The New York Mercantile Exchange / COED Commodities Challenge was a huge hit in its second year, which recently concluded. Offering college students a taste of life as a commodities trader at the biggest commodities exchange in the nation, the mock-trading competition expanded to attract schools from the New York area. In fact, two of the four top winners were from the east: Columbia University, which finished second, and Penn State, which finished fourth. The University of Texas, representing returning schools from the Texas/Oklahoma region of the nation, finished first, taking the mantle from Oklahoma State University. The competition, which was desk-trading event that was facilitated by Rolfe and Nolan, a company that produces trading software, included a total of 15 schools.
Just a week after the conclusion of the NYMEX / COED desk-trading competition, many individual members of teams traveled on April 8 to Houston, to the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, to compete for individual honors at the NYMEX Open Outcry, which, in its fourth year, has become a raucous one-day spectacle. Trading commodities like the big boys do at NYMEX, students faced off in a trading pit, buying and selling contracts with a fervor unlike any other year. The event is designed to place students in a simulated-trading environment in order to teach and test their sales and trading skills. The competition closely resembles the experience of a real-life energy trader and risk manager that would include both the trader employed by an energy company as well as the trader on the floor of the exchange. After several elimination rounds, which followed a tutorial by the NYMEX staff co-managing the event, the cream (which isn’t a commodity, by the way) rose to the top. And the winners won prize money and, more important, the top winner received an all-expenses stay in New York City to serve as an intern to learn, really learn, how this exciting field works and gain a port of entry into the fascinating industry of energy.
College students from the University of Houston, University of Texas, Texas A&M, Rice University, Oklahoma State University, Rollins College (FL) and Columbia University (NY) participated in this competition. Nine University of Houston students placed in the top 19, with Todd Donewar receiving the top award of $1,500 and a summer internship in New York at NYMEX. The other winners were:

1. Todd Donewar – UH
2. Michael Rooney -A&M
3. Kristin Kellar – A&M
4. Ana Chaverria – UH
5. Austin Carlson – A&M
6. Jeremiah Kollie – UH
7. Moon Jamaluddin – UH
8. Julia Jasinski – UH
9. Elochukwu Nnadi – UH
10. Sarah Williamson- A&M
11. Rafael Martinez – UH
12. Charles Haggas – Rollins
13. Alex Forshey – A&M
14. Nick Petree – A&M
15. Hung Nguyen – UH
16. Michael Sergi – UH
17. Marc Zelina – Rollins
18. Vikas Gulabrani – OSU
19. Zohaib Akbarali – A&M

Name: Katy Allen

School: Clemson University
Year: Sophomore
Major: Graphic Communications
Claim to Fame: As ‘Tiger Girl,’ Katy paints her face like a tiger, wears tiger ears and orange overalls and runs the flags on the field at football games.

When she became ‘Tiger Girl’:
Thought of the idea for high school competition, which gave prizes to the most spirited students the day before the Clemson/South Carolina game. She won, obviously.

What does your whole ‘look’ include?
Tiger ears, face paint (clown paint from a Halloween store), Clemson shirt, orange overalls, tiger tail, purple socks, orange New Balances and my ‘Tiger Rag’ (orange bandana with a paw on it).

Has the Tiger mascot or the Tiger Cub ever hit on you?
Last year the Tiger came up and made me give him a kiss and a hug. He wore a kissing booth costume this year and came up to me, so I kissed him. There’s also this one drunk girl by the fence at games who always yells ‘Kitty cat, kitty cat, come here.’ I went over there once and she started petting my head, so I never went back again.

Is running down the hill truly the most exciting 25 seconds in college football?
I would probably say that it is the most insane 25 seconds of college football. When it’s happening there’s just so much energy in Death Valley and it is really loud to the point I can’t hear the band play. It is definitely better than any other college’s entrance.

What would you like to tell the fans?
I think that it’s important for athletes to know that they are appreciated for their time and energy. Not just football, but the other sports no one ever really thinks about, like volleyball. It’s my way of giving back to the Clemson athletic program.