Sanjeev Asthana of Cargill India came for a corporate interaction in July where he had mentioned that he would be conducting a trading game. The seniors were in constant touch with Mr Asthana as to when can he conduct the game and Mr. Asthana agreed to conduct the game on 31 Aug.. The D-day arrived and all the IIFtians were very excited about what this Trading game was be it seniors or the 1st years. Mr. Asthana had already told us that he would prefer 6 groups each comprising of 6 to 7 members each. Each group had to come with a calculator and some sheets of paper. All this builded up excitement.

         Before the game began, the participants divided themselves among 6 groups. Mr. Asthana had asked each group had to have an accountant, trader and market researcher.

         He started with giving a brief description as to how the game had to be played. He selected two moderators with whom all the transactions had to be registered. He gave a set of instructions to begin working.

         The game started, he selected two commodities for simplicity purpose, wheat and sugar. Every group was given 100 million dollars to start with. He stated certain countries, which were large importers, and certain countries, which were large exporters of these individual commodities that could effect the international prices. There were certain environmental conditions also given for the favorable production of these commodities.

         The first set of conditions were given which told about certain weather, governmental policies, environmental, political or other conditions which could effect the production, export, import of sugar and wheat respectively. Then the prices of these commodities were given. Based on the conditions the groups had to purchase or sell the commodities at the given prices. The amount after this transaction was to be deposited into bank which earned 6% interest p.a. These transactions had to be recorded with the moderators.

         Then the second set of conditions were released which were a complete turn around of the previous conditions, every groups predictions about this went wrong and when the prices were released all the groups had huge losses.

         This process was done for 4 times, in the mean time certain groups that were able to identify the complexities of the market were able to earn profits others were in huge losses. All in all, every one enjoyed the game.

         At the end of 5 rounds, the team with the most fund was declared the winner. Every thing said and done, it was a great learning experience for all of us, who are planning to take up trading as their specialization. We are grateful to Mr. Asthana for his cooperation and helping us in understanding how commodities are traded.

                                                                                                                        Contributed By
                                                                                                                        Sai Akhilesh
                                                                                                                        (MPIB 2001-03)