Byron Bay High School’s achievement in winning every cash prize in the recent national ASX Schools Sharemarket Game was unprecedented in the competition’s history.
The game featured 20 x 520 student syndicates, each with up to four students, participating from every state and territory in Australia, as well as New Zealand and other countries.
Each syndicate was allocated $50,000 of virtual funds to invest in the real world Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with 380 shares on offer for them to invest in.
Among the enormous field of keen share traders, Byron Bay High School’s students put in a dominant performance, with Clay Atkins placing first overall in the competition, and winning the cash prizes for being first in the nation and first in NSW.
His achievement saw him turn $50,000 into an impressive portfolio of $66,803.24.
Byron High student Oscar Trisley won the second national cash prize, with a share portfolio value of $64,784.51, while fellow student Beau Meon won the third national cash prize, with a share portfolio value of $64,480.23.
Rounding out the game’s overall top five traders was yet another Byron student, Kai Ota, with a portfolio value of $64,386.22.
The remarkable depth of Byron Bay High School’s performance in the competition was further underscored by the school having six of the top ten share traders overall, as well as 20 out of the top 100 share traders in the game.
Furthermore, the school had 31 of the top 100 share traders in NSW, and 77 per cent of its students achieved a profit in their share trading compared with 49 per cent for the whole game.
Vulcan Energy shares contributed
One common share that contributed to the success of many of the school’s top traders was Vulcan Energy (VUL), a company that has developed a zero carbon system for processing lithium for electric vehicles.
Many investors, motivated by the need to meet carbon reduction targets and achieve environmentally sustainable goals, saw the huge potential of this project.
The announcement of the company’s financial project stages saw the share’s price almost double from its low levels early in the game.
The results achieved by the students were a dream realised, after 20 years of preparing students with the skills needed for successful trading.
The financial markets and investing in shares and other securities are a passion of mine, as a former Reserve Bank of Australia analyst and securities dealer at CommSec, prior to becoming a teacher.
Valuable skill
I believe that one of the most valuable skills I can teach my students is how to invest in the financial markets.
A number of my ex-students have told me that they have successfully invested in shares after school, and this has assisted them in saving for the deposit on their first home.
It is not all about profit though – the sharemarket game also teaches students about risk and the reality that losses are also made in the real world.
There’s a clear future for financial literacy at Byron Bay High School.
NB: Byron High teacher, Dale Stevenson, coordinated the ASX game at the school.
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