World beating pupils win investment event

World beating pupils win investment event

26 March 2014

TWO Downpatrick students are on top of the world after achieving the highest global score in an online investment competition.

James Hanna and Conall Magee, year 11 students at De La Salle High School, had the highest score in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) online competition

The competition was based on the stock market. Pairs of pupils took on the roles of investment analyst and media analyst and each team was given shares to invest on the stock exchange.

The media analyst decided if the team should buy or sell shares in the companies based on his analysis of media reports while the investment analyst decided if the team should buy or sell shares based on the performance of each company on the stock market coupled with their share price.

James was the investment analyst and Conall was the media analyst. The winner’s prize is a trip to Queen’s University First Derivatives Trading Room. The trading room incorporates 12 Bloomberg terminals, giving students access to software used by market professionals.

Competition organiser, Martin Barnes, paid tribute to the local pair for winning the competition. “An amazing total. Not only top of the NI leader board but the highest of recent months anywhere around the globe,” he said.