Young investor teams from the Baiduri Capital Investment Challenge (BCIC) shared their investment strategies as part of a learning process that emulates the real-life practice seasoned investors undergo prior to making investment decisions on Tuesday evening.
Some teams had already begun trading, with varied results, according to Baiduri Capital in a statement yesterday.
Bull Market Investors, had their stock picks from the technology and health sectors trading at a lower price than when they initially bought them, catching the whole team by surprise.
Team leader David Lim Xiaw Foong said, “We initially thought these were good sectors to invest in given the global situation and especially after we did our own extensive research. Fortunately, we still have our reserve capital, so we’ll deliberate as a team before deciding if it will be worth the risk to stay in these same sectors or diversify our portfolio into a different sector altogether.”
Team Syn4rgy also saw losses after investing in the entertainment sector of the United States (US) market, they found that their stock pick dropped its price by half within a few days when it was bought.
“We didn’t expect our stock to drop by so much in such a short amount of time, so it was a surprise for myself and the team. Now our focus has shifted to reassess how we can shift our portfolio to reinvest in the health and technology sectors,” said the Team Leader Debbie Lim Keh Ying.
Meanwhile, some teams had been more reserved. Fintroverts Mohammad Team Leader Noor Firdhaus bin Yassin said the hours of research they spent as a team has helped them with their stock picks in the US market.
“We’ve only been trading for about a week or so because we’ve invested heavily in our research process. On top joining webinars suggested by Baiduri Capital, we’ve also been reading financial news articles and various YouTube videos to not only increase our knowledge but gain a better understanding of how the current US market is behaving.”
General Manager of Baiduri Capital Peng Eng Soon said, “The presentations are a way of getting teams to form the habit of creating a complete investment plan based off their own team goals and strategies and most importantly, their own research.
This allows the teams to get a feel of what our investors go through before making decisions. Along the way they may run into unexpected circumstances, but what is important is to not be discouraged and instead adjust accordingly, just like how seasoned
investors would react.”
Since the first briefing held in January, the teams have started their own individual investment journeys by coming up with their own objectives and strategies and conduct their own research with supporting rationales based off various financial reports and source materials. The teams presented these findings, goals, and plans in front of the other teams and a panel made up of Baiduri Capital’s various managers.
The BCIC is an annual initiative undertaken by Baiduri Capital as part of its efforts to cultivate and raise awareness on investments, capital markets services and securities trading.
In the BCIC, each team is given BND5,000 as initial capital to invest into any of the securities listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), Malaysia Stock Exchange (BURSA), Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), China A-Shares (SSE-A) or the US stock Exchange (NYSE MKT LLC, NYSE and NASDAQ).
Any profits earned by the teams in the Investment Challenge will be retained by them. This year’s BCIC involved 40 participants comprising alumni of local and international higher
learning institutions.