The grand finale of "One Bank presents Optimity 2018", the nation's largest investment and portfolio management competition, took place in North South University on August 30, 2018.

Prominently organised by North South University Finance Club, this two-month long competition brought out impressive performances from undergraduate students countrywide. The moral of Optimity has always been to enhance the finesse of participants regarding matters of investment, portfolio management, and financial subjects alike. The collaboration between title sponsors One Bank Limited and NSU Finance Club was crucial to make this event a success. SHOUT, The Daily Star also cooperated as the event's Youth Engagement Partner.

Optimity commenced with the orchestration of informative roadshows at 18 of the prime universities around Bangladesh. Intensive promotions by the dedicated members of NSU Finance Club led to the registration of 152 teams all around the country. The first round of the competition, which was a case-solving round, led to the selection of 30 teams after their phenomenal display of knowledge regarding investment opportunities and decisions. The second round intensified further as more challenging cases had to be solved and presented in front of the judges. This led to seven of the best teams to proceed to the final round after showing their expertise regarding portfolio management. Test of utmost hard work and financial skills was the scenario in the last round as the final seven brainstormed and delivered amazing strategies as they tried to "beat the market".

In the end, Team Bank Brothers (Bangladesh University of Professionals) emerged as champions; Team Finalysts (Dhaka University) and Team Stratton (IBA, Dhaka University) became first and second runners-up respectively.

"We have reached the finals of business competitions before, but unfortunately we weren't able to win. But at last, we've broken our streak in Optimity 2018 and this has really been a huge motivation, as we've successfully beaten the market," said Sharar Bin Rahman of the champion team. Prizemoneys of BDT 1,00,000, BDT 60,000 and BDT 40,000 were awarded to the winners, first and second runners-up respectively.

The presence of Kazi M. Aminul Islam, the Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), as the chief guest brightened up the grand finale. Adding to that, the attendance of the Deputy Managing Director of One Bank Limited, Wakar Hasan, and the Managing Director of Meridian Finance Limited, Irteza Ahmed Khan enlightened the event further.

The faculty advisor of NSU Finance Club Mohammad Nasiruddin expressed, "The Department of Accounting and Finance at North South University tries its best to expose its students for experiential learning. Competitions like Optimity will make sure our graduates will have tremendous impact in building and advancing our capital market here in Bangladesh."

NSU Finance Club has successfully organised national competitions and innovative seminars/programmes since its inception in 2014, and they are grateful to acknowledge that Optimity 2018 triumphed in the same fashion with its incredible stature.

* The writer is a first year undergraduate student of NSU. He can be reached at sherilsarwar7@gmail.com