Bristol school students pick up Best Stock Market Performance prize

A team of A-level students from Mangotsfield School in Bristol have performed better than almost 30,000 other teenagers from across the UK in the ifs Student Investor Challenge sponsored by Deutsche Bank and Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust.

“JBL On Tour”, a team of 4 students from Bristol outperformed over 7,600 other teams to win the monthly challenge for January. The team increased their portfolio from £105,511 at the beginning of January to over £117, 019 by the close of trading on January 31.

The challenge is designed to educate young people about stocks and shares and is being undertaken by thousands of 14-19 year olds at schools and colleges in the UK.

The challenge involves investing a fantasy £100,000 in the stock market from November until the end of February.

The enthusiastic students from Bristol were delighted to have been the best performing team in January and to have gained a £100 cash prize.

A member of the winning team said he was very pleased to be involved in the Challenge and had “learned a lot about shares”

Another added, 'It’s great to win a prize - it will help me keep my car on the road so that I can arrive at school on time!"

One student summed up his experiences by saying, “It’s been a fun, rewarding and educational experience. Many thanks to the ifs School of Finance for organising the competition.”

Andy Herbert, Head of Business at Mangotsfield School, summed up the schools view of the challenge by saying,

“This group have kept a close watch on the performance of their shares throughout the competition and have performed fantastically.

Many other students, across the full range of academic abilities, have also participated. It has certainly helped them to become more interested in and observant about the world around them.”

Gary Millner, Director of Corporate Relations and Communications at the ifs School of Finance concluded, “This team have done incredibly well to boost the value of their portfolio by 11% in a single month – better than the thousands of other students participating in the challenge and better than the performance of the FTSE!”