First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

“We had good ideas but this year we have a bit of experience too, so we feel we are in a better position this year. Also, in 2020, the markets fell so there was nowhere to go but up. This year, we are seeing [many] more fluctuations and market movements, which makes investing choices a bit trickier,” Masete says. They named their team Limpopo Goes to the Market in the hope of encouraging other students and high school pupils from their province to enter the JSE Investment Challenge going forward.

“It’s really hard to get into the investment game. There isn’t enough exposure and there is no subject at school that teaches you this stuff, so you have to learn it on your own. In the future, it would be beneficial if the government invested more in financial education. SA has one of the highest unemployment rates and I feel like financial education could be truly empowering and uplifting for our people. Not basic financial education but actually teaching people how to invest so they can earn bigger returns,” Masete says.

Limpopo Goes to the Market believes in investing in stocks that no one else would look at, saying they are definitely “speculators”. “We took a chance on a company called Hulisani, a BEE company that invests in clean energy. Hulisani is relatively new, and we decided to take a leap of faith, which paid off,” he says. Current investments made by Hulisani include RustMo1 Solar Farm, Kouga Wind Farm, GRI Wind Steel South Africa, and Legend Power Solutions.

Capitalists out for a win

Crawford International Sandton College boasts the winning team for the high school speculator category. Teacher Carina Ullmann, who teaches business science for the senior phase, says the school has a total of eight teams competing in the challenge under two supervising teachers. “We have been entering the challenge for a few years now, but this is the first time we have a team that’s a monthly winner,” she says.

Players in The Capitalists team are Arvad Mansingh, Shrinu Maharaj, Iqra Dar and Staci Dworetzky, all of whom are in Grade 11. “We started off quite badly in March in place 536 or thereabouts, and by 15 April we were in position seven. It was a meteoric rise that we were not expecting. I think it was largely because I really enjoy investing. I saw two stocks that we decided to invest in and our portfolio just skyrocketed on the back of that choice,” Mansingh says.

All four team members seem to be analytically minded, leaning towards studying actuarial science, accounting science, economic science and biochemistry respectively. Mansingh advises future competitors to put time into research before rushing out to buy stocks. “We lost a lot of money by making impulsive stock buys in March. It was after we started spending time on trading reports and making considered choices that we started seeing real results,” he says.

June monthly winners

Mpumelelo Secondary School is maintaining its ranking in the income category for the second month in a row. In May, the school’s Smart Minds Traders won the income category, with income of R12,560.20.

The winners announced for the month of June were:

MP Magic Traders from Mpumelelo Secondary School for the income category, with income of R6,340.97.

Element X from Centre of Excellence High School for the equity category, with portfolio growth of 0.23%.

The Capitalists from Crawford International Sandton College in the speculator category, with portfolio growth of 7.56%.

Limpopo Goes to the Market from the University of Cape Town in the speculator university category with portfolio growth of 11.18%.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for free to Pick n Pay Smart Shoppers at these Pick n Pay stores until 24 July 2021. From 31 July 2021, DM168 will be available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books and airport bookstores.