Financial education charity, the ifs School of Finance, today announced that Bing Wen Tan, an Electrical Engineering undergraduate at Imperial College London, has won the 2008 ifs Uni Investor Challenge – collecting a top prize of £9,000.
Justin Chircop and Fangzhou Huang, postgraduates studying finance at the University of Aberdeen, jointly won the £3,000 top prize for the postgraduate league of the competition.
The annual ifs Uni Investor Challenge is a two-part challenge open to any University student in the UK.
This year saw students from over 100 Higher Education Institutions participate in either the undergraduate or postgraduate leagues.
The Challenge involves investing a fantasy £100,000 in the stock market over a three month period. The top 20 performing portfolio holders i.e. the University students who achieve the greatest growth over this three month period, then have to write an investment report detailing why they made the investment decisions they did. Whoever produces the best report collects the top cash prize.
Gary Millner, Director of Financial Capability & Further Education at the ifs School of Finance said:
“The ifs Uni Investor challenges help students become more engaged with business, economics and the financial media as well as providing some practical experience in a risk-free environment. These three students have done tremendously well to outperform students from over 100 Higher Education Institutions across the UK and their hard work has secured deserved rewards.”
Undergraduate league winner, Bing Wen Tan said,
“I felt that the challenge was fun and enriching. It provided the excitement of stock trading without the risk of losing money. I got more interested in economic and financial news due to the challenge and am sure it would be the same for other participants.’
On winning the overall undergraduate prize Bing Tan expressed his shock,
“I was expecting a “thank you for your participation” when I saw the e-mail from the ifs School of Finance in my inbox. Instead I was surprised, and extremely delighted to have won.”
Despite Bin Tan’s investment success, he was a little unclear as to how he would invest his new found wealth, stating,
“I haven't really thought about how to spend the money. Perhaps to take my girlfriend out for a good meal... and probably to pick up a couple of stocks!”
On jointly winning the Postgraduate league, Fangzhou Huang said,
“We were both very excited when we got the news that we had won the postgraduate version of the competition. Winning the ifs Uni Investor Challenge was a great achievement. We are delighted to have successfully represented the University of Aberdeen as well as ourselves in this competition.”
As for how they intend to spend their £3,000 cash prize, fellow postgraduate league winner Justin Chircop said,
“We haven't started thinking about what to do with the money, however we will certainly be investing part of the money and donating some money to the relief effort for the Chinese people affected by the recent earthquake.”
For more information please visit www.financialcapability.co.uk
