23 October 2023
The Clifton team of Nathan Reinders, Matthew Ropertz and Thomas Raubenheimer recently celebrated winning the 2023 JSE Investment Challenge – Speculator Division in the 50th year of the South African stock exchange.
Competition took place in four categories, drawing over 29 000 entrants in total.
The trio was the only entry from Clifton in the speculator category, but a number of other teams of three or four participated in the income portfolio, which included, mostly, grade 8 and 9 boys.
Competition format
Clifton Business Studies teacher Bianca French oversaw the school’s entries. She explained the competition format and the categories: “It’s the JSE’s way to educate youngsters about share trading. So, they run this competition, at a school level and at a university level. There are four different portfolios that you can enter.
“It’s a six-month competition. You’re given R1 000 000, virtual money, to set up to replicate the JSE, the costs of trading and buying shares. All the shares that are on the JSE are on this virtual platform, as well.
“The students, in teams of three or four, have this R1 000 000 and they invest it.”
Speculating, she explained, is when you “buy a share in the hope that it grows in value, based on demand, and then sell it an hour later, or a couple of days later, or even years later.”
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Clifton’s winning trio generated growth of 6.5 percent over the course of the six months of the competition. “Considering the state of our economy, they did really, really well,” French said.
Options
There was another option besides shares, she added: “When they started, the American banking system was collapsing. Instead of buying shares, you could keep your money in a bank account and earn 6% interest per annum.
“When that is happening, it’s a safer option. Either keep your money in cash or invest in gold, that was my advice to them. Then they did the research and they invested in gold mining companies. I think they put about R600 000 of their portfolio into gold.”
“Then, when we heard a rumour that it was time to sell gold, they sold it the very next day, and that worked for them. That got them into first position, and then they stayed at the top for four months of the competition and dominated the top spot.”
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Making trades
Besides advice, French said she had to take the lead at times, explaining: “You have to make a trade every month, and they would leave it to the last day. I would tell them they have to make a trade. I was monitoring them. They did an amazing job. I just made sure they made the trade and followed the rules.”
Technology is evolving at a rapid rate and, when the second-place team started closing in on the Clifton lads towards the end of the six-month competition, French said they did pose some questions to AI: “We asked what shares we should invest in, which ones have shown really good profit? But that don’t give us up to date information.” Nathan, Matthew and Thomas decided their course of action.
The reward for the winners was being flown up to Johannesburg, being put up in a hotel, and then attending an awards ceremony at the JSE. “They pulled out all the stops. They had Schalk Bezuidenhout, the comedian, there and some TikTok influencers. The boys had such a nice time,” French said.
“They won R26 000 cash. It’s going to be in a Satrix account, so they can carry on trading. Their share was R20 000, and then rest is given to me, as the teacher.”
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The winning team, encouraged by their success, have all chosen to keep on trading. None of them wanted to withdraw their prize money.
Promoting share trading
They’re not the only ones buoyed by the result. French, too, was eager to use her learners’ success to promote share trading: “I’m hoping to make it a bit more of an official extracurricular activity – get the teams involved and do a session once a week after school.”
Other teachers have sat up and taken notice, too, she added: “We’ll definitely enter more teams next year. I have had a few teachers come and ask to join, as well, as a mentor teacher.”
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