Students compete in Stock Market Challenge at Anglia Ruskin University

HELENA Romanes School took part in Essex’s first inter-school Stock Market Challenge held by HSBC at Anglia Ruskin University.

A team of four Year 10 students - Joe Baggs, Christopher Hakim, Ryan Johnson, Charlie Sewell and Vincent Srihaput - went up against over 20 other schools in buying and selling shares with the aim of increasing their portfolio value.

Ryan Johnson said: “Taking part in the stock market challenge was great fun, it gave me a real insight into what it would be like to work on a real stock market trading floor and has inspired me to work in this area when I am older.”

Business Studies teachers Anna Bendall and Sam Hector, who accompanied the students, reported that “the students worked brilliantly together, analysing media information, discussing the possible impact on the share prices of the companies and then buying and selling shares to take advantage of these changes”.

They added: “The game was extremely fast paced and the students had to think on their feet and make decisions under pressure. They also showed some fantastic maths skills in calculating possible returns or losses on trades.”

Despite the tough competition, the team’s persistent approach paid off and they managed to achieve second place, beating last year’s winners Leventhorpe but narrowly missing out to West Hatch.

Joe Baggs also came second in his media analyst report that he wrote on behalf of the group.

As a result of taking part, the school have been given a year’s access to the online stock market trading resource by HSBC the event’s sponsors.