Schools
Sharemarket Game news
Read the latest news and updates for teachers and students participating in the Game.
2025 Game 2 dates
Registrations will open on 17 July 2025.
Game will run for 10 weeks from 14 August to 23 October 2025.
Resources
Meet the winners
Congratulations to our winners and to everyone who took part of the Game. We hope teachers and students enjoyed participating in Game 1, 2025 and have learned many valuable real-life investment skills. Teachers, make sure you present your students with a certificate of participation.
Remember, the Game only grows from your feedback. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you fill in our 5-minute survey to help us make the next Schools Sharemarket Game even more relevant and exciting for teachers and students. Plus you can enter the draw to win one of two $100 gift vouchers.
| Prize | Syndicate | Student | School | Portfolio value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Special mention - INT* | Jadon L | Jadon (Year 10, Commerce) | Australian International School - HK | $71,053.61 |
| Overall first and QLD winner | Eddie H | Eddie (Year 10, Business) | Saint Stephen's College | $69,573.11 |
| Overall second and WA winner | Yakuza Syndicate | Abhinav, Jacy, Rachit and Raghav (Year 10, Studies of Society and Environment) | Shenton College | $68,524.55 |
| Overall third and VIC winner | 7hcra | Hudson (Year 7, Mathematics) | Yarrawonga P-12 College Secondary Campus | $67,722.69 |
| NSW winner | honest truth | Daniel (Year 10, Commerce) | Sydney Boys High School | $67,268.10 |
| TAS winner | Imogen | Imogen (Year 12, Business Studies) | Marist Regional College | $66,861.22 |
| SA winner | Ariana O | Ariana (Year 11, Mathematics) | Cabra Dominican College | $63,719.98 |
| ACT winner | Ryan | Ryan (Year 11, Accounting) | Gungahlin College | $62,962.22 |
| NT winner | Sam M | Sam (Year 10, Commerce) | Haileybury Rendall School | $59,826.52 |
| NZ winner | HHO | Heathe (Year 8, Extra-curricular) | Otumoetai Intermediate | $57,850.57 |
*Because they are based outside of Australia and New Zealand , Jadon L is not eligible for the top cash prize despite finishing the Game with the largest portfolio value.
Big brands buy success in close-fought game
The first ASX Schools Sharemarket game has come to an end – with only a few thousand dollars separating the top end of the leaderboard.
This year’s schools Game was a close-fought battle, with the three prize-winners separated by less than $2,000 – though all three were beaten out by another participant who was ineligible for the prize.
Jadon L from Hong Kong finished the Game in the number one spot with a portfolio predominantly comprised of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which gave their portfolio exposure to an extensive range of Australian and US shares, as well as cryptocurrencies and specialised investment strategies.
This approach helped Jadon grow their portfolio to $71,053.61, but as they’re based outside Australia and New Zealand they were ineligible to win the prize money. Sorry, Jadon – bragging rights only!
Within the ANZ region, there were several recurring themes among the winners. Many of the top participants paid close attention to the news and looked for opportunities to buy companies they believed were undervalued.
Thinking strategically about current economic conditions helped our leaders choose companies positioned to produce the best returns, while portfolio diversification helped to mitigate potential losses.
Mrs. Whittle & Eddie, Saint Stephen's College, QLD
‘Logic and luck’: Eddie H’s formula for success
Nipping at Jadon L’s heels, and leading the Australian contingent with a portfolio value of $69.573.10, was Eddie H from Saint Stephen’s College in Queensland. Eddie’s strategy was to consider the economic trends affecting Australians and think about which businesses might do well under those conditions.
With the cost of living still high and talks of an economic downturn splashed across newspaper headlines, Eddie decided that high-end businesses and luxury retailers were best avoided. Instead, he chose to invest in companies that offered “practical, in-demand” goods and services.
Among these were family tracking app Life360 (ASX:360) and discount retailer The Reject Shop (ASX:TRS) – the latter of which saw significant gains in March after agreeing to a $259 million takeover offer from Canadian firm Dollarama [1].
“Investing in known brands was a good strategy for me, as big companies will come out with new products that the community asks for. Based on this logic and a bit of luck, I was able to win,” he said.
Yakuza Syndicate, Shenton College, WA
Trading on tariff turmoil
In second place was Western Australia’s winning Yakuza Syndicate with a total portfolio value of $68,524.55.
The team from Shenton College, comprised of students Rachit, Jacy, Abhinav and Raghav, paid close attention to the tariff rates being applied, removed and reapplied to various goods being imported to countries like the US and China amid growing trade tensions.
“When the tariffs were announced there was a large amount of uncertainty in the market, which is why we invested a little bit in gold as it was a safe haven stock and will generally go up when the market recedes,” one of the boys shared.
“This was extremely useful when the market crashed around April 7th to the 9th. The market’s volatility meant that the materials sector was heavily affected, so we decided to steer away and sold out of materials stocks before the effects of tariffs wore off.
“After selling our materials stocks, the materials sector crashed, and lost an average of 8%, meaning we made the correct decision.”
To complement this strategy, Yakuza Syndicate also opted to hold only a small number of stocks – typically between four and six companies – diversified across a handful of industries.
Setting rules for success
In third place (and leading Victoria) was Hudson – also known as 7hcra – from Yarrawonga College. Hudson set himself strict rules for buying stocks, targeting companies valued between $1.00 and $4.00 per share in the hope that they would deliver strong growth.
Like Eddie, Hudson took a position in The Reject Shop (ASX:TRS) prior to the Dollarama takeover offer. At the time, those shares were valued at $3.24 each, and Hudson sold them for $6.63 – an increase of 104.6%.
Hudson has similar success with Wagners Holding Company (ASX:WGN), a company that produces and sells construction materials. Hudson purchased these shares at $1.59 and sold at $1.96.
“It was the first time I played the Game,” Hudson said.
“About two weeks after we started I saw that I was actually leading the entire Game which was pretty exciting.”
Throughout the course of the Game, Hudson held a diverse range of companies including consumer electronics, energy stocks, and even US equities ETFs.
Mr. Rowlands & Daniel, Sydney Boys High School, NSW
Know when to hold them and fold them
New South Wales leader Daniel – known in the game as ‘honest truth’ – initially put his money into only four companies as part of a highly concentrated ‘buy-and-hold’ strategy. The plan was to save on brokerage and make his portfolio easier to manage.
Although Daniel finished with a portfolio of $67,268.10, those first four stocks began losing money early in the Game. Daniel chose to hold onto them rather than ‘panic selling’ – the term for selling off shares when their price drops in the short term, potentially at the expense of long-term performance.
As the Game progressed, those companies showed little sign of improving and Daniel decided to change track.
“I realised that companies in the same sector would perform in a similar manner to each other. I tried to predict which sectors would increase the most,” Daniel said.
“Additionally, I looked at the charts of several companies and took notice of them, especially if they consistently bounced back after dropping. I would then place money into these stocks after a fall, as there was a high chance it would recover again.
“These were the core intentions of my improved plan.”
Diversification delivers for Tasmanian winner
Down in Australia’s southernmost state, Marist Regional College’s Imogen took top honours with a portfolio value of $66,861.22.
Imogen’s strategy was built on two key pillars, the first of which was diversification.
“By spreading out my investments across several sectors, I was able to reduce risk and avoid major losses when the market declined,” she said.
This strategy is widely used by professional investors as a way to mitigate ‘downside risk’ (ie, the likelihood of losses) while steadily growing returns.
The second pillar underpinning Imogen’s strategy was to move quickly – by staying on top of the news and reading company earnings reports, Imogen was able to “time some of [her] trades and take advantage of short-term opportunities”.
Imogen’s portfolio included health insurers, energy companies, real estate developers and miners.
South Australia’s set-and-forget strategy
South Australian winner Ariana O, from Cabra Dominican College, ended the Game with a portfolio value of $63,719.98 using a ‘set and forget’ approach. One day after the Game commenced, Airana purchased five companies across a wide range of industries.
She sold one of these companies the next day but held the remaining four until 30 April when she sold off her entire portfolio and held everything in cash until the Game’s end.
Those four companies included this year’s Game favourite, The Reject Shop (ASX:TRS), as well as other well-known businesses like Qantas (ASX:QAN) and Guzman y Gomez (ASX:GYG).
Ryan & Mrs. White, Gungahlin College, ACT
In the ACT: Buy cheap, sell high
Ryan from Gungahlin College grew his portfolio to $62,962.22 by the Game’s end, making him the best performer in the ACT. Ryan went into this year’s Game without any real strategy and bought stocks he thought would increase in price based solely on a graph of recent performance.
This didn’t deliver the kind of returns Ryan was targeting. Fortunately, the introduction of new US tariff rates created a market sell off and Ryan quickly bought a handful of companies that had seen dramatic falls in response to tougher global trading conditions.
When these tariffs were subsequently wound back, those shares regained their past losses, netting significant returns for Ryan’s portfolio.
“One of the stocks I bought during Trumps tariffs ended up making me around $8,000, which lead me to a strategy I used for the majority of the Game, which is buy cheap shares,” he said.
Reinvesting and selling selectively
The top end’s top participant was Sam M from the Northern Territory’s Haileybury Rendall School with a portfolio value of $59,826.52.
Similarly to New Zealand winner Heathe, Sam selected stocks based on negative price momentum – each day he would check the dashboard and invest in the two companies that recorded the largest losses that day so he could take advantage of a possible recovery in the following week.
Sam was also selective about selling shares, and only exited his position in a company if he thought the stock would continue losing money, or if he believed the company had reached its highest price and was unlikely to keep growing.
This is not dissimilar to the way professional investors use technical analysis to make their own buy and sell decisions. A technical analyst will look at patterns in the price a share trades at to identify its ‘resistance’ and ‘support’ levels.
HHO, Otumoetai Intermediate, NZ
Buying the dip over the pond
This year’s best performing New Zealand participant was Heathe from Otumoetai Intermediate. Heathe, who played under the name HHO, grew his portfolio to $57,850.57 by taking advantage of near-term market movements.
Heathe’s strategy was to target businesses with falling share prices on the expectation that these losses were temporary and the stocks will eventually bounce back. This strategy is sometimes known as ‘buying the dip’, and it takes advantage of the fact that over the long-term markets typically trend upwards.
It’s important to do your research and understand why a company’s share price is falling, however, and to make sure the dip is the product of short-term noise and not a deeper issue with the company that could stop it from making a rebound.
Over the course of the Game, Heathe held a variety of stocks including Life360 (ASX:360), gold producer Regis Resources (ASX:RRL), logistics company Brambles Limited (ASX:BXB), and The Lottery Corporation (ASX:TLC).
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[1] M Steffens, G Grant, ‘Money from heaven’: The Reject Shop set for $259m sale to Canadian giant’, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 2025, accessed 30 May 2025
Do you want to find out more about the winning strategies?
Teachers share their experience
"We ran the ASX Schools Sharemarket Game as a School Club for Year 9–12 students. What stood out most was how the Game encouraged collaboration across year levels, with senior students sharing insights and guidance with younger peers. This not only strengthened their understanding of investment principles, but also fostered meaningful connections across the school community."
Ms. See Tho, Shenton College, WA
"We used the Game in Year 11 and 12 Accounting classes to show real world application investors using a balance sheet to assess company performance before investing. Students reflected on how using the balance sheets of the real companies helped make what we were learning in class more relevant as they could see the real world application."
Mrs. White, Gungahlin College, ACT
"The Game helped bring investing to life, making the learning both engaging and practical. Students realised that investing in shares is a long-term process that requires patience and thorough investigation including researching as much as possible about the business, such as its financials and even the background of its CEO."
Mrs. Whittle, Saint Stephen's College, QLD
Game 2 is around the corner
Keep an eye on the landing page for announcements on Game 2 dates.
In this newsletter, we review the basics to help them place their first trade.
To be able to complete this Game challenge, it is vital that your students take note of all these Game essentials:
Access and eligibility
Student login portal: Share this link with your students
Problems logging in: Please read ‘How to login’
Prize eligibility: To be eligible, they need to have purchased shares, within the Game, in four different companies over the Game Period. One buy transaction must have been completed by 26 September.
Market hours:
They can put their order in at any time; however, the market is only open between the hours of 10am and 4pm Sydney time. Please note there is a clearing period between 4 pm and 4.12 pm and an order may still be processed over this time.
Tip: If you want to place a trade for the next day, do it after 4.12 pm.
What to buy - develop a Game plan
On the ‘How to participate’ page, you will find some steps on how to get started and developing a trading plan. Your students can also review the Game video tutorials and how to guides. And teachers can access the new curriculum-aligned, skill-based learning materials.
If they are not sure how to place their first trade…
- Guide them to watch ‘How to buy shares' video or read ‘How to place an order’.
- If an order is pending and not being filled please read ‘Pending orders’.
- They also need to understand Order types – see below.
Understanding order types
When placing an order, they will also need to understand the different types of orders.
An order in the sharemarket is the request you put in to either buy or sell a certain number of shares in a particular company. You can enter either a ‘market to limit’ order or a ‘limit’ order as highlighted in the video tutorial - How to buy shares. Knowing which type of order to use is important so let’s take a look at the difference.
What is the sharemarket?
Like any other market, the sharemarket is a place where people buy and sell. In this case, they are buying and selling shares in companies and the goal is to make a profit on those shares. To learn more watch the videos below.
Placing the first trade
A Market to limit order:
When you enter a ‘market to limit’ order you don’t nominate a price to buy or to sell at. Instead, your order will be filled, as much as it can be, at the current market price then it becomes a limit order.
For example: Suppose you wanted to buy 5,000 shares in XYZ company but there were only 4,000 shares available at the current market price. The system would purchase 4,000 shares for you at the current market price, say $10.00 and then for the remaining 1,000 shares your order would become a limit order for 1,000 shares at $10.00. These shares will only be processed if the price stays at $10.00 or less. If your order is not being processed it may be that the price has moved above $10.00.
You can check your pending orders to see if the order has been completely filled or if it has become a limit order. You can either reactivate the order by clicking amend and making it a market to limit order again or alternatively you can keep it as a limit order but change it to a price you are happy to buy (or sell) at.
If you are having trouble understanding this watch - How to buy shares for a market order example.
A Limit order:
A limit order lets you specify the maximum price you are prepared to pay for shares if buying. If selling, it lets you set the lowest price you are prepared to accept.
Your order will be executed at the best price possible. Suppose you want to buy at a limit of $10.00. You will get them at a lower price if there are shares available at a lower price, but if the price is above $10.00 you order won’t be filled.
If you are prepared to sell at $10.00 but no lower you might end up selling at say $10.50 if prices are higher but not at $9.50 because that is below your limit.
Make sure you are clear on what price you are prepared to accept when you put your order in.
If you are having trouble understanding this watch - How to sell shares for a limit order example.
If you don’t like the idea of a ‘market to limit’ order you might consider using a limit order but make sure the price you set is not too far away from the market otherwise your order might not get filled.
Brokerage
In the Game your students will be paying brokerage. Brokerage is the fee a stockbroker charges when shares are bought or sold. Just like the real market, in the Game, every time you buy or sell you will be charged brokerage. Be aware of your brokerage costs if you trade regularly. In the Game, brokerage is $20 for trades up to $10,000 and for each trade over $10,000, brokerage is charged at the rate of 0.2% of the trade value.
Diversification rule
In the Game your students cannot put all their money into buying just one company.
They can do this in real life if you wish; however, there is a belief that this is not the best thing to do as it is very high risk.
In the Game they can only invest 25% (of their total portfolio value) in any one given company (this is called the diversification rule). When you go to place an order to buy shares in a company, the system will tell you the maximum of shares you can purchase based on the current market price and your portfolio value. You don’t have to buy that number - you can buy less but you can’t buy more.
To diversify simply means to invest in different companies and/or different industry sectors that don’t tend to move in the same direction at the same time.
This will help reduce the risk of losing money. Let’s say you invested all of your $50,000 in one company and the shares in this company dropped by 30%. This would mean that your $50,000 investment is now worth only $35,000 – that’s a loss of $15,000. Whereas, if you invested in 4 companies (in different sectors with approximately $12,500 invested in each) and the other 3 companies are doing OK, that 30% loss is now only $3,750 – quite a difference.
This example shows how investing across a range of sectors or companies helps reduce your risk. However, also be careful of over diversifying (having just a few shares in a lot of different companies), because you will end up paying a lot of brokerage and if some companies do really well you want to own enough of them to make some good profits.
Dividends
In Australia, the end of the financial year (EOFY) is June 30. So most publicly listed Australian companies report their full-year earnings results in August and their half-year results in February.
By law, companies listed on ASX must report their earnings, results, and forecasts to shareholders during each reporting season.
Dividends are usually announced during reporting season so in the Game, one of your strategies might be to invest in those companies that have a dividend coming up, in order to take advantage of the additional cash.
Before doing this, it is important to understand what dividends are and how they work.
What are dividends?
Companies use the money they make as profits to pay dividends as a way to reward shareholders. By paying
dividends the company makes itself more attractive to investors.
Companies typically like to keep a consistent pattern to their dividend payments as they know a lot of investors, especially retirees, rely on dividends for income. A lot of investors look at what a company has done in the past to try to get a feel for likely future dividend payments. They can also get more of an idea of what is likely to happen, by paying attention to company announcements as well as what company analysts might say.
This video will help you understand more about dividends.
So how do you receive a dividend?
Companies need to keep track of who owns their shares so they can pay dividends out to shareholders - therefore they need a cut-off date (the ex-dividend date). To be entitled to a dividend a shareholder must have purchased the shares before the ex-dividend date.
In the real world, a dividend will be paid into a shareholder’s nominated bank account on the payment date, sometime after the ex-date. In the Game, a dividend gets paid on the ex-date into your Game account as cash.
Go to the Dividends+ page for all the coming up dividends and their ex-date.
A bit of history - Ever heard of a ‘chalkie’?
Now that you have learnt more about shares and the sharemarket…and experienced the almost instant processing of orders online, did you ever wonder…how on earth did they do this without the Internet?
Initially, trading took place using a call system (1861 to 1961). Using this system a reader called the names of each company and brokers made a bid or offer. Stocks were called 3 times a day. This system was limited as the market was only open for a very short period each day and there were far fewer companies listed on the market back then. Watch this video - to see how it all worked.
Enter the chalkie! In the 1960s trading changed to a post system (1961 – 1990) where "chalkies" wrote bids and offers continuously in chalk on blackboards, as operators who worked for brokers called out orders. All of this made for a very noisy trading floor. Watch the chalkies in action and see how it all happened.
With the post system, everything that was written on the boards was also typed into a price reporting system. The limitation was that during busy times there could be quite a delay between changes of prices on the boards and when they appeared on screens via the price reporting systems.
The advantage of the ‘post trading’ system over the call system was that the market was open for longer - from 10 am to noon and from 2 to 3.30 pm. Back then there were share markets in each State and prices for the same shares could differ between States.
In 1987 a screen-based trading system was introduced and the individual state stock exchanges were combined to form the Australian Stock Exchange. It started with just a limited range of stocks, and slowly all stocks were moved to this system and the trading floors were closed in 1990. Everyone, no matter where they lived could now trade in the same market at the same prices.
Do your students have a Game plan?
It is important that your students have a Game plan. And if they already do, it is wise to review it, to make sure it is working for them. In this newsletter, we share some questions you can use to prompt the thinking process with your students. They can either go through these questions to review their plan or to get a plan happening. This should give them a better idea as to their direction for the Game.
First, what is your overall investment strategy?
- Have you decided to buy and hold for the entire Game? Do you need to be prepared to sell some shares if they are not performing? Or will you hold no matter what?
- Have you decided to buy and sell shares, taking your profit as you go and then investing in something else or the same stock? How much are you spending on brokerage compared to the profit you are making? Would it be better to buy and hold some shares and look to trade in and out of others?
Have you diversified your investment?
This means buying stocks from different sectors rather than all from the same one. This is a great way to help protect your investment.
Have you decided when to take your profits?
If your shares rise by a certain percentage above your purchase price…
- Will you continue to hold them?
- Or will you sell and take your profit so that you can invest in something else? If yes, at what point will you take your profit, e.g. % increase?
If the stock falls or is not performing as you would like, do you have a plan of when to sell?
Have you or your team made any decisions regarding how low you are prepared for a share to go, before getting out?
For example, you might set a certain percentage below your purchase price as the lowest you are prepared to let the share price fall before you sell your shares.
Also, if you decide to sell, what factors or indicators will you use to help you make the decision to step back in?
After answering these questions, and in light of the current market volatility (the price of a share moves significantly up or down), your students will be more prepared, less inclined to panic, and able to make the necessary decisions to stick to their plan.
Avoiding simple mistakes
Here you have a list of the most common mistakes we find syndicates making while participating in the Game. Let your students know this is worth a read, as it may help them avoid making some of these mistakes:
Purchasing small lots in multiple companies.
And this is not just $20 when you buy, it is also $20 when you sell, so you need to consider this.
Not checking your order before submitting
It is important to set up the habit of always checking your order before you submit. Make yourself stop and read the preview order – review the number of shares you want, check it is the correct company, it is a market or limit order, at the price you want, and of course whether it is a BUY order or a SELL order.
Get into the habit of checking each of these things because once your trade is submitted, it can be very difficult to get it back.
Placing your orders too far away
Often we get emails from students wondering why their order isn’t going through. Often what has happened is they have set their buy or sell price too far away from the market, for example, if the share price of a company is at $2.00 and you set a limit to buy your shares at $1.50 - you are going to have to wait until the price gets to or falls below $1.50 before your order is processed, which could be a very long time, if at all.
If your limit order to sell is set at $3.00 – again, you will be waiting until the market hits this price or above before your order is processed.
Placing an order at 4.00 pm for the next day.
Take note that although the market closes at 4 pm there is a clearing period between 4 pm and 4.12 pm where orders will still be processed. If you are wanting to place an order for the next day, make sure it is after 4.12 pm.
Buying just to get the dividend.
So if you buy a company based on the dividend, remember, on the ex-date, the price of the share is likely to fall by the amount of the dividend.
Buying to get the dividend and then selling on the ex-date, will mean you have lost any benefit the dividend gave you as the stock fell by that amount.
It helps to do your research and be sure you are happy with a company and not just base your buying decision only on the dividend.
This is a good lesson for students to not be ruled by their emotions and instead make sure they have a plan and have thought about how they will trade in any type of market.
If they have a plan and stick to it, that can help take some of the emotion out of your trading. For example:
- If they can decide even before they buy, how low they are prepared for their shares to fall and what percentage profit they would like to reach, they can calculate their limits as a percentage, have a set price and take action (sell) when the time comes.
- If the plan is to buy and hold, they need to decide whether they will choose to ride out these fluctuations in the market and hold…or will they have a limit?
It is difficult to know where this market is going to go and is important to remember that we are not always going to be making the right decision and that we may not be using the right plan, but it is all about learning and experiencing the sharemarket. They need to take a look at their portfolio with that in mind.
- If they are holding shares that are in profit, should they lock that profit in by selling some or all of your shares? Or do they hold with the possibility of increasing the profits – however, with the risk that if the market falls further your profits may decrease?
- If their shares are in negative territory, will they hold because they know they are good companies and they will wait for the share price to recover, or will they take their losses and invest elsewhere?
- If they are all in cash at the moment, what factors or indicators will they use to help them make the decision to step into the market?
Having answers to these questions can help them with some of the emotions they may feel and if their plan isn’t successful, they can review it at the end of the Game and learn from it.
Game tip: What affects share prices?
There are a lot of things that can impact the price of a share. Let's review some of them:
The economy: Alongside the impact of global markets, a range of economic factors within Australia can also affect share prices, for example, the overall health of the economy, the level of unemployment and interest rates etc.
Dividends: Another thing that may affect the share price is if a share goes ex-dividend. More often than not the price of a share will fall by approximately the dividend amount when the share goes ex-dividend.
Supply and demand: The sharemarket is a market place like any other. The more people want to get hold of a particular product or in this case a particular share, the higher its price will go. If people no longer want a share, those looking to sell may have to offer it at a lower price in order to sell.
Company announcements: One of the most important factors affecting the price of a share is the company's future earnings. Any changes to the forecast in earnings, either by company management or by market analysts, may impact the share price.
Other factors: Natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes or other disasters (e.g. pandemics) can have a significant impact on the sharemarket. Often, however, these are simply reactions to the unexpected news and the market or shares affected can recover in a very short period of time. It’s helpful not to react to news like this and to take a long-term look at your shares rather than a short-term panic reaction.
You may also find it a little frustrating that often the price of a share at the close of the day isn’t necessarily the same price when the market opens the next day.
The reason for this is that from the time the market closes to the time it opens the following day, there may have been trading on overseas markets, political and economic news may be announced and people may also be revising their investment views.
Any or all of these factors can cause a change in people’s assessment of what is a fair price for a share. Every morning before the market opens, there is an opening auction prior to market open (no trades are processed during this time) however revised or new bids & offers* can be entered – so this may affect share prices at the open.
As students gain an understanding of what influences share prices, this will grow their understanding of the link between the sharemarket and real world events.
Lessons for real-life investing - remember what you’ve learned
Over the last 10 weeks, we hope you and your students have gained some valuable investing skills from your practical involvement. Whether you decide to be part of the next game, or if your students want to take their skills into the real world, here are some tips for them to keep in mind:
- Start with an investment strategy: What do you want to achieve? How long are you investing for – and how much do you need to meet your goal?
- Remember to manage your risk: Have you diversified your portfolio properly – with a mix of sectors, companies, assets and even geographies? Are you careful to invest in a way that suits your timeframe, goals and comfort with risk?
- Do your homework: Have you researched the companies that you’re going to invest in? Are they a growth or value investment? Are you engaging with sharemarket reports, blogs and articles? And are you keeping on top of economic and world events?
- Take a longer-term view: the Sharemarket Game has a very short timeframe. To win it, most people take more risks than they normally would if they were investing real money. That’s because the sharemarket is typically a long-term investment. In general, by riding out short term volatility, investors tend to enjoy more favourable returns from the sharemarket compared with other asset classes.
But while the strategy for the Game might differ from real life, the Game is still full of practical skills that investors use every day. All the information we’ve covered in our lessons can help your students become better informed and wiser investors, including:
- The importance of having an investment strategy
- Understanding the benefits and risks of shares
- Learning how to manage risk
- Understanding the impact of social, political and economic trends on the sharemarket
- Researching a company
- Understanding market indices and sectors
- The importance of diversification
- Understanding dividends
- How to place orders and how to sell shares and ETFs on ASX
- Fundamental analysis
- Understanding how ETFs work
- Using charting tools
- Using watchlists
- Learning sharemarket terminology
- The importance of keeping emotions in check
Follow-up activity 1: Silent Auction
A great way to teach your class about the impact of supply and demand on the market is by creating a Silent Auction.
Follow-up activity 2: Vocabulary games
Word/terminology search
Find words or terms related to the sharemarket or the economy either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
To use the wordsearch, either:
- Put the students into pairs or groups.
- Set a time limit.
- The pair or group with the most correct answers at the end of the time limit are the winners.
Or:
- Provide students with the word list.
- Students work alone to find the words, crossing the words off the list as the find them.
Word list:
ASX, materials, ATO, bear, bull, buyback, diversify, dividends, economic, interest, order, price, sectors, spread, takeover, tax, volatility, watchlist
Comprehension check
Students can complete these alone, in pairs or in groups. For more advanced classes they need to attempt them without referring to notes or the internet.
- Explain the difference between a bull and a bear market.
- True or false? Woolworths, Coles, Telstra and BHP are examples of blue chip companies.
- Finish the sentence: Companies that pay out ___________________________ are generally a popular choice for investors seeking income.
- Choose the correct answer: A buyback is when a company:
- (a) Buys shares from competitor companies
- (b) Re-buys some of its shares from existing shareholders
- (c) Buys back property that it sold in the last 10 years.
- Label each feature as either day trading (DT) or investing (I):
- A time horizon of more than a year.
- Intention to buy or sell a stock at a particular price.
- Intention to hold a share while it gains value.
- Hold a share for one day.
- The gap between the bid and the ask prices of a share is called the ________________.
- The fundamentals of a stock are the data that affect the price or expected value of a share. List at least 3 examples of a share’s fundamentals.
- List at least 3 Australian companies that belong in the Materials sector.
- List 3 ways you can diversify your portfolio:
- True or false? An emerging market is the same as a developed market.
- Choose the correct answer. To work out a company’s earnings per share (EPS) you:
- (a) minus a company’s share price from its net profit.
- (b) divide a company's net profit by the number of outstanding shares.
- (c) add a company’s net profit to the value of its outstanding shares.
- True or false? A takeover can be done by buying a majority of shares in a firm, or through a mergers and acquisition (M&A) process.
Other ideas
You can create your own sharemarket vocabulary games and tasks using the ASX glossary.
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