King’s students make smart investments
KING’S School investors have cultivated a tidy profit with prudent decisions in a nationwide investment competition.
From an original 10,000 entries nationwide, King’s School has seen three teams qualify for the semi-finals of the Institute of Financial Services annual Student Investor Competition.
The three King’s teams named ‘The Regime’, ‘Investigate’ and ‘All In’ all reached the final after generating more than 10 per cent profit from a pot of nominal cash given to each group six months ago.
Each team was given two pots each containing £100,000 to invest in the FTSE 100, one to invest for the longer term and the other for more speculative investment.
Student Jamie Dunkerley said they made the most of political turmoil to maximise their takings.
He said: “We used Donald Trump’s election victory to our advantage, investing in mining stocks as we anticipated a relaxation of regulation in the extraction sector.”
Will Thomson said it helped the students learn about positive banking.
He said: “Banks have been around for many centuries and though they deservedly had a bad press recently for triggering the financial crisis, they create money for investment and growth and are vital to our economy’s gross domestic product.”
Peter Thorp, added: “The key to our success was a strong competitive spirt, collaboration and co-operation, working for the common good not personal gain.”
David Williams, who teaches economics and business at King’s, said: “To have one team reach the semi final is good, to have three is exceptional.
“Usually there is a lot of interest at the beginning of the investment cycle which can wane, but with these three teams they stuck to the challenge and continued to research the market on a daily, some might say hourly basis.”