Montreal Exchange (MX) on Friday announced the recipients of the Canadian Derivatives Exchange Scholars Program scholarships for the 2016-17 academic year.

Each year, MX awards scholarships to Canadian university students who submit winning research projects focused on exchange-traded derivatives or MX-related business activities and operations.

The recipients of the two graduate scholarships of $10,000 are Fatima Zahra Boutaggount and Frédéric Fontaine of Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Que. for their study on the relationship between financial derivatives and risk management, and Craig Logan of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. for his research on price pressure in options markets.

The recipients of the two postgraduate scholarships of $25,000 are Denis-Alexandre Trottier of Université Laval in Quebec City to support his work on catastrophe bonds, and Haohua Xu of McGill University in Montreal for his research on multi-currency corporate credit default swap spread differences.

“We are delighted to provide a forum for university finance students to pursue a deeper understanding of derivatives markets and aid in their further studies,” says Luc Fortin, interim president and CEO, MX.

The Canadian Derivatives Exchange Scholars Program and the Options Trading Simulation were launched in February 2012 as part of MX’s financial education initiatives. Participation in the Options Trading Simulation Contest has grown significantly, from seven universities in Quebec in the inaugural contest to 37 universities in 10 provinces for the 8th edition in winter 2016. The 9th edition of the contest will take place from Sept. 26 to Dec. 2.