A group of four Headstart High School learners who demonstrated their investment smarts finished in the top six in the national Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Investment Challenge’s Spectacular Portfolio category for May.
This is part of a JSE flagship programme aimed at teaching South African learners and tertiary students about investing on the JSE.
The crew of Amogelang Mabilo, Aabakwe Malope, Samekelo Sam and Oamogetswe Brian, who are Gr. 10 and Gr. 11 learners, exhibited their investment savvy.
Going by the name of NL-Pandas, they are among the four school teams that finished in the top six. Two teams are university participants.
The learners of the Bloemfontein-based school were selected impressed with their know-how on investing and understanding of stock markets on the JSE Limited, the largest stock exchange in Africa. Their astuteness enabled them to register 3,84 % growth on their portfolio.
“We developed a trade strategy and we stuck to it. We decided to take emotions out of our investment decisions and spread our investments across different asset classes and sectors,” said Aabakwe.
Despite their lack of experience in investing and stock markets, the learners showed understanding of lifelong investment lessons, quickly using studies of the JSE’s resources and staying up to date with market trends and analysis.
Nomonde Matena, a student at the University of the Free State (UFS), mentored the Headstart High School team. The foursome have credited Matena for sharing her valuable experience and supporting them to stay motivated and disciplined in their investment approach.
“Matena shared insightful resources such as research reports, articles and other tools to assist us in decision-making, and we benefited from her objective perspective,” said Samekelo.
Amogelang added that they tried to avoid impulsive decisions based on market fluctuations and developed a risk management strategy as a team to minimise potential losses.
The group attributed their success to teamwork.
“Teamwork was the real glue that brought it all together and made the challenge not only competitive for the NL-Pandas, but fun too. We each brought our ideas to the table, and learned from each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It made learning about investing enjoyable and competitive, as we all gained practical experience and developed a deeper understanding of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds and ETFs,” said Oamogetswe.
Ralph Speirs, JSE Investment Challenge and community social investment officer, said the initiative continued to play its role as a critical lever in advancing financial literacy among young people.
“Learners are able to immerse themselves in understanding investment concepts and strategies. The participation of young teams such as NL-Pandas is testament to the growing need to build our youth’s capacity in navigating financial complexities with finesse and confidence,” said Speirs.
The JSE Investment Challenge, now in its 51st year, is designed to cultivate an investment culture and improve financial literacy across South African educational institutions, from schools to universities.
Teams are given an opportunity to invest a virtual amount of R1 million on the stock market in real stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange over a six-month period.
