Marine Academy girls team win national investing competition

A team of four girls from Marine Academy, Plymouth have made an impressive 32.3% profit in the national Shares4Schools competition.

The four year 12 students took a high risk strategy investing their entire £1,500 investment in a single AIM stock, SolGold, on the final day to win Shares4Schools, the national investment competition run by retail stock broker The Share Centre.

Starting the final week of the eight month competition in 33rd place the team of girls climbed their way to victory, making a high risk decision at lunchtime which saw them make a total return of 32.3%. The group beat 53 other teams nationwide and topped the South West table against 12 other regional teams.

Commenting on their success the team said: "We are delighted to have won the competition, we have really enjoyed it and we are happy to have ended on a high. It was tense at times and proved to be extremely unpredictable, which kept us on our toes. The experience was very interesting and gave us great confidence in our own skills. We have learned a lot about shares and the stock market and it has even inspired some of us to study financial services in the future."

Commenting on Shares4Schools Mr Rodgers, Leader of Business & Enterprise at Marine Academy said: "I'm so proud of the students. At the beginning of the competition they did not know the job of a stockbroker existed, but in a very short period they have shown themselves to be outstanding prospective stockbrokers of the future.  They worked very well as a team and reacted well to the competition around them, investing in safer options when leading the competition but willing to go for broke with riskier investments in the end when they had been overtaken with only a few weeks remaining.  They have developed their research, team work, risk management skills and been inspired. Shares4schools will remain a cornerstone of our personal finance education programme that we continue to develop and evolve at Marine Academy Plymouth."

Commenting on the strategy Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre said: “Since the competition began in October, the UK and global stock markets have experienced a big increase in investor’s confidence. It has been interesting to see that during this rally defensive, income producing stocks have performed just as well, if not better, than growth focused stocks.

“Marine Academy weren’t entirely focussed on small caps, they did buy into some of the larger blue chips that generate a good level of dividend income, on the whole with positive results. This built valuable investing experience before they took the plunge for the sake of the competition. The mining sector has lagged recently but SolGold benefitted hugely on the last day of the competition from a proposed change in the mining bill in Ecuador which saw the share price jump over 100%.

Commenting on the competition Gavin Oldham, chief executive of The Share Centre said: “Market conditions have produced a buoyant background to Shares4Schools this year, with 23 schools making a gain on their portfolio. The results mark 10 years of the Shares4Schools competition: a decade in which thousands of sixth-formers have experienced real money investment in shares for the first time.  We know that careers have been developed as a result of this experience, and it is always a delight to see so much evident enjoyment.”