Two Cape Town engineering students flexed their financial muscles and won the JSE Investment Challenge in two consecutive months.
Megan Greggor and Shreya Gopaulsingh, second year UCT students studying mechanical and mechatronics engineering, are the brains behind team Queen of Mechanics.
Queen of Mechanics was the winner of the ‘Spectacular portfolio for universities’ category in the JSE Investment Challenge, for March and April. As the winner of the monthly challenge, they received R3 000 for each month.
The challenge ends in September and the annual winners will receive R25 000 and a trip to an international stock exchange.
The investment challenge aims to teach young South Africans how they can invest in the JSE, and about the role that investment plays in the country’s economy.
Those participating in the challenge are taught the fundamentals of investment strategy, encouraged to research and strategise on the trading of JSE-listed shares.
In the competition, participants test their skills against each other through a virtual trading account worth R1 million.
Gopaulsingh said she’s been participating in the JSE school’s challenge since Grade 8.
“I have had a good experience with trading and stocks since then, when I got to university I chose to enter the JSE’s university challenge,” she said.
“My family inspired me to get involved in trading and I was always surrounded by positive influences towards trading.”
Greggor said she likes solving problems and was grateful when Gopaulsingh introduced her to the stock market and persuaded her to enter the competition.
“It is really exciting, I didn’t expect to be the first monthly winner, let alone the second one as well,” she said.
Gopaulsingh added: “We have been lucky but overall our strategies worked well and we are pleased to know that our trading decisions were strong enough to carry us through.
The team’s advice to future entrants is to get involved in stock trading, regardless of how well they know finances.
“The challenge is a great experience because it allows students to get involved in trading, in a safe environment. As we work with virtual money, we get to understand how stocks work,” they said.
“Additionally, we get to analyse the impact of events on companies and ultimately people too.”