Stamford College Students Through To Semi-Finals Of The Student Investor Challenge!

The Stu­dent Investor Chal­lenge is an online invest­ment sim­u­la­tion for stu­dents aged 14 – 19 years old. It helps stu­dents increase their under­stand­ing of how stock mar­kets work and hone their invest­ment skills by invest­ing vir­tu­al mon­ey on the Lon­don Stock Exchange. 

It aims to improve finan­cial capa­bil­i­ty and encour­age engage­ment with the finance sec­tor. It gives stu­dents a pos­i­tive and prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence of what it’s like to invest in the real-life stock mar­ket, gain team-work skills and strength­en their maths knowledge.

How it works:

• Teams from schools around the UK and inter­na­tion­al­ly com­pete against each oth­er by trad­ing two vir­tu­al port­fo­lios worth £100,000 in the stock mar­ket over a four month peri­od. They trade their shares, try­ing to pre­dict how share prices might move, bear­ing in mind mar­ket and eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, to make the most profit. 
• Trad­ing repli­cates real­i­ty, with feeds from Bloomberg and the real costs of trad­ing includ­ed. Stu­dents are chal­lenged to make both long and short term trades, encour­ag­ing both day-to-day and strate­gic thinking.
• The top 500 teams progress to the semi-final.
• The semi-final­ists bat­tle to reach the final in Lon­don. Only 8 teams will go through to the final stage.
• The Lon­don Insti­tute of Bank­ing & Finance has been at the heart of the finance sec­tor since 1879. We’re an edu­ca­tion body and reg­is­tered char­i­ty, incor­po­rat­ed by Roy­al Charter. 
• We’re the only spe­cial­ist provider of per­son­al finance qual­i­fi­ca­tions for chil­dren and young peo­ple, help­ing them to devel­op vital mon­ey man­age­ment skills for life as part of the nation­al curriculum.
• We have our own uni­ver­si­ty, pro­vid­ing under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate degrees for stu­dents aim­ing to pur­sue a career in bank­ing and finance.
• And we’re an award­ing body for indus­try qual­i­fi­ca­tions cov­er­ing a wide range of sub­jects, includ­ing bank­ing, invest­ment and finan­cial advice in the UK and internationally. 

1^st prize is an all-expens­es-paid trip to New York, includ­ing a trip to the New York Stock Exchange, host­ed by Asset TV.

Com­pe­ti­tion statistics: 

• 36,860 stu­dents trad­ed in 9847 teams of four (35,196 UK stu­dents in 8799 teams, 1,664 inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in 416 teams) 
• 996 schools are tak­ing part (948 UK, 48 international)

About The Lon­don Insti­tute of Bank­ing & Finance 

“This com­pe­ti­tion is a pow­er­ful way of engag­ing young peo­ple with how the finance sec­tor works and relat­ing it to every­day life. 

“The move­ment of stocks and shares, cur­ren­cy fluc­tu­a­tions and cen­tral bank activ­i­ties can feel quite remote and dif­fi­cult to get to grips with. By bring­ing it to life through a trad­ing game, young peo­ple have proved they can grasp how economies work and the basics of invest­ment. So, con­grat­u­la­tions to the semi-final­ists for mak­ing the top 500, it’s a great achievement!”