How do you marry the safeguarding of animal health and welfare with being savvy with investments in Africa’s largest stock exchange? For University of Pretoria Veterinary Science students Esti Louw and Nicole Venter, it’s a blend of managing emotions and incorporating valuable financial skills.
Their team named, Onderstepoort Capital, won in the challenge’s Spectacular Portfolio category for the month of July, acquiring 4.39% growth on their portfolio. And it started with an intentional and multipronged strategy.
“We have always been interested in financial markets and investing, but obviously since we are studying Veterinary Science, we have zero to no exposure to it on a daily basis,” Louw said.
The pair joined the JSE Investment Challenge as a way to hone their investment skills, and it has paid off.
“The biggest challenge was to not overtrade once we started going up the leaderboard. We had a blend of strategies – mostly technical analysis on some of the larger companies (especially in the Top 40), and some fundamental analysis on smaller, less liquid names,” Venter explained.
The JSE Investment Challenge, now in its 51st year running, is designed to cultivate an investment culture and improve financial literacy across South African educational institutions, from schools to universities. Teams are given an opportunity to invest a virtual amount of R1 million on the stock market in real stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange over a six-month period.
For Louw, the biggest takeout so far on the challenge has been how to manage one’s emotions.
“It’s important not to get too excited when you have a good day and not despondent when you have a bad day. Trying to stay emotionally neutral has led to better results for us,” she said.
Louw continued, “The temptation is there to try and time every market swing in order to stay ahead on a daily basis. But the better strategy is to trust your trades and to let them run. Buying one day and selling the next is a sure way to undermine returns. Better to let winners run and that’s what we focused on this month.”
The team took on a collaborative approach – which has boded them well in learning more about trading.
“We would have a quick chat if either of us came up with a trading idea, and then Nicole would execute the trades,” the pair said.
While they may not be quitting their pursuit of being vets to become investment specialists just yet, they both attest to the JSE Investment Challenge having taught them valuable financial skills.
Ralph Speirs, CSI Officer at the JSE, congratulated the winners saying, “The Investment Challenge shows that financial literacy skills is key for any career field. These skills broaden the scope of opportunities high school and university students are exposed to in terms of understanding investment concepts and strategies.”
Overall category winners for July are:
Income Portfolio: SAHETI School, Gauteng
Equity Portfolio: Paarl Girls’ High, Western Cape
Spectacular Portfolio: Kingswood College, Eastern Cape
ETF/ETN Portfolio: Tshikota Secondary School, Limpopo
Spectacular Portfolio University: University Of Pretoria, Gauteng
ETF/ETN Portfolio University: University of Johannesburg-APK, Gauteng
