Macquarie launches Warrant Hotshot Contest with free ice cream

It’s giving away free ice cream at Raffles Place to get people to sign up for a warrant trading competition.

This is the fifth year of The Macquarie Warrants Hotshot Contest in Singapore and previous years have seen registrations signing up between 3,000 to 5,000 people.

Henry Ng, Macquarie’s Associate Director of Warrant Sales and Trading, said, “Macquarie is the largest warrant issuer in Singapore, and the only issuer to hold an online warrant trading contest every year. This year is our fifth annual Hotshot competition, and is part of our continual efforts to educate investors on how to trade warrants.”

“The Hotshot contest uses a real-time simulated trading platform that allows participants to trade warrants just like as if they were trading warrants in the real market. However, they will be only using non-monetary credits in the contest without risking any capital. This will provide participants with real hands-on experience in trading warrants, moving away from just learning theoretical concepts,” he added.

Ng said that the contest aims to increase investors’ understanding of warrants and to improve their trading skills. It is also a great opportunity for new investors to gain experience in warrants without risking any capital.

According to Ng, “Macquarie has a very strong pan-Asian franchise in the warrants business, and we are the leading warrant issuer in Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. In Singapore, we have a leading market position, and we have built up our reputation in Singapore since structured warrants was launched in 2004.”

He believes there is still room for growth in the Singapore warrants market. “Macquarie continues to conduct educational seminars for both professional and retail investors, as part of our efforts to bring more awareness to warrants. Events like the Hotshot contest also enable investors to get a better feel in trading warrants.”

“Apart from broad based education, our strong reputation in the market and consistent efforts to provide a wide range of underlying stocks and indices which we list warrants over has contributed to our success in becoming the leading warrant issuer here. We will explore listing more warrants with new underlyings, in line with the demand from investors”, he added.

Ng says more investors are showing interest in warrants, “In fact, with the change in Minimum Bid Spreads in July 2011, warrants are becoming more attractive tools for investors as they are now more responsive to underlying share price movements, have more price and volume liquidity, require lower investment capital, and we can even list warrants over small-cap and mid-cap stocks like Golden Agri-Resources and Genting Hong Kong.”

Macquarie plans to hold a similar contest in Seoul later this year.