‘Betting on a takeover spree won me the top prize’

After two months of stock market drama, a 25- year- old hedge fund employee has scooped the £5,000 top prize in the fourth season of the Telegraph Fantasy Fund Manager game.

Jackson Read, from Southend- onSea, grew his Jackocap fund from £100,000 to £133,000 – an impressive 33pc return when the FTSE All-Share rose by 3.5pc – to take the top spot among almost 6,300 funds.

Mr Read proved that real-life investing experience can be the difference in a fantasy game. He won the competition by backing aerospace firms Meggitt and Ultra Electronics, whose shares leapt after they were targeted by acquisitive American private equity firms.

“British stocks are on sale and private equity firms are overflowing with cash. I thought aerospace was an obvious area, so that’s where I invested.

“As soon as bids were announced, I sold as there was no guarantee of a deal,” he said.

Another big win came from backing construction firms just before US politicians agreed on a $ 1.2 trillion (£866bn) infrastructure package.

“I knew companies such as Ashtead, Ferguson and CRH would benefit. For example, Ashtead, a construction equipment rental company, does a lot of its business in America. All these stocks went up around 4pc,” said Mr Read.

With two weeks to play, Mr Read was top of the table. He stopped going all- in on single sectors and diversified to maintain his lead, finishing the game with 11 stocks.

But it could all have ended with a big upset. His closest rival, Richard Kerswell, owned Meggitt, which was at the centre of another takeover rumour on the final day on August 13.

“It was a stressful last day. Meggitt could have shot up if there was another bid, but fortunately it did not and I finished with a £5,000 advantage over Mr Kerswell,” said Mr Read.

Mr Read, who cannot trade stocks in real life due to compliance constraints related to his employer, will put the £ 5,000 towards a house deposit, which he has been steadily putting money towards in a savings account.

“This £ 5,000 is huge. I am not allowed to trade and I don’t even invest in an index fund,” he said.

Season four ran for eight weeks and handed out £13,000 in prize money. The game will return for a fifth season.