A team of Lower Sixth Economists from Rydal Penrhos School won the North Wales Stock Market Challenge last week. The Challenge, hosted by Bangor University, allows pupils to experience the excitement of the trading room floor ‘virtually’ first-hand
This competition gives more than 140 Year-12 pupils from all over the region the chance to experience the excitement of buying and selling shares on a live trading floor. This initiative not only teaches young people how the financial markets work but encourages them to develop key skills such as communication, problem-solving, decision-making, team-building and negotiation.The team of five Rydal Penrhos pupils were hugely successful in turning £21 000 into over £63 000 after five trading days, accumulating the most money over the simulation out of all the 26 participating teams.
The members of the winning Rydal Penrhos team were Dominic Hearth, Lewis Pullman, Matham Alhemyari, Harry Ormerod and Alex Farnell. The project is not just about teaching young entrepreneurs about the financial markets – it’s about encouraging them to work in a team to develop their communication skills and their decision making abilities – skills that form a core part of the extra-curricular programme at Rydal Penrhos School, and which are vitally important to all young people as they enter higher education and the world of work.
Students from across the North Wales region will soon be experiencing the excitement of the trading room floor ‘virtually’ first hand – thanks to a Bangor University initiative called Stock Market Challenge.
Staff from the university will be taking part as traders running the dealing pit and will be on-hand to offer advice and guidance to pupils and students interested in a related degree course at the university.
The pupils and students will work in small teams to trade in shares and foreign currency. Each team will start with £15,000 in ‘virtual’ cash to invest by interpreting and analysing information from the stock market.
The simulated live trading will take place over a two-hour period, during which time the students will build a portfolio of shares and currency by making decisions about when to invest and when to sell. The team with the highest portfolio at the closing bell wins.
Each participating school and college is provided with a licence of the full Stock Market Challenge resource, which includes 3 simulation games: Global Investor, Dealing Room and Trading Floor.
The competitions' key objectives are to enable students to apply their learning in Applied Maths and Business, and to develop business awareness, transferable and employability skills and enterprise and entrepreneurship.