A team of students from the Department of Economics has achieved significant international success by securing first place in the Middle East & Africa region for the 2025 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge.
Competing under the team name “Bilkent ECON,” the team ranked first among regional participants after generating a relative profit of USD $183,917 from a simulated starting portfolio of USD $1 million. The team was led by Utku Gökçen (Captain), with Tolga Dönmez and Mert Cula as team members, and under the academic supervision of Prof. Hakan Kara, faculty advisor.
The Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge is a globally recognized, multi-week competition that brings together university students from around the world to manage real-time portfolios using Bloomberg’s professional trading and analytics platforms. Teams are evaluated based on performance, risk management and strategic decision making across global financial markets.
As a result of this achievement, Bloomberg for Education officially recognized Bilkent ECON as a regional winner and announced an additional institutional award: six months of free Bloomberg.com access for all Bilkent students.
