Amy and Gloria

    A simulated investment monopoly game hosted in cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) was held for students from Green Oasis School in November last year. Twenty students were divided into three teams: the year 11 group (Animal World), the mixed grade group (Blank), and the Year 7 and 8 group (Never Lose).

    The starting amount was US$1 million. We could choose to place investments in houses, gold, stocks, luxuries or banks; however, we had to pay a basic sum for our living expenses.

    After five rounds of investment, our team, Animal World, was able to accumulate US$54.9 billion. With our 1:50,000,000 turnover rate, we broke the previous record of US$28 billion by double!

    Other groups did very well too. Teams Never Lose and Blank also surpassed the previous record.

    On the second day of the program, our team prepared a morning meeting to explore the current situation of markets. We researched six markets: A stock markets, Hong Kong stock markets, European stock markets, American stock markets, product markets (gold and crude oil) and the foreign exchange market. We analyzed each market’s stocks and provided reasons as to why they are in the position they’re in with recent news (Paris terrorist attack, America to increase interest rates, etc.) and provided a prediction of where the future market would stand.

    After staff members from SCB heard our presentation, they joked that they were going to hire us to take charge of the future morning meetings. Lastly, they provided an analysis of our performance and gave suggestions and feedback on our work.

    After learning more about the foreign exchange market and finance, we welcomed the last reporting task. This task required research on the impact of online payments compared to other methods (in terms of time, paperwork, etc.) and the benefits and drawbacks of online payments for consumers and businesses. The two remaining teams made presentations during lunch with results from market research. Animal World chose to use online questionnaires to target a larger group of people and received 75 responses; the other group came up with a case study.

    The two days flew by, but we learned a lot.Team Animal World accumulates US$54.9 billion at the simulated investment game.