International Finance 4th Annual FNB Securities Trading Game

The winning SU team. From left to right: Hylton Hollander (Lecturer), Richard Levesque (FNB Securities), Luzaan Lesch, Mila Tshaka, Garikai Zvinavashe, Grant Rossiter (FNB Securities). Absent: Bruce Rouillard.

This year’s International Finance FNB Securities Trading Game saw twenty postgraduate teams from Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Western Cape go head-to-head on a three-month trading simulation challenge utilising a demo trading platform. Teams invested a hypothetical USD 100 000 in real-time foreign exchange and global stock markets, with the goal of achieving the highest return. The SU winning team members received an FNB Securities stock broking account at zero cost plus R4 000 worth of FirstRand shares. They placed second overall, losing by a slim USD 688 margin to a UCT-based team. The objective of the exercise was for the students to test economic theory in the real world, understand international macro-developments, and encourage an investment mind-set.

The Winning SU Team (2nd overall) describes their strategy:

The FNB securities trading game was a great learning experience. To start off, just a few basic (smaller) trades were made to get the gist of the game. There was no explicit strategy or game plan when we started trading. We invested in CFDs, stocks and Forex. We invested in Vanguard, Johnson & Johnson and Abbot Laboratories for a while, but our main focus drifted towards the Forex market. We looked for countries with a high level of political unrest or uncertainty and currencies with a high level of volatility. For the most part we did long trades (buy low–sell high), but we did sell a few short as well (sell high– buy low). There were a few hit or miss moments during the 3 months, but we are very happy with the overall outcome. A massive shout-out to Bruce for his investment knowledge and excellent strategies that carried our team to being the top SU team and 2nd overall. We learned a lot from the practical experience and truly enjoyed the journey.