• This week the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) announced that its Investment Challenge is now available to local students and learners.
• The Challenge allows participants to learn about investing by using a virtual R1 million to invest in real listed stocks over six months.
• The JSE Investment Challenge is also celebrating the 50-year milestone of the event.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has announced that its long-running education initiative, the JSE Investment Challenge has opened its virtual trading floors for 2023.

The event is now celebrating its 50-year milestone, and was designed to provide participants with an opportunity to invest a virtual amount of R1 million on the stock market in actual JSE-listed shares over a six-month period.

Their performance is tracked and measured against other competitors, with top performers eligible for prizes after the virtual floor closes in September.

“For five decades, the competition has been a significant vehicle to promote financial literacy, demystify the trading landscape, as well as encourage savings and investment from an early age. Using gamification, we are now better able to make the competition engaging and accessible to participants from all backgrounds, ensuring that thousands more are equipped with the fundamental skills required to build wealth,” noted Idris Seedat, head of Transformation and CSI at the JSE, in a press release sent to Hypertext.

In last year’s iteration, the top-performing teams in the university and schools’ competition attained a growth of 21.73 percent and 8.4 percent respectively. This is a rather impressive feat as the All-Share Index performed negatively during the period, the JSE confirms.

Winners from last year’s event were crowned from ACUDEO College Crystal Park, Claremont High School, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

“High schools may enter one or more teams, with the challenge being open to all learners. A team must consist of four members from Grades 8 to 12 and a teacher must supervise each team. University students must form a team with members registered with the same institution. Each team must have a minimum of two and a maximum of four members. All students are eligible, regardless of their field of study,” the JSE unpacked regarding the rules.

“Monthly prizes are awarded to the best performing teams and overall winners win their share of R1 million in prizes including a trip to an international stock exchange for participants in the university game,” its release concluded.

School teams are advised to register for the competition here, while those at university should visit this site.