ViewTrade’s mission is to inspire investing everywhere, enabling new wealth creation opportunities for investors the world over. With robust solutions for cross-border investing and a suite of enabling solutions for banks, brokers, advisers, and more, ViewTrade is a true partner to our clients in helping them deliver differentiated retail investing experiences to their customers
And ViewTrade goes beyond APIs and SDKs, playing another important role in the industry: Cultivating and empowering the next generation of financial technology professionals.
Today, we are sharing a beautiful letter we received from a former ViewTrade intern, Alan Su, who we met through his success participating in ViewTrade-sponsored university competitions.
ViewTrade is also thrilled to share that we are again sponsoring this year’s Joint University Investment Game (JUIG) in Hong Kong. JUIG, organized by Chief Securities, is one of the preeminent investment competitions in Asia and we are proud to renew our commitment to this excellent program. Registration is now open, and the competition begins in October!
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In the spring of 2019, I was a junior at NTPU College of Business and had just failed my first fintech competition, organized by Land Bank of Taiwan. My teammates and I had been preparing for this competition since we entered university, and we were disappointed that we did not advance beyond the opening round.
Fortunately, after that failure, I noticed a flier posted at NTPU introducing a fintech competition held by ViewTrade Securities, a global company based in the U.S. The champion of this contest would have a chance to earn a summer internship at ViewTrade’s headquarters in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from New York City’s Financial District. After I read the announcement, I immediately called my teammates to rally them for one more competition and put what we learned the first time into action.
We soon met to discuss how to revise our project. We knew how lucky and rare it was to get a second chance, and we put even more energy into the competition this time around.
The first thing we did was consult with students who had participated in the competition before and collect their suggestions to improve our project. Then, we started to work on enriching our original ideas, trying to replace or enhance aspects of our plan that we now deemed unsuitable or otherwise ripe for improvement. Thanks to our collective efforts and the support of our peers, we advanced to the final round and won second place. Although we didn’t get the opportunity to take part in the internship, we were still satisfied with our achievement.
In the process, my teammates and I learned so much and gained invaluable experience that will be hugely helpful as we enter our careers.
First of all, we improved ourselves. We learned how to have efficient meetings and how to discuss our projects more effectively. We realized that if we really want to succeed, we need to put in the effort, tweak and evolve constantly.
Second, we knew from the feedback of the judges and professors that we came in a very close second place, further validating our approach and giving us newfound confidence. . For example, the judges told us that while our ideas were interesting, we still needed to focus more on practical issues. Through this process, we also learned the importance of actively listening and properly responding to and addressing feedback from our professors.
In addition, this competition enriched our resumes, rounding out our experience in university. It also helped me earn offers from Marshall School of Business and Olin Business School, highly ranked and prestigious schools in the U.S. At my interviews for each school, I was able to discuss my experience at the competitions, with the benefit of perspective gained by failing to advance, challenging ourselves to do better and actively seeking out feedback. Moreover, after I received offers from the University of Southern California and WashU, I worked hard to obtain a scholarship that enabled me to finish my schooling in the U.S.
From the time I entered university, I had my sights set on winning a fintech competition. My teammates and I did not win the first one we entered, but thanks to ViewTrade, we had a second chance and we grew together. I believe this experience has helped me already in my studies and in my career, and will continue to serve as a foundation for future success. I appreciate the opportunity that ViewTrade gave me to gain invaluable experience, and to learn, grow and realize my potential. Thank you, ViewTrade!
