Commerce Student Wins National Stock Market Competition
Posted on December 22, 2008
Max Zhang, a QSB Bachelor of Commerce ’11 student, took home bragging rights and a prize of $10,000 in a national stock market tournament for university and college students.
Now in its second year, the tournament sponsored by ShareOwner Education Inc., was limited to post-secondary students for the first time. Competitors invested $1,000 of their own money, selecting from a list of 150 “growth” stocks pre-selected by the company. At the start of the competition the markets were performing well and the students were given access to criteria to compare companies to help make their choices, but then things started to turn sour.
Zhang’s parents’ actually told him it was okay if he ended up losing the initial investment, as they considered it part of his education in finance. But Zhang held on during the market crash, buying and selling carefully during the 11 month process and made 5 percent on his initial $1,000 investment. In an interview with the Kingston-Whig Standard Zhang said that his portfolio actually started to “outperform” while the market was imploding. Patience, a lot of research and trusting his gut were key to his win. The second-place winner had a 2 percent gain on her initial investment and the third place winner had a 2 percent loss on his portfolio but, with his prize earnings, nearly doubled his money.
When Whig reporter Ann Lukits asked Zhang what he would do with the money he considered a few extravagant options before admitting “Realistically, I’ll probably just reinvest it”.