UCT students know their investment beans

Number one: Ra'ees Mahmood (second from left) and Muzzammil Ismail (second from right), of UCT's winning team ACETone, celebrate their victory with (from left) Geoff Rothschild, director of government and international affairs at the JSE; Olympian and event MC Cameron van der Burgh; and Julian Dallamore, brand manager at Liberty Retail SA.

It's a whole new investment world out there, and would-be stockbrokers, financiers and bankers will need to know their short-selling from their long-selling.

UCT students appear to be well-primed, with our teams taking the top two spots in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)/Liberty Investment Challenge, described as a "game that aims to teach South African learners and students about investing on the JSE, and the larger role that such investment plays in the country's economy".

Team ACETone – Muzzammil Ismail and Ra'ees Mahmood – amassed an impressive capital growth of 73.07% for their Speculator Profile, earning them first place and an all-expenses-paid trip to the New York Stock Exchange, plus R25,000. In second place was Team Liquid Gold – Katherine Coutras, Hannah de Villiers, Etelka Verheyen and Ashleigh Williams – boasting a capital growth of 25.98% and prize money of R20,000.

Team Marktex from Wits University finished in third place.

The competition is a handy way to sharpen their business nous, said Liquid Gold's Williams.

"It allowed us to develop our investment skills and strategic thinking. I encourage other students to enter and grab the opportunity to take part in an initiative of this kind."