The Guernsey Investment & Funds Association has enjoyed another successful year of the Investment Challenge, with all Guernsey students in years 10-13 invited to compete.
The competition ran from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025 and aimed to give students an insight into investment management. The initiative was led and administered by the GIFA Managers subcommittee, which is chaired by Harry Bazzaz of Rocq Capital, who said: “Our goal is to encourage interest in investing and give students first-hand experience of how global events can affect financial markets and the companies that they have selected. We hope that investing through such an interesting period will have sparked further interest in the type of work our sector does. It was great to see high levels of participation and engagement – thank you to everyone who took part and to the schools and teachers for their support.”
A record-breaking 150 teams, made up of over 300 students from 6 educational institutions entered this year’s challenge. Each team started with a notional £1m to invest in a choice of 12 stocks; with the aim being to grow it as much as possible over the six months of the competition.
Harry Bazzaz (Rocq Capital) from the GIFA Managers subcommittee
In the years 10 and 11 category, first place was awarded to Tyche Team (Ladies’ College), with a fantastic total return of 31.44%. Second place was awarded to Super Sellers (Elizabeth College) and third place to The Stock Markers (Elizabeth College).
In the years 12 and 13 category, first place was clinched by Young Boys Investment Club (Elizabeth College), with a huge +34.04% total return. Second place was awarded to Murder on Zidane’s Floor (Guernsey Institute) and third place to WEaton (Elizabeth College).
The winning teams won £600, £300 and £200, respectively.
As part of this year’s challenge, participants were encouraged to provide rationales for their stock choices each month. The judging committee was impressed with the reasoning of many of the teams, and awarded a prize of £600 to Diamonds Are Forever (Elizabeth College) who considered the merits of individual stocks while also showing awareness of other factors including the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on assets such gold and the US dollar.
The 2024/2025 GIFA Investment Challenge was generously supported by Butterfield Bank, Rocq Capital, White Star Capital, Ravenscroft and Rathbones.
Main picture: Winners Super Sellers, The Stock Markers, Young Boys Investment Club, WEaton, Diamonds are Forever and Ed Adams, Head of Business Studies from Elizabeth College, with Harry Bazzaz (Rocq Capital) and Tiffany Gervaise-Brazier (Rathbones) from the GIFA Managers subcommittee.
