Kenanga IB ups the ante in stock-trading game
THINGS have just gotten real for Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd’s latest (Kenanga IB) KenTrade Trading Challenge - literally.
For the first time, the stock-trading challenge will see its participants using real cash (unlike virtual money that was used in the first two versions).
What’s more, the winner also gets to go home with up to 50% of the money that he or she wins.
Kenanga IB executive director and group equity broking business head Lee Kok Khee says it was time to “up the ante” following two successful versions of the KenTrade Trading Challenge.
“In the first two challenges, we wanted our participants to become comfortable with trading in the stock market,” he tells StarBizWeek in an interview.
Lee says one of the biggest issues preventing individuals from investing on the actual stock market is that “many are afraid of it.”
“We wanted to create confidence among investors in the capital market. There’s actually a survey that says that many of them are afraid of the capital market - that it’s risky and complicated.
“Our challenge helps them to gain confidence in the market, that it (the stock market) offers you the means to grow your wealth other than conventional means, such as bank savings and unit trust.”
Following the success of the first two challenges in 2014 and 2015, which attracted more than 12,000 and 18,000 participants respectively, Lee says it was time to make the “event even more exciting.”
“We did a post-mortem on the first two challenges and after using virtual money, we wanted to make it more realistic. So we decided to offer real cash as a means to trade within the challenge.”
After receiving the support of from Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission (SC), the latest version of the KenTrade Trading Challenge, dubbed the KenTrade Trading Challenge III, offers participants the choice of using and winning real money.
The KenTrade Trading Challenge III will feature two stages. The first stage, which is the Virtual Trading Challenge, will run from July 31 to Aug 25, with each participant receiving RM1mil in virtual money to trade with.
The first stage will see two tiers of cash prizes awarded and placed in trust accounts. Weekly winners stand to receive RM800 as first prize, RM500 as second prize and RM300 as third prize.
The weekly prices are to entice participants and motivate them to continue participating in the challenge, says Lee.
In addition, overall winners will receive RM5,000 as first prize, RM3,000 as second prize and RM2,000 as third prize.
The top 10 will qualify as finalists for the second stage, which is the Grand Challenge.
“The Grand Challenge takes place from Sept 4 to 29, where finalists will trade shares with RM100,000 real cash each, by relying on live market feeds from Bursa Malaysia,” says Lee.
“The Grand Challenge Winner is the one with the highest positive portfolio and will not only walk away with up to 50% of the gains made from the Grand Challenge trading, but also RM50,000 in cash and round trip for two to Hokkaido, Japan,” he adds.
Lee says the winners will be determined by their portfolio value and amount of cash (realised profits) they have in their accounts.
However, lose more than 10% of your money and out you go!
Lee says response for the challenge thus far has been fantastic.
“We’re targeting more than 20,000 participants. But it’s only been two weeks since registrations were opened and we’ve already received more than 16,000 registrations.
“We’re confident of surpassing our target by the time the challenge begins.”
The challenge is open to participants aged over 18 years old. Lee says the bulk of the participants ranged between 18 and 35 years of age. “About 93% of them are within this age group, and it’s also the age group of investors that Bursa and the SC are looking to target more of.”
In previous challenges, Lee says most of the participants were older, “seasoned” stock investors. Kenanga IB has been actively trying to promote the challenge on campuses to attract a much younger audience. “For the past two challenges, many of our roadshows were done in shopping complexes. This year, we went to universities to raise awareness,” he adds.
Lee says many parents have urged Kenanga IB to open up a category that is below 18 years of age. “Parents have been asking if there is an under-18 category. Maybe next year we’ll create one,” he enthuses. But the point here is there’s greater awareness that investing in the capital market has become a viable option to grow your wealth.”