Students show massive interest in simulation-based competition to learn investing skills

May 09, 2022: With over 500 students intensely engaged and 10,000 trades executed, IBA's Virtual Stock Market Challenge, iStockX22 came to a successful close. The closing ceremony of IStockX'22 was held at the auditorium of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Prizes were distributed among the Top 3 IBA students and Top 30 players were duly appreciated as they all outperformed the market. The winner, Talha Zahid obtained a massive 278% return, while runner ups Ahsan Khan and Rohan Khawar obtained 189% and 158% respectively.

Attendees included Executive Director, IBA Karachi, Dr. S Akbar Zaidi; Former Chairman, PSX, Mr. Muneer Kamal; Chief Operating Officer, PSX, Mr. Nadir Rahman; CEO, Topline Securities, Mr. Mohammed Sohail; Group Director, Elahi Group of Companies, Mr. Sohail Ilahi; Head of Marketing and Business Development, PSX, Ms. Raeda Latif; and CEO, Investors Lounge, Mr. Baqar Abbas Jafri.

CEO Topline Securities, and IBA alumnus, Mr. Mohammed Sohail commenced the ceremony and shed light on the objective of the event. He said, 'IStockX'22 provided an opportunity for students to learn how to trade and apply their theoretical learning to the real world.' He highlighted that IBA students were provided with world-class courses on the Investors Lounge portal along with analytical tools.

He further added that this marks the end of the Phase I of the tournament. Phase II, involving investment in stock markets with real money, would start from July, 2022. Top 30 participants from Phase I will advance to the next stage where trading would continue till December 31, 2022. The winners of this stage will be rewarded with money and employment opportunities.

Mr. Jafri highlighted the high engagement of IBA students and how this demonstrated a need for continuance of such platforms. He mentioned that over the period of one month, more than 508 students registered, and more than 10,000 trades were executed which involved more than 13 million shares and portfolios worth PKR 523 million.

Mr. Jafri said, 'Students are not able to produce desired results despite having a degree. So, we realised the need for experiential learning to be built in the academic curriculum of investment management and finance to bridge this gap. Hopefully starting with help from IBA and support of the present team, this can be propagated into other universities.'

Speaking to the attendees, Dr. Zaidi praised the efforts undertaken to organize the month-long online trading competition, IstockX'22 organized by IBA alumni to train the IBA students to improve their skillset which shows their dedication towards giving back to their alma mater. He further stressed the need of increased interaction between the alumni, students and faculty of IBA. Dr. Zaidi advised the IBA student body, and alumni to look beyond the FMCG and conventional Banking industries, and venture in the world of financial markets.

Mr. Ilahi applauded the efforts of the IBA Finance Club, Investors Lounge & Topline securities for educating the young investors about investing strategies and providing them a great learning platform. 'With proper learning and guidance to the youth regarding stock trading, we can address the problem of a low investor base in Pakistan'. Mr. Ilahi believes that there are ample opportunities for the investors and new heights can be achieved if the players running the show (brokerage houses & regulators) join hands as Topline Securities and Investors Lounge did.

Mr. Rahman appreciated the collaboration and emphasised on the need of increasing the investors in Pakistan.

Mr. Kamal highlighted the importance of learning beyond the books through such competitions and appreciated the role of the IBA Karachi in providing the learning opportunities for students.

Patron of the IBA Finance Club, Ms. Tahira Mariam Jaffery congratulated the members of the IBA Finance Club for successful execution of phase I and thanked Topline Securities and Investor's Lounge for their corporation. Moreover, Ms. Jaffery expressed her wish to further expand the competition and include more participants from different institutes in future.

Mr. Inam Masood, Manager, IBA Finance Club emphasized upon the need for providing such platforms to students to create financial awareness and literacy among the Pakistani Youth.

Winners were given a chance to share their trading strategies, along with the technical and fundamental analysis, with the industry professionals during the event.

The event concluded with distribution of prizes to the winner and the runner ups.