Published on: 2 June 2022

Christ Church Grammar School student Benjamin Shipton (Year 11) has outperformed students across Western Australia to be crowned the State winner of the 2022 ASX Schools Sharemarket Game 1. Ben will receive $400 in prize money for achieving first place in WA.

The ASX Schools Sharemarket Game is designed to give students from Years 6 to 12 a practical understanding of investing and the sharemarket. As part of the game students receive $50,000 in virtual cash with which they can invest over a 15-week period, on the more than 300 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). The stock prices traded by the students mirror the live market, so as to achieve close to real life share trading.

Throughout the 15-week period that Ben participated in the game, the Ukraine conflict and declining technology stocks caused the sharemarket to fluctuate, with the ASX 200 index rising to $7,100 and falling to as low as $6,900 between 3 March and 16 June 2022. Despite this volatility Ben was still able to achieve steady growth on his initial $50,000 investment.

Ben said his success in the competition was not just potluck, but rather based on a firm understanding of market forces.

“Given the current market conditions and volatility, I sought to employ a more conservative investment strategy, sticking to business fundamentals and avoiding high risk speculation; price to earnings ratios were very important in my investment decisions” he said.

This strategy led him to invest in some of Australia’s stalwart companies, with mixed results.

“Focussing on pandemic recovery led me to invest in Qantas, an undervalued organisation that has performed incredibly well amidst inflation concerns and war-volatility,” he said 

This investment realised a 12% gain.

“ASX and CBA also served as viable investments as they looked to further recover from the pandemic and achieve further growth. 

“FMG, a personal favourite due to its success in my portfolio in 2021, was a slight disappointment and I withdrew as soon as I got out of the red, basically breaking even.

As the Ukraine conflict began to increase volatility in international markets over the period of the game, Ben eventually decided it was best to hedge his bets to hold onto his gains, “I withdrew the rest of my investments to hedge my risk and maintain my high portfolio value as the economic stability was simply non-existent.