In the era of big data, leveraging historical data to create an impact is becoming increasingly important within all industries. Big data and machine learning are some of the buzzwords that have emerged from this trend. But how do we actually leverage the data? How do we go from raw data to client value?
Danske Commodities (DC) is a data-driven energy trading company, executing +15,000 trades a day.
In collaboration with DC, FACCA is inviting you to a virtual forecasting competition centered around data and value-generation.
BACKGROUND
The lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in Europe, political disagreements with Russia and cold weather put huge demands and limited supplies on depleted stocks. This made the volatility and gas prices surge to an all-time high in 2021. Being able to forecast gas price trends is essential to optimise DC’s gas portfolio positions and consequently generate more value. However, political movements and market sentiment can make it very difficult to create well-performing models.
WHY PARTICIPATE?
This forecasting competition will make it possible for you to explore your data science skills by building a forecasting model of your own choice. It will be based on the gas market during less politically affected times to allow more extensive quantitative model work.
Although you might never have tried forecasting before, we urge you to participate and learn during the process. The event will start out with a short lecture on some basic forecasting approaches by Associate Professor, Mikkel Bennedsen. You will then be equipped with the necessary tools to start your journey to learn how to forecast. To get the most out of your participation, you’ll need a basic knowledge of working with programmes such as R, Python, MatLab or similar, as well as either times series econometrics or machine learning.
THE PRACTICAL DETAILS
The forecasting competition will have a duration of three days, giving each team the time needed to come up with the best possible solution. However, it will still be feasible to solve the case while studying and attending to extracurricular activities. The team that finds the best solution to the challenge will be rewarded with DKK 5,000.
Preliminary Agenda:
Monday 7 March:
17.00 - 17.45: Introduction to Danske Commodities and the case
17.50 - 19.00: Crash Course on Forecasting with Associate Professor at AU, Mikkel Bennedsen
Tuesday 8 March:
17.00 - 18.00: Q&A with Danske Commodities on Zoom
Wednesday 9 March:
22.00: Hand-in deadline
Thursday 10 March:
Finals at Danske Commodities’ HQ for all participants (Jægergårdsgade 118, 8000 Aarhus C)
17.00 - 17.15: Welcome
17.15 - 18:00: Top 3 solutions will be presented by the teams
18.00 - …: Announcement of winners, dinner and networking
APPLICATION
The number of participants is limited to 30 groups and sign-up is on a first come first served basis.
To participate in the FACCA x DC Forecasting Competition, you must form a team of 2-4 members and upload a PDF with your group name, group members, field of study and which semester you are on.