Last Friday, September 7, the main hall of the Lima Stock Exchange (BLV as in the Spanish acronym) historic building, located downtown the capital, witnessed a contest in which fourth and fifth year high school students put their stock market skills to the test. That afternoon, after a rigorous elimination process, the final round of the eighth edition of the Junior Investor Challenge was launched, an initiative of Universidad del Pacífico Accounting Program and the BVL, which is committed to training future investors providing them with financial skills and promoting collaborative work. Amid great expectations, the Associate Dean of Accounting, Sergey Udolkin, thanked the students for their participation. "If there is something to highlight about this edition is that, out of more than 500 contestants, about half come from the interior of Peru. We hope that this number will continue to grow,” he said.
Sergey Udolkin, Associate Dean of Accounting
After passing the first three stages of the contest, which included several trainings, a virtual competition and a face-to-face competition, nine schools were waiting for the signal to start the last trading round. The finalists were students from Markham College (Lima), Colegio Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Palao (Lima), Colegio San Francisco de Sales (Lima), Colegio Humanismo y Tecnología (Lima), Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott Arequipa (three teams from this school classified), Colegio Salesiano Santa Rosa (Huancayo), Colegio Maria Auxiliadora (Lima) and Colegio Peruano Chino Juan XXIII (Lima). Eleven competing groups with the same goal: to generate the highest possible rate of return for their respective investment portfolios.
After more than two hours of tough competition, the negotiation was closed, and the three winning groups were announced. Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott Arequipa (Wall Street group) took third place. The second place was also for Anglo Americano Prescott (Nasdaq Group). Markham College from Lima, won the first place generating a return of 2.66%. For Horacio Córdova, Sub Director of Markets at BLV, experiences like this are key in student training "Peru is a country in the process of bancarization and what better way to reach future talent than through the schools themselves", he said. In addition, he took the opportunity to highlight the amazing performance of the participants, who had to make risk decisions facing a very volatile situation both at national and international level.
Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott
"Despite the obstacles, the boys found strategies that allowed them to obtain higher returns than those found in the market. This is important to highlight, since there are usually certain criteria to proceed, but they simply went forward with a well-founded risk", said Córdova, visibly excited at the level reached by the competition. For Professor Miguel Reátegui, from Colegio Humanismo y Tecnología de Lima, this experience has been an opportunity to bring the students closer to the working world and give them a vision for the future.
Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott (Nasdaq Group)
Braulio Mourao, a student at Markham College, is proud that his team's effort has paid off. "At first it was difficult to reach an agreement between all of us, but as weeks went by we learned to handle pressure and act quickly. This competition has taught us not only to make decisions for the contest, but also for life”, said Mourao. His peer, Nahim Kouri, stressed that after this experience he already has a clearer idea about where he will be heading at a professional level.
At the end of the day, the members of the three winning teams, along with their teachers and Universidad del Pacífico representatives, met on the second floor of the hall to ring the BVL bell, and celebrate the victory. ...