FOR the second year in a row, a Waterfall College team of learners reached the top five in South Africa in one of the most difficult areas of the annual JSE Investment Challenge, the Speculator Portfolio.
The school’s OP Group consists of four Grade 10 learners and they were recently flown to the JSE offices in Sandton, along with their teacher, Jayne Cansfield, to collect their prizes.
The JSE Investment Challenge is a game that aims to teach South African learners about investing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Each team is given an imaginary sum of R1-million to invest in JSE-listed shares and their performance is tracked and measured against other teams over the period from March to September.
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The challenge has been running for 42 years and this year, 18 000 students and learners took part.
“Due to the success of our Grade 10 accounting learners in the 2016 challenge, and the interest it drew throughout the school, we decided to start a JSE Investment Club this year. We opened it up to all Grade 8 to 12 learners. The response was excellent and we had 34 people join, which enabled us to enter eight teams this year,” said Cansfield.
During the seven months of the challenge, the teams had to buy and sell shares with the aim of making a profit and increasing their equity.
The teams could enter one of three categories, income, equity growth or speculator, the latter being the riskiest.
“Our eight teams, even though they were mostly beginners, took the plunge and entered the speculator division,” said Jayne.
Although it has been a tough economic year globally, the school’s Grade 10 team, The OP Group, reached the top five in their category.
Each learner won a Satrix account which they can use to start trading on the JSE.
“I am so proud of our learners for achieving this position, especially in the current economic climate,” concluded Jayne.
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