Methuselah Tanyanyiwa, Paige Benattar and Tate Flowers have so far made a profit while taking part in the national Shares4Schools competition organised by The Share Centre, a leading retail stockbroker.
The trio, all Year 12 pupils at the Essex school, were given £1,500 by the school to invest as they wished. And, so far, they have made some good decisions.
Paige said: “We got £1,500 and from there we have had to invest into UK companies.”
Their varied portfolio has included GAME, the high street games retailer, HMV Media and IQE microchips, which are used in smartphones.
They started trading in November and to date have made a profit of £127 and the competition, which has 58 schools nationwide taking part, along with several in Europe, runs until May.
The team have followed the stock market, identified various trends and scoured the Financial Times and other financial publications as part of their research.
Paige said: “Some of it is intuition. We will have been looking at the stocks and trends and identified certain things.”
Choosing HMV Media has proved a good decision as the team saw its shares rise 35 per cent in just 45 minutes after buying shares.
Orlando Hill, the school’s business and economics teacher, said: “I’m impressed with them. It is difficult making a profit in these uncertain economic times. It’s easy to make money when the economy is booming, but a whole lot harder when times are tough.
“I’ve been running this competition since I arrived here – this is my fourth year- and this is the first time that a team has made a profit.”
He added: “They are on the edge. They keep a close eye on what’s happening to the stock market. In previous years the teams have been more laid back and sat on their shares. This group keep me busy!
“They can’t buy and sell. They can look at what’s changing but I have overall responsibility for the their buying and selling.”
