winning this competition has made me realize just how lucrative and easily accessible the Forex market is. I now intend to continue studying Forex with a long term goal of trading professionally.”
eToro, which recently joined forces with International Capital Markets (IC Markets) in Sydney, launched the competition in response to the significant growth in Forex trading in Australia. Statistics from the Australian Trade Commission (2009) report that Australia now ranks as the fastest growing Forex market among the top 10 Forex centres in the world, with the Australian dollar ranked as the sixth most traded currency, and the AUD/USD the world’s 4th most actively traded currency pair.
Matthew Gibbs, aged 33, a business consultant who lives in North Gosford with his wife and two children won second place with profits of nearly $13,500. Gibbs started trading the markets only one month ago. “I originally thought that not being an accountant or stockbroker or from a financial background meant that I wouldn’t be able to successfully trade the markets” he said. “I think the eToro platform enables anyone to trade as you have all the information, tutorials and tools required.”
Third place went to Michael Kwong aged 38, a full time financial trader from Rosanna, Melbourne.
“While I enjoy accountancy it can be a bit of a dull area. Trading the markets is a lot more interesting and dynamic,” he said. “One of the most interesting aspects of eToro is the online chat and being able to see what the top 1000 traders were trading – certainly a positive. It’s a platform that is useful for getting into the FX market the first time around.”
eToro CEO Johnathan Assia said: “We congratulate all who entered the competition and in particular our top ten ranked traders. Having more than 5,000 entrants in the Challenge highlights the level of interest Forex trading is gaining in Australia. The overwhelming majority of contestants were beginner traders and yet they achieved remarkable success. This demonstrates the accessibility of the eToro platform in providing educative, informative and highly engaging learning tools to enable anyone to trade the markets.”
Full details of the Australian Trading Challenge, the winners and their trading strategies will be available in the May/June edition of Wealth Creator magazine.
