Prosperity

What is Prosperity?

Prosperity is a 15-day-long trading challenge happening somewhere in a near-utopian future. You’re in control of an island in an archipelago, and your goal is to bring your island to prosperity. You do so by earning as many SeaShells as possible, the main currency in the archipelago. The more SeaShells you earn, the more your island will prosper.

During your 15 days on the island, your trading abilities will be tested through a variety of trading challenges. It’s up to you to develop a successful trading strategy. You will be working on a Python script to handle algorithmic trades on your behalf. Every round also presents a manual trading challenge; a one-off challenge that is separate from your algorithmic trading and could yield some additional profits. Your success depends on both these algorithmic and manual trades.

Take a deep breath and smell the opportunities drifting by with the ocean breeze. It’s up to you to seize those opportunities and lead your island into prosperity. At times, it will be challenging, hard even, but for those who know how to work the market to their favor, the reward will be bountiful.

Prosperity Storyline:

The main character in the game is a cockatoo who lives in the archipelago. Besides a cockatoo, he is also the news anchor for Tropical TV. Every round, he’ll give you the latest headlines, all you need to know to progress in the game. The news broadcasts from Tropical TV will play an important role during our 15-day trading challenge. The cockatoo will give a short update on what happened in the previous round before he discloses this round’s assignment and tradable goods. During the trading season, you’ll meet all kinds of interesting characters. Some from within our own archipelago and some that we consider our neighbours. All of them have their own unique story. You should definitely keep your ears peeled for those stories because every real trading tycoon knows that within every story, there is an opportunity to be found. You just have to know how to turn that compelling story into a profitable strategy.

Rounds:

The 15 days of simulation of Prosperity are divided into 5 rounds with each round lasting 72 hours. At the end of every round - before the timer runs out - all teams will have to submit their algorithmic and manual trades to be processed. The algorithms will then participate in a full day of trading against the Prosperity trading bots. Note that all algorithms are trading separately, there is no interaction between the algorithms of different players. When a new round starts, the results of the previous round will be disclosed and the leaderboard will be updated accordingly. During the game, you can always visit previous rounds in the dashboard, to review information and results. But once a round is closed, you can no longer change your submitted trades for that round. When round 5 ends, the final results will be processed and the winner of the Prosperity trading challenge will be announced.

Algorithmic Trading:

Every round contains an algorithmic trading challenge. You will have 72 hours to submit your (final) Python program. When the round ends, the last successfully processed submission will be locked in and processed for results.

• Tutorial: February 24, 1530 hrs → April 7, 1530 hrs
• Round 1: April 7, 1530 hrs → April 10, 1530 hrs
• Round 2: April 10, 1530 hrs → April 13, 1530 hrs
• Round 3: April 13, 1530 hrs → April 16, 1530 hrs
• Round 4: April 16, 1530 hrs → April 19, 1530 hrs
• Round 5: April 19, 1530 hrs → April 22, 1530 hrs

All rounds contain a manual trading challenge. Just like the algorithmic challenge, manual trading challenges last 72 hours to submit your (final) trade. When the round ends, the last submission will be locked in and processed for results. During the tutorial round, manual trading is inactive. Note that manual trades have no effect on your algorithmic trade and can be seen as separate challenges to gain additional profits.

Guidelines:

• It’s a 15-day live trading simulation (don’t worry, it’s not full-time).
• You can participate as a lone wolf or in a team size of up to 5 members.
• Join fully remotely, from anywhere, alone or in a team.