Via Loop News

Sagicor Investments Jamaica has amplified its efforts to provide opportunities for Jamaicans to get familiar with the stock market and by extension the investment landscape through an involvement in innovations that support investment education among youth.

As the longstanding title sponsor of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Stock Market Game for High Schools, the company has underscored the value of teaching the fundamentals of investing to youth at an early age.

Speaking recently at the JSE Youth Forum held in observance of National Investor Education Week, Shelly-Ann Morgan, Manager – Investment Client Services at Sagicor Investments, encouraged the high schoolers who participated in the Game to familiarise themselves with information about the stock market as it can be beneficial to their financial achievements in the future.

Providing strategies for becoming successful investors, Morgan encouraged the young investors to be persistent in their pursuit for success and financial freedom. She urged students to be tenacious in their efforts and remain focused on their goals.

“Moguls are not born with it, they all work consistently hard, always keeping their eyes fixed on the target to achieve their goals. As a successful investor, you will have to be persistent, you may have to make sacrifices and more importantly, you will have to be patient and understand that it will take time,” Morgan shared with the teenagers.

She further noted that Sagicor Investments believes in the development of investors at all stages in life and encouraged the students to continue to exercise an interest in investments and the stock market, stating that by virtue of participating in the JSE Stock Market Game they are already on their way to becoming successful.  

The forum was also the close-out ceremony for 2019/2020 JSE’s Stock Market Game for High School, which saw the young investors being awarded for their participation in the competition, aimed at educating young Jamaicans about the stock market and by extension the economy.

Following a year of trading on the local stock market, the Jamaica College (JC) team – which was coached by JC Old Boy and university student, David Rose – was announced winner of the competition. The team earned over $1 million in virtual funds for their investment portfolio in the Game. To compete, each participant received $100,000 in virtual funds at the beginning of the game to invest in stocks listed on the market. The value of each participant’s portfolio is then tallied at the end of the year to determine the overall performance of each school.

Oliver Irons, faculty advisor for the team from Jamaica College and winner of the teacher’s competition, expressed appreciation to the JSE and Sagicor Investments for supporting the development of young investors and the future economy.

“Investing now is so much easier than it was a few decades ago; it has become much more accessible to the average man and has provided opportunities for many persons to tap into an alternate income stream that may not have been possible for them before,” he said.

The four-member Jamaica College team outpaced 69 other schools that participated in the 2019/2020 staging of the JSE Stock Market Game for High School.

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