Photo: Pocklington School Sixth Form economics and business students who will compete in the semi-finals of the national Student Investor Challenge
Front – Jeff Tse, Ernest Kwong, Anson Mao, Oli Robinson
Back – Luke Potter, Peter Massey, Jonty Goddard, Peter Wu
An investment fund portfolio manager from one of London’s leading firms visited Pocklington School to give advice and support to our two teams in the semi-finals of the national Student Investor Challenge.
Andrew Goodwin, a Portfolio Manager and Partner at Oldfield Partners, offered students guidance on how to select stocks and what to research while predicting the potential price of an asset.
He praised the Sixth Form economics and business students for reaching the top 10% of the 5,000 teams who entered the competition, by successfully investing and managing a virtual £200,000 in the London stock exchange and other investment instruments.
Approaching the end of the third week of the four-week semi-final, RPG Trading (Lower Sixth Formers Luke Potter, Jonty Goddard, Oli Robinson and Pete Massey) are, at time of writing, in 28th position out of 500 semi-finalists, after being top at the beginning of the week.
R.E.J Trading (Lower Sixth Formers Ernest Kwong and Jeff Tse and Upper Sixth Formers Anson Mao and Peter Wu) are 106th, having been as high as 13th.
Each team created two portfolios, worth £100,000 apiece, and have been following the ups and downs of the market in real time - judging when to buy and sell in order to make a virtual profit.
Semi-finalists have been given four different stocks every Monday morning to analyse, research and then submit price predictions of the shares by the end of trading the following Friday. Andrew Goodwin acknowledged this test of problem solving, research and team work skills was “a very difficult task”.
Economics and Business Studies teacher Robin Crewes said: “Andrew spoke to both teams, as well as selected students from the Upper Sixth Economics group who are studying Finance and interested in a career in the industry.
“He helped them see how the skills and knowledge they learn in Business and Economics is applied in the real world, giving valuable insight to both the students who are using this knowledge in the competition and those in the final stages of their economics course who are considering a career in finance.
“It has been a tough week for both teams. RPG Trading have held every position from top to 30th! We look forward to following the success of both teams in the final week of this exciting and competitive semi-final.”
The eight best performing teams from the semi-finals will be invited to the live national final, where they will compete in a number of business challenges. The winning team will receive a trip to New York.