Fantastical Fortunes for F1nance Investors

Team from Bablake School beats 5,000 in stock market challenge to be in running for trip to New York

A team of Year L6th students have battled their way into the Student Investor Challenge semi-finals, beating over 9,000 teams from schools around the UK and abroad.

The Student Investor Challenge, run by The London Institute of Banking & Finance, challenges teams of schoolchildren to invest virtual money on the London Stock Exchange and trade stocks and shares to make a profit.

The F1nances team, consisting of Dominic Reeves, Jonathan Knibbs, Michael O’Toole and Jacob Swales, successfully invested virtual money and were ranked 120th after the first round of trading. Only the top 500 teams progress to the semi-finals. They’ll now go on to battle the remaining 499 teams to try and reach the final in London.

Dominic Reeves says, "The semi-finals focussed on predicting the change in value of a stock over a week-long period instead of portfolio management like the first round, this forced us to us our analytical skills and decide which companies to trade with, some of which we avoided trading with in the first round. Despite this, F1nances remain in strong contention for one of the top eight places - we're looking forward to hearing the results soon!"

Catherine Winter, Managing Director of Financial Capability at The London Institute of Banking & Finance, says, “This competition is a powerful way of engaging young people with how the finance sector works and relating it to everyday life.

“The movement of stocks and shares, currency fluctuations and central bank activities can feel quite remote and difficult to get to grips with. By bringing it to life through a trading game, young people have proved they can grasp how economies work and the basics of investment. So, congratulations to the semi-finalists for making the top 500, it’s a great achievement!”

Well done everyone and good luck in the final rounds!