Maxime Gohin (2012), an EDHEC student in the European Apprenticeship track, has just come second in the eFinancialCareers.com Investment Challenge sponsored by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The Challenge is open to all students across Europe and included competitors from prestigious Business Schools and universities like Oxford and LSE.

The competition is open to students who will graduate in 2012 or 2013, and is designed to test their trader skills. Candidates have one month (from 17 January to 18 February) to increase a virtual portfolio of 10 million pounds sterling by investing on the European markets. The candidates can use whichever investment strategies they like from hedge funds to long-term shares.

Competing in the “2013 graduates” category, Maxime Gohin got the second best result with an overall 7.6 % investment return in just one month. His strategy was to invest uniquely on the French market. He mainly targeted the leading CAC 40 or CAC 100 firms. Maxime won £150 and will quite possibly be offered a job or an internship in the organisation.

"During the challenge, I tried to concentrate on the markets and businesses that I know best like the CAC 40 banks. At the same time, I sometimes traded in other industries (luxury and energy, for instance) and even sold off some stock (FTSE 100), depending on the economic climate. My strategy was to anticipate the markets… I acted like a very short-term investor, making deals before the other investors and so profiting more from the optimist trend in 2011. To help me make the right decisions, I pored over financial magazines, compared the opinions of analysts and learnt as much as possible about technical analysis. To sum up, it was a really interesting experience. It gave me a glimpse into what life is like as a trader and strengthened my ambition to work in the finance markets. I think that all students who want to work in investment banking or asset management should take part in this sort of competition to get some valuable insights into the field."