I had a chance of take part in the Epi-Trade Simulation as part of my Master course in Financial Technology at Singapore Management University. Even for a professional with 10 years of experience in Derivatives Market Operations and Trade Surveillance, I still found the simulation very unique, insightful, thought-provoking and fresh in ideas. I developed deeper understanding of the technical analysis, market force movement, trading concepts, and interactions between front, middle, and back office processing. After the simulation, I find myself more agile, faster and natural in my thought process when it comes to explaining, conversing, and applying trading techniques. This is possible because of the simulator’s clever mechanism, in which there are continued and fast-paced injections of news and other event with practical and sensible impacts. At times released in incremental instalments leading up to an explosive event, other times hitting the scene without prior notice, requiring participants to interpret and react immediately, these stimuli made for a very realistic and engaging session. The participants are, therefore, inspired to think deeply for their actions and the consequences. There was also an involvement of a Central Bank (which I would not spoil the secret on what they are doing) making the market activities very real, practical and exciting. Last but not least, the final important factor for success is the facilitator, Mr Gerard Tong, who is very knowledgeable and experience in this field, conducting the session in a very engaging manner.

TOM VO THANH TRUNG | VICE PRESIDENT, DERIVATIVES OPERATIONS

Learning about financial markets and trading in theory during lectures is one thing, having a near-real interactive fun market game to see how you interact with markets is a totally different thing. I gained a lot of insights from the experience with Epi-Trade® LIVE during the Financial Markets and Technology course. Starting as a Financial Services consultant for the biggest financial technology company in the world, advising around our (electronic) trading solution I am sure I gained an edge over other candidates by having a better understanding of trading through Epi-Trade® LIVE. It also helped me a lot to understand the fundamentals of trading, and I have been able to leverage this understanding into my daily work. I am very happy I had the chance to learn so much while having so much fun. It's like a sandbox where you can learn and do your mistakes before you go and make mistakes in the real life.

ANDREAS VON HIRSCHHAUSEN | FINANCIAL SERVICES CONSULTANT, FIS GLOBAL

Want to know how traders think and act? Look no further, Epi-Trade® LIVE gives you the total experience of a trader. I currently support back-office in a financial institution and always wanted to know the ins and outs of being a trader. Epi-Trade® LIVE gives me this opportunity to learn and understand what the trader thinks when the market is moving and most importantly, the decisions to make, to ensure you have the best bid/ask price. The course Financial Markets and Technology provided me with the fundamentals of how trading works from the point of entry (trade propose) to exit (clearing and settlements). This helps me a lot in my area of work as it provides with me the full spectrum and knowledge of the trade’s life-cycle. Epi-Trade® LIVE helped me to step up and propose areas of improvement in the workflow process, as well as allow me to appreciate why certain actions are done in a certain way.

THAM YONG XIANG | SENIOR IT ANALYST, GIC PTE LTD

The Epi-Trade® LIVE workshops conducted in the Financial Markets and Technology course gave me an excellent opportunity to play the role of a trading party in a simulated, real-time financial trading environment. The Epi-Trade® LIVE platform that Epitrain has built allows both the participation of human traders and algorithmic trading engines, lending me an insight into the mechanics and challenges of trading operations and considerations that no amount of words and lectures could effectively communicate.

It's a fully engaging experience - the sense of competition between myself and my course mates naturally kept everyone engaged, and it was satisfying to see how the leader board (of best and worst earners) stacked up at the end of the (simulated) trading day. Although the preparation of our algorithmic trading application was gruelling, the environment and simulated scenarios were salient enough for me to appreciate the challenges of this style of trading and take away a very unique experience. All in all, the entire Epi-Trade® LIVE experience re-ignited my interest in how technology drives the smooth functioning of financial markets and continues to evolve their very nature, giving me a renewed appreciation of the importance of the work that I do and inspiring me to acquire even more skills and knowledge to embed myself even deeper in the world of financial technology.

JOEL NG | DATA ENGINEER, GIC PTE LTD

During the training, we had the chance to use Epi-Trade® LIVE which brought experiential learning to the table, and it was from this experience that I was truly exposed to the markets in a controlled classroom setting. The experience brought the markets to life right in front of our very eyes, and allowed participants to be placed in the shoes of the market participants, who had to make crucial, time-sensitive decisions daily. Being able to understand the theory after it was taught was inorganic, but the experience of attempting to employ the theories into practice on Epi-Trade® LIVE and watch them either fail or succeed was organic, and is an experience irreplaceable by textbooks.

Epi-Trade® LIVE was instrumental to giving me a hands-on feel of the fundamental drivers of the financial markets. It particularly solidified my understanding of the trade lifecycle and processes, which is highly relevant in my job today as an IT Consultant for Private Banks. Having attended the course and the Epi-Trade® LIVE sessions, I could easily and rapidly understand the business requirements of the Private Banks and translate them into IT specific requirements, thereby improving my productivity, and increased my effective contribution to the projects of which I have am part of. During a project, the rationale for making certain decisions became clear to me, which would not have been, had I not gained an understand of the Business user’s motivations and interests, which are in ways different from that of the IT users. After attending the course, the greatest benefit was the sheer amount of industry knowledge and practical experience which are relevant and applicable to my job.

LAU CHEN LIN | CONSULTANT (PRIVATE BANKING), NIELSEN+PARTNER

I took the course Financial Markets and Technology with the goal of preparing my career in the financial sector. Not only did the trainer Gerard enrich my knowledge in financial markets, he challenged me to think and reason from many different perspectives. Furthermore, Epi-Trade® LIVE is a great platform to put theory into practice in a safe environment. I must say that learning through Epi-Trade® LIVE has helped me in my career as I am now better able to understand different situations, react, and provide solutions. These skills that I learned from Financial Markets and Technology have definitely kicked started my career in the financial sector in a positive way.

ANDY TENG | IT PROJECT ANALYST, CREDIT SUISSE AG