Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest, GM, JSE presenting the winning team from Calabar; Lavois Cruickshank and Jevaughn Leon with their cash prize
The prize giving and awards ceremony for the 2011/12 season for the Stock Market Game for High School was held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Thursday, July 5, 2012. Please see below the full text of the General Manager’s presentation.
Today is indeed special for us at the JSE and I imagine for every one of us here this morning. The fact that we are here, indicates that we share a common goal. The Jamaica Stock Exchange Stock Market Game is in its fourth year and it is important to note that we have seen the merit and benefit of continuing this competition. Even prior to the global financial meltdown the Exchange was convinced that it was necessary to place emphasis in growing the level of awareness of our young people in the art of investing and in particular understanding how the stock market works. We understood that we needed a tool that was attractive to the current generation and the use of the computer and computer related programmes are by far the most attractive. The JSE therefore developed the stock market game which, through the JSE’s website users can play the game and build a portfolio. The game allows users to:
1. Play a simulated trading game;
2. Build and manage their own portfolio based on stocks traded on the Exchange;
3. Compete against other students;
4. View portfolio summaries, stock performance, order details and transaction history;
5. View charts showing portfolio performance;
6. View game summary highlights showing scores/positions for team.
The programme is working and looking in the rear view mirror we are sure that the decisions we made then and the continuation of this programme is of critical importance. Not only has it strengthened those who have taken part in the game but we note that many of our students have transitioned and have continued by taking part in the Young Investor Competition which seeks to provide further interest in the stock market. We hope that these efforts will result in building a cadre of young professionals who will not only reap personal benefits but may want to consider this area as a worthwhile career choice.
The formative years of individuals are when most concepts are learnt and where interest is formed. Therefore for the long term development of this area of our industry, the Stock Market Game was introduced to capture young minds. The game represents the building block for those at the high school and the tertiary level to have an appreciation of how the Stock Market works and to begin from an early stage to analyze stocks and to make proper analysis to buy/hold/sell stocks in a simulated environment. Later on they can bring these techniques they have learnt to do the same for themselves and to enter the industry with prior knowledge that they can pass on to investors in the market place. The significance of this is that they would have already through the Stock Market Game, gain real life experience based on the decision they had made. They would understand that poor analysis brings poor results while good analysis brings good results.
While we have seen an increase in the number of schools participating in the game; steadily growing from 14 traditional high schools in 2008 when we started to 28 schools comprised of traditional and non-traditional high school, we would like to see a ground swell of schools getting involved in the game. The participation is primarily driven from the level of the teachers who have an interest in exposing their students to the market. We are calling on the principals and even the ministry to consider weaving this into the curriculum especially for students concentrating on the business subjects. I would love to see this 50Th year of our independence where we have a minimum of 50 schools entering the competition with a mix of both girls and boys being successful.
We need to applaud the participants in the competition, the Teachers and the Principals for a very good showing and hope that they will continue to encourage their students to participate. Please keep up the good work and to all the participants we applaud you and appreciate your participation. I wish to make special mention of our first time entrants, Guys Hill High, Holy Childwood High, York Castle High and Ocho Rios High.
Ladies and Gentlemen at the Stock Exchange we consider the game an important plank as we lay a very good foundation on which the market can grow. We recognize that in order to produce a fair, efficient and transparent Stock Market all participants of the market should be knowledgeable in order to foster sound business decisions.
While it begins by training our young people we could not achieve this without our sponsors Gleaner Company and Lime Jamaica who continue to support this programme with cash and kind.
Dated: July 5, 2012
