Division of EFS Applied Finance final year student, Solon Brown, has won the prestigious 2005-06 BRW National Student Share Investment Award of $10,000. Over 6,000 portfolios were entered from 3,292 participants nationwide. The third BRW National Student Share Investment Award had portfolios 'locked in' for 12 months from August 2005. Student Services Australia, in conjunction with four national sponsors funded the award: BRW, ASX, CPA Australia and the Securities Institute, now FINSIA. Marketing was carried out in 19 Australian universities resulting in a 40% increase in student entrants.

This is the third year of the award. Last year’s was won by  a student from University of Queensland. The first year’s award was won by Jeremy Bond from UWA (Alan’s grandson).

The rules are:

• Students have an entry period of one month during September 2005 to choose between 5-10 companies for their portfolio.
• Companies must come from the ASX300. 
• Students can have up to 5 portfolios -so they can experiment with different strategies. 
• No single company can make up more than 20% of a portfolio.
• All portfolios were “locked-in” at midnight September 18 2005.
• All portfolios were repriced with end-of-day prices at 5.30pm each trading day.
• Only capital gains are calculated for return. Dividends are not counted (for administrative complexity reasons).
• At the same time the campus rankings and national rankings were recalculated.
• Competition runs for 12 months, with final rankings calculated on September 8 2006.
• No trading is allowed - encouraging entrants to think like “investors” not “traders”. This is what makes this competition unique.
  

Any university, TAFE or Securities Institute (now FINSIA) student in Australia may enter.  The entry fee is $10.

Solon knocked out fierce competition achieving a 168% return over the twelve months turning his $200,000 into $536,716. How did he do it? Mining. Solon had PEM up 298%, KZL up 272%, ZFX up 184%, OXR 145% and CSM down 58%. Over the competition period of twelve months the ASX300 index was up 12.2%; and the average student result was 13.5%. Not surprisingly the average lecturer result was 9% (they compete for a bottle of 1980 Grange).
        
At the close of trade at the six - month mark Solon had already taken the national lead, winning $600 for his efforts.  At that stage Solon's portfolio was up 89.99%. Over the same period the ASX300 was up 9.9%. Read the interview to get the lowdown on Solon's strategy.

The awards were presented  to the Top Ten at the "Leaders Lunch" in Sydney, on Friday October 6,  by Australian investment legend Peter Morgan, founder of 452 Capital. Morgan's enviable reputation stems from his time as Head of Equities at Perpetual Investments where funds under management grew to $13 billion, of which $8 billion was under his direct control. When he left in 2002 to start his own company, his fund's performance was in the top decile over 1,3,5 and 7 year periods. Today 452 Capital already has funds under management to $4 billion.

Andrew Maloney, Managing Director of Student Services Australia,  introduced the award winners by proclaiming that, yet again, the students had  beaten the market (as well as  academics' portfolios). "Interestingly, the average portfolio value for all entrants was $231,208 which beat the index by 3.4 percentage points. That makes Students 3, Market 0. Yes, students have beaten the market every year the award has been run," he said.

EFS Dean, Professor Ed Davis, AM, commended Student Services Australia for this nation-wide initiative, and congratulated Solon Brown on his achievement, " Our students are well-known for having a go and testing their skills in real-world scenarios. I am extremely proud of Solon's confident game plan and have no doubt he will be snapped up by one of the Big 4."

For more information about the BRW National Student Share Investment Award go to www.studentshares.com.au.
  

 

 

Contact: Skaidy Gulbis

Phone: 9850 4774