Bridging the financial gap
SANDTON - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is bridging the gap between financial literacy and financial independence by targeting the youth to engage in an investment challenge.
Research has shown that poor financial planning habits are at the root of ineffective money management. This investment challenge is a game designed to introduce young people to the exciting world of investing on the stock exchange.
The game comprises two sections, the school challenge and the university challenge. Participants compete in teams of four and each team is allocated an imaginary sum of R1 million which can be used to trade Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed shares. This virtual arena allows competitors to trade in a risk-free environment.
This year, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s investment challenge team is promoting the importance of mentorship, especially for the schools that do not have access to resources. The team is travelling and forming partnerships with universities to encourage tertiary students to share their knowledge about the game through mentorship programmes.
The teams can choose to trade in the portfolio of their choice; ranging from Income and Equity Growth to a Speculator Portfolio. Here their performance is tracked and measured. Forty eight tertiary institutions and over 200 high schools have already entered this year’s tournament, which runs from March to September. Annual winners in the school and university challenge will be announced at an awards ceremony, which will be held at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in October.
For the school challenge, each month the best performing school team will win R500 per team member, R500 for their teacher and R500 for their school. There are final prizes for the top five school teams to the value of R180 000 for all three portfolios.
For the university challenge, there are three top prizes with the winning team receiving a price of R25 000. The team in second place receives R20 000 and the team in third place receives R15 000.
Details: www.schools.jse.co.za and www.university.jse.co.za
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