Four students from Reading School, a selective state day and boarding academy for boys aged 11-18, have won this year’s LIBF Student Investor Challenge – 
beating over 9,800 schools from around the UK.
The runners up were “Stockaholics” – an all-girl team from Sevenoaks School in Kent – and “Titanic Investments” – an all-boy team from Framlingham College, Woodbridge.
This year’s winners – Team QuantumFund from Reading School: (left to right) 17 year olds Yashwanth Karupalli, Anirudh George, Dev Goyal and Rahul Menon.
This national competition seeks to encourage students to learn about the economy and how the stock market works. Over 33,000 students from schools around the UK took part, despite having little or no prior experience of the stock market or the finance sector. Total trades amounted to £1.9bn!
To reach the final, the Reading team, “QuantumFund”, consisting of Year 13 students Anirudh George (17), Dev Goyal (17), Rahul Menon (17) and Yashwanth Karupalli (17), had to invest two virtual portfolios of £100,000 over a four month period (from October 2019 to January 2020) in a trading game which replicated the real market, competing against teams from schools around the UK. Having made it through to the top 500, in the semi-final they had to successfully predict the rise and fall in the value of certain asset classes to make it to the final.
In the final, QuantumFund had to deliver a presentation giving investment advice for a personal case study – a couple who wanted help on how to invest their savings. Due to Covid, this year the final had to be virtual – which meant the teams recorded their presentation on video. Their presentation included advice on how to manage money, savings and investments, to demonstrate how the financial knowledge they’d learned through the competition could be applied to individuals based on their particular financial objectives, circumstances and attitudes to risk.
They won individual cash prizes and a prize for their school.
Catherine Winter, Managing Director, Financial Capability & Community Outreach at the London Institute of Banking & Finance, said: “This competition is a powerful way of engaging young people with how the finance sector works and relating it to everyday life. We want to help young people feel able to take control of their finances and not be left feeling that money controls them. It’s a vital life skill. This year the teams showed real resilience and agility. They had to produce a video instead of making a live presentation, and the final had to be virtual instead of being held in London. It was a different experience, but one that still allowed these young students to shine and really show off their growing confidence about money and investments.”
Ms Amy Cash, Head of Economics at the Reading School, said: "The Student Investor Challenge is always eagerly anticipated by the Reading School economists as they enjoy learning about the stock market and putting their knowledge to the test. Offering financial advice to fictional couples was an interesting final challenge and both staff and students enjoyed watching the final live online and hearing from all the finalists."
On behalf of QuantumFund, Dev Goyal said: “Participating in the LIBF Student Investor Challenge has taken us on a bumpy ride, through many twists and turns. The competition this year was especially fierce, and we would like to congratulate all the other teams who took part. Our highlight has to be the semi-finals round, when we had to predict share prices over the course of 4 weeks; navigating the most turbulent market conditions in over a decade was a great learning experience. As a team, we really gelled in the final presentation and relished the challenge to apply our knowledge to a real-life financial matter. Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our teachers for their invaluable help and guidance along the way, as well as The London Institute of Banking and Finance for running this competition."
This year’s winning teams:
1st place – QuantumFund – Reading School, Reading
2nd place – Stockaholics – Sevenoaks School, Sevenoaks, Kent
3rd place – Titanic Investments – Framlingham College, Woodbridge, Suffolk
About the Student Investor Challenge:
- This competition brings the movement of stocks and share to life through a trading game, helping thousands of young people grasp how economies work and the basics of investment.
- 9,840 teams registered from schools across the UK
- Over 33,000 students took part, investing £100,000 in two virtual portfolios
- £1.9bn was traded in total across 207,685 trades
- The 500 top teams competed in the semi-final to get to the final eight
- Seven teams competed in the virtual final
- The three winning teams won individual cash prizes and a prize for their school
Find out more about our work with schools