Monash University Malaysia

Nail biting tension filled the air as 40 pre-university students from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indonesia put their investment skills to the test at the annual Business Investment Challenge 2014, held at Monash University Malaysia.

It was stiff competition which saw Lee Kwok Vui and Chong Min Yu from Sunway College, emerge victorious, to take home the title of champion and a cool RM2,000 cash prize. Following closely behind were first runners up, Jonathan Kow and Bryan Tan from Taylor’s College Subang Jaya, who won a cash prize of RM1,500; and second runners up, Daryl Chong and Charissa Chiok from Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas, who won a cash prize of RM1,000.

“The stock market is volatile and there is always a huge amount of risk involved. I had to mentally prepare myself for the tremendous amount of pressure the competition puts us under. There were many times when I told myself to stay calm and act fast. In one of the rounds, I actually lost RM400,000. I had to keep my cool and as a result, won back RM800,000 in profit in the last round,” shared Chong Min Yu. The Australian Matriculation student at Sunway College, who raked in earnings of RM5.7 million was also recognised as the Grand Prize Winner.

Sharing the limelight with him was Chong Hwa Independent High School student, Lee Jun Bin who achieved the second highest in individual earnings. Both students were rewarded with a Monash University Malaysia Partial Scholarship, which gives them a 50% fee waiver.

Among the 20 semi finalists were also three teams from Sri Lanka, one each from Indonesia and Pakistan. When asked how they prepared for the competition, Hasan Babar and Aamir Qureshi from Karachi Grammar School said, “This was our first time participating in a competition such as this. The experience was completely new to us, as we have never traded before using the software at the labs. To help us gain a better understanding of how the stock market works, we made a personal visit to the Karachi Stock Exchange. It was definitely an enriching experience.”

Organised by the School of Business, the competition aims to inculcate greater awareness of the accounting and finance discipline. While emulating the world of highly-intense stock trading, the competition provides a hands-on approach to participants in a setting without monetary risk.

“At Monash Malaysia, we strive to equip students with the latest theoretical and academic foundation, in accounting, finance and banking. Our degrees are geared towards the real world. The stock market is very complex. However, it is very important to understand it as the corporate sector is the one which drives economic development. A successful business provides employment, which in turns increases exports and spurs economic growth. To help our students experience the realities of the volatile world of stock markets, we use trading labs to simulate the environment,” shared Professor Ferdinand Gul, Head of Accounting & Finance Discipline, Monash University Malaysia.

The competition consisted of 3 rounds - preliminaries, semi finals and finals. In the preliminaries, hopefuls had to write a thousand-word essay on “What investments would I make if I had $1 million dollars? How would I allocate my money?” The top 5 selected essays within each individual school was then sent into the competition committee for grading. After which 20 teams of 2 students were selected as Semi Finalists. These teams were then invited to battle it out over 2 days, at the Monash University Simulated Trading Lab. 

For more information on the programs offered at the School of Business in Monash University Malaysia, please visit http://buseco.monash.edu.my.