JSE Investment Challenge 2024 — the early bird gets the worm!

Four Grade 11 pupils at Kingfisher Private School in Limpopo are focused on improving their financial literacy and investment skills to prepare them for a world after high school.

Team Wall Street Wizards — Anna Kurian, Darren Mhondiwa, Vivek Pauly and Aman Pati — entered the challenge last year but were not on the same team.

“Last year we were just practising and figuring out how everything works. That has helped us get serious about winning this year. We entered the income category this year, and while we all look at stocks and news daily, we have a meeting once a week on a Tuesday,” Pauly says.

He plans to study actuarial science after matric.

“My sister was looking at either medicine or actuarial science two years ago when she finished matric. When she explained actuarial science to me, and I heard it involves statistics, maths and economics, I decided that was for me. I love maths,” Pauly says.

Kurian is interested in psychology; Pati (who is here on a study visa from India) wants to pursue a career in medicine or become a trader, and Mhondiwa plans to study architecture.

Read more in Daily Maverick: JSE Investment Challenge: Newcomer Tsogo Secondary sails to the top

Shreya Gopaulsingh of UCT. (Photo: Supplied)

In the older university category, Shreya Gopaulsingh has been entering the JSE Investment Challenge since she was in high school.

“When I was in Grade 11, my team won every month. Two years ago, my team, Queen of Mechanics, took second place,” she says proudly.

While she has entered this year with a different teammate, Gopaulsingh is just as focused on winning as she has been in previous years.

Currently in her final year of studying mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Cape Town, Gopaulsingh and her teammate Khushi Samachetty, who is studying applied statistics, have taken the top place in the university speculator category.

Khushi Samachetty of UCT. (Photo: Supplied)

The winners for April were:

• The Wall Street Wizards of Kingfisher Private School in Limpopo won the income category, with an income of R40,744.80.


• Penny Slice from Paul Roos Gymnasium in the Western Cape won the equity category with 5.75% growth.


• RBG Catch Me If You Can from Hoërskool Oosterlig in Gauteng took the speculator portfolio with 4.46% growth.


• CCE Finance Wizards from Hillcrest Secondary School in the Western Cape landed top position in the ETF/ETN category with growth of 2.91%.


• Lady Luck from the University of Cape Town won the university speculator category with growth of 11.06%.


• VK BN Trading Wits of Wits University was the winner of the university ETF/ETN category with growth of 0.98%.

The JSE Investment Challenge is a youth CSI programme that aims to teach South African learners and students about investing in the JSE and the larger role that this investment plays in the country’s economy.

Participants get to test their share trading skills through a simulated “ghost trading” programme. Each team of four members is given a virtual sum of R1-million to invest in JSE-listed shares.

Their performance is tracked and measured against other teams taking part in the challenge. DM