Winners of the 2022 JSE Investment Challenge outperform all-share index by impressive margins

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is excited to announce the 2022 top traders in the JSE Investment Challenge whose investment portfolios showed better returns than the all-share index, an incredible achievement given the prevailing trading environment.

This year’s competition once again brought together individuals who share a common goal, to learn, practice and acquire skills that will help them build an investment portfolio comprising financial instruments listed on the JSE. This year, the challenge attracted an impressive 24 000 participants, which represents a 10.6 percent increase on last year’s figure. A clear demonstration that South Africa’s youth are indeed interested and eager to become financially literate.

This tremendous growth in participation has provided further motivation for the JSE to expand the Investment Challenge footprint to more South African schools and institutions of higher learning.

Ralph Speirs, CSI Officer at the JSE says he is impressed with the effort, dedication and enthusiasm that learners and students have demonstrated in developing competitive strategies to get ahead in the competition this year.

“The JSE Investment Challenge aims to stimulate students and learners’ interest in financial literacy so that they can continue to self-educate throughout their lives,” says Speirs.

Winners of the JSE 2022 Investment Challenge

Imhotep-ACCP, from ACUDEO College Crystal Park, in Gauteng, took the top spot in the income category. Team members included Thabang Phahle, Amukelani Mathosi, Thabitha Lesenyeho and Siyamthanda Sibeko.

The school has participated in the JSE Investment Challenge since 2019; and this year eight of its teams won prizes in both the income and equity portfolios.

“Part of our strategy was taking advantage of when the share price dropped and making 56 percent profit from that,” explains Siyamthanda Sibeko. “Our risk management plan was our money. We bought as many companies as possible that would give us dividends; and that’s how we took first place.”

The CHS WallStreet team, from Claremont High School, in the Western Cape, walked away with the top prize in the high schools’ speculator category, with a portfolio growth of 4.01 percent.

Team members included Gerard Umegbolu, Lathitha Caza, Litha Thembela and Muhammad Ridhaa Adams.

“The JSE Investment Challenge was challenging but through team effort and hard work we managed to pull it off,” says Lathitha Caza. “We would encourage young people to challenge themselves, follow their ambition and join the challenge, you will never know until you try,” adds teammate Thembela.

Top performing portfolios

The top performing teams in the university competition attained a growth of 21.73 percent, while the all-share Index had a negative performance of 11.8 percent during the period when the competition was underway. This means that the winners of the competition managed to show outstanding returns in an underperforming market. Their ability to comprehend and trade derivative products, which are relatively complex financial instruments, helped the winning teams to show good returns on their investments.

“The awards ceremony was really fun, particularly the MC, Mpho Popps. We agree with one of the speakers who said that it’s our responsibility to share education and knowledge,” says Roberto Coelho, winner of the Speculator Portfolio from the University of the Witwatersrand. “Whether you’re at the top or the bottom, you still gain so much just from taking part in the challenge,” he concludes.

For the first time in the nearly 50-year history of the Investment Challenge competition, all three winning teams traded single stock futures and it turned out to be the right investment strategy. In the school’s competition, the top team recorded 8.4 percent return in the Equity Portfolio and 4 percent in the Speculator Portfolio. These teams’ choice of shares helped them to outperform the all-share Index, indicating that they have acquired a good understanding of market-moving economic and business dynamics.

2022 WINNERS

The winners for the 2022 JSE Investment Challenge competition are:

Income category: Imhotep-ACCP from ACUDEO College Crystal Park, Gauteng

Equity portfolio: Maulana Karenga - ACCP, ACUDEO College Crystal Park, Gauteng

Speculator portfolio for schools: CHS WallStreet, Claremont High School, Western Cape.

Speculator portfolio for universities: Dancing in the Dark, University of the Witwatersrand, Gauteng

Teams can register electronically for next year’s challenge on schools.jse.co.za and university.jse.co.za. Trading begins in March 2023 and ends in September 2023.

To stay updated, students and learners can follow the competition’s social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.