I just thought of sharing some little news, a post from where me and couple of other students who joined together as a group and joined TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) and we came in first from the competition. (Yes we were versing other schools as well) Here is the article below:
Garneau students take top spots in Stock Market ChallengeEvent organized by Junior Achievement
By DANIELLE MILLEY
March 02, 2009 2:47 PM
Times might be tough, but that didn’t stop four young men from amassing an impressive stock market portfolio of $1.6 million in just one afternoon.
Salleh Ul Din Mir, Furkan Ahmed, Sabih Fawad, Shaheryar Ahmad were part of the team from Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute that won the Stock Market Challenge at the Toronto Stock Exchange Feb. 12.
The annual event, which is in its eighth year, is organized by Junior Achievement.
The Grade 10 students participated in the investment strategies program run by Junior Achievement in schools across the GTA and several teams from Garneau were invited to participate in the challenge where teams were given $500,000 in trading dollars to invest in fictitious stocks. Each minute signalled a new trading day and at the end of the 60 days of trading the team with the largest portfolio won.
The team devised a winning strategy of buying stocks that were falling in prices and then selling them high. It was a gamble as the stocks may not have rebounded.
“It took us time, but we didn’t lose hope,” said Sabih.
After the first round of the challenge the team was in last place, but they rallied back and a last minute sale of a sinking sock put them out in front.
“We took the risk,” said Furkan.
Their prize was an iPod touch.
The second place team was also from Garneau.
Ali Alwani, another Grade 10 student from the school, also participated in the Stock Market Challenge. Before taking part he had a special treat in the morning as he had the honour of ringing the bell at the TSX to signal the start of trading.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” he said.
He received the honour as he was part of the in-class team that placed third out of 560 teams nationwide (first in Ontario) in the investment strategies program. Teams of students from across the country built portfolios using real stocks and tracked them for six weeks to see which portfolio was the most successful. The team also included Zahid Arif and Dabale Ahmed.
Ali said at first they started to invest in blue chip stocks such as Google, but while they went up the net gain was small so they decided to do something riskier and switched to penny stocks. It was a risk that paid off. Their $70,000 portfolio quickly climbed to six figures and then nearly doubled.
“Sometimes taking a huge risk can result in a huge profit,” Ali said.
He also received a cash prize for being a part of the team and he decided to take some of that money and invest it in penny stocks for real with the help of his father.
Jeff Good is president of Junior Achievement, a non-profit organization that teaches financial literacy through programs for Grade 7-12 students run by volunteers.
The Stock Market Challenge both an education event and its biggest fundraiser.
While the students get a taste of the trading life during the day, adults from their key partners and sponsors get a taste in the evening at the fundraising event.
“[The students] love it because its an opportunity to see the stock market and they feel like they are having a real experience,” Good said. “Except if you lose money in this scenario it doesn’t cost you anything.”
Strange Life But True 