TAR University College Students Claim Supremacy in Investing

TAR University College students exhibit all the makings of an astute investor when they won the biggest haul of prizes in the EdgeWiz Campus Investment Challenge. The competition is an intervarsity competition providing students with the opportunity to pit their trading skills under real market conditions using real time stock prices listed in Bursa Malaysia. The objective of the competition is to create a financially savvy generation by having a platform where students can practise on their trading skills hands-on.

The challenge was held from 20 April 2015 to 15 May 2015 with a total of 5,000 participants from 70 institutions of higher learning competing in the competition. TAR University College took part in 7 categories and they were Top Campus category, Team category, Individual category, Best Investment Rationale category, Lecturer with Best Team category, Lecturer with Most Teams category and Best Social Media Engagement category. TAR University College students and lecturer emerged victorious by clinching 6 top prizes out of 7 categories.   The prizes won were for Top Campus, Top Team, Top Individual, Lecturer with Best Team, Lecturer with Most Teams, Best Rationale and one prize for Team in 4^th Placing.

The competition was structured and designed to recreate the real and dynamic investing environment. The students were each given a virtual RM100,000 to trade in the stock market on a virtual trading system 9am - 5pm every day for 18 trading days to see how much they could generate from the initial capital. 

The Team Category Champion winners comprising the Bachelor of Finance and Investment (Honours) students, namely Tan Kai Chun, Chew Yi Min, Ng Mei Teng and Priscilla Yong Su Vern, obtained RM10,000 cash prize and each also received a certificate for their win. Their win is noteworthy given that there were 350 teams pitting their skills in the competition. On what their experience had been in the competition, they enthused: “It was a great experience doing virtual trading. TAR University College has provided us with the solid foundation and knowledge in fundamental and technical analysis which is part of our course structure. That helped us a lot.” The team made a staggering RM12 million from the initial combined sum of RM400,000. As for the Individual Category, the Champion winner was Yuan Ting Jing, another Bachelor of Finance and Investment (Honours), Year 2 student. With the initial seed of RM100,000, he shrewdly made RM2.8 million in the challenge! His advice was to learn important tips and knowledge in high quality financial publications and go for talks and seminars on trading to gain better understanding. “I am a committee member of the Bursa Young Investor Club in TAR University College and I am actively involved in the club. This has helped hone my skills in trading.”

Besides winning the champion prize in the Individual Category, Mark Woon Tian Kit, another student who is studying his Diploma in Business Studies (Finance and Investment), also won the title of Best Rationale. This young student gave a well-thought-out, simple and straight to the point answer for every decision of buying and selling that he made. “I am able to come up with good rationales by researching for the information online such as Maybank online portal.” He explained that trading requires one to be quick off the mark and be persistent. “Don’t give up if you had made a loss, keep looking forward to search for new opportunities.” 

Additionally, the team that won 4^th placing in the Team Category comprised Lee Tzyy Cherng, Dazzlyn Tan Shyh Lyn, Cheah Weng Loong and Aeron Chee Mun Hoe, all from the Bachelor of Finance and Investment (Honours) programme. They felt empowered after having completed the challenge. “We met face-to-face during the trial period of 90 days, communicated with each other and discussed. It was quite an emotional ride as we could see our team position fluctuate daily. So, we had to muster enough courage, grit and determination to continue forging on till the end.” Even though this team of students garnered a commendable win, they would still like to give it another go in the future and improve on their performance.   

Besides these prizes, the lecturer, Mr Wang Ah Yong, who was the students’ mentor also won the titles of Lecturer with Best Team and Lecturer with Most Teams because he had the best team and the most number of teams under him. As a mentor, Mr Wang guided the students with a number of trading strategies such as how to study the market, what stocks to buy and what announcements about the company to look out for.

With regards to the students’ performance, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR University College, could not be more pleased with the outcome. “Our students’ performance in this competition shows that they have applied the knowledge that they have learnt from their Finance and Investment programme and did well. This performance goes to show that these students have benefited from the excellent teaching at TAR University College.”