Australian Securities Exchange Competition

Congratulations to Stephen Simons and You Wei Chung of year 7 who came second in NSW in the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Competition this semester, beating thousands of other students who were much older than them.

104 students from Years 7-12 at Fort St High School participated in the ASX Competition this semester as an extra-curricular activity, and all year 9 Commerce students also competed as a mandatory part of their coursework. Participation in the competition is a valuable way to learn about the risks and rewards of sharemarket investing.

Students were allocated $50,000 of pretend money to purchase shares listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Successful students analysed the factors that would impact on the share price of different companies, then purchased a portfolio of shares they felt would rise in value. They monitored the shares throughout the competition and sold them when they no longer felt they would be profitable.

This semester, the ASX was not an easy market to trade in due to a lot of volatility and uncertainty.

·        The All Ordinaries (XAO) was down -7.58% over the course of the game.

·        The best performing sector was telecommunications up 1.45%. This was the only sector in the positive.

·        The worst performing sector was health care down -12.93% closely followed by financials down -11.19%.

·        The top stock was VOC – Vocus Communication up 46.78% followed by TPM – TPG Telecom up 35.9%.

·        The worst performing stock was TRS – The Reject Shop down -57.07% followed by SDA – Speedcast Limited down -40.03%.

·        15 out of 120 Fort St syndicates ended in profit – beating the state average of only 6% of syndicates being in profit. The state average portfolio value at the end of the game was $47,436.

Stephen and You Wei were active traders in the competition, buying and selling a lot of shares. At the end of the competition they had holdings in Bank of Queensland Ltd, Brambles Ltd, Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd and Santos Ltd. The two mining stocks are traditional risky choices of game winners, but the other two are more unusual.

Carlo Famularo of year 9 came second in the school and 5th in NSW. Z Oscar Zirn of year 9 came third in the school and 21st in NSW.

All students at Fort St High School are welcome to enter the competition when it runs again next year.

Ms Jerrems​