Ability to take a buy or sell decision is the pivotal skill that determines the success or failure of an individual in financial markets. Classroom lectures can teach students, theoretical concepts of market but no one learns trading without making his own mistakes.
Drawing an insight from this, IBF partnered with ICICI to organise a 15 day virtual stock trading competition for its students. Organised in the 1st week of November, the competition kick-started with a seminar by ICICI on important fundamentals of stock trading and an interactive demo of ICICI’s online trading application. Rs 15 Lakh was credited in the virtual trading account of each student, who were expected to buy and sell shares in live markets. IBF also organised daily boot camps during these 2 weeks by different subject matter experts to give inputs to students on trading techniques and analytics.
Most students participated enthusiastically and were often seen in the computer lab or glued to their mobile screens analysing their stocks on bourses. The daily performance and ranking, created a sense of excitement and competition among the students. Most of them lost money. But thankfully it was virtual and they learnt from their mistakes. The experience gave them a chance to improve their analytical thinking, decision making and risk taking abilities.
The final winner of the competition was Mahesh Mehto who managed to get 14% return in just 2 weeks ending his portfolio with a little over 17 Lakh. Abhinay Rajput and Naval were 1st and 2nd runners up respectively. The winners took home gift vouchers and the losers went back with some invaluable lessons that will keep guiding them for a lifetime.