Millenials taking part in KenTrade Trading Challenge show promise Saturday, 1 November 2014 By: WONG WEI-SHEN

by **Cals** Sun 02 Nov 2014, 23:00

Millenials taking part in KenTrade Trading Challenge show promise

Saturday, 1 November 2014
By: WONG WEI-SHEN

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Ho Mei Sim ... one of the third top traders in the challenge.++

THE participation of “millenials” in the recently launched KenTrade Trading Challenge by Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd is seen as a great opportunity for Malaysia’s capital market.
“They are an important segment in our industry both from a career and an investor perspective. Data indicates that Malaysia will have one of the fastest-growing working populations in the world between now and 2020, and stepping up efforts to ensure they are in the market is important to the sustainability of our marketplace,” says Bursa Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Tajuddin Atan.
Accordingly, he adds that the bourse has taken deliberate actions to step up engagements and ensure inclusion of this segment in the capital market.
In the long term, Tajuddin says he is looking to engage the younger segment through the Bursa Young Investors Club with 10 universities in Malaysia, which aims to promote knowledge and interest in the capital market early, before they join the workforce.

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Tajuddin: ‘I look forward to more such initiatives from Kenanga.’

“I commend Kenanga on their efforts in the KenTrade Trading Challenge and in playing their part in drawing the millenial investors into the capital market. I look forward to more such initiatives from Kenanga and our other brokers in the near future and over the longer term,” he says.
He adds that the gamification of trading is a proven method to engage different segments of the market.
In June, the bourse launched the Fantasy FTBL.TRADR Challenge during the World Cup, which is a gamification of trading.
On top of that, Bursa recently concluded its inaugural capital market run, the Bursa Bull Charge, where many representatives of the capital market ran alongside young executives and the youth.
“It is our aim that these initiatives, coupled with that of our Bursa Marketplace, will be key in aiding investors on their journey, specifically on what we call the ‘Trip-to-Trade’,” he says.
The Trading Challenge was launched on Oct 9, with the aim of promoting trading on Bursa Malaysia, and for Malaysians to familiarise themselves with online trading.
The Trading Challenge aims to simulate real-life trading and is based on real-time market data from the local bourse. The contest period is from Oct 13 to Nov 13, and is targeting individuals within the Gen-X and Gen-Y age groups.
There are two categories under Kenanga’s stock challenge game, namely, the youth and public segments. Each participant will be given virtual money worth RM1mil to trade from Oct 13 to Nov 7.
The top 33 participants from each category who achieve the highest percentage portfolio growth will receive cash prizes.
Out of the 66 semi-finalists, only the top-10 in each category will move onto the final round dubbed the “Face Off Challenge”. They will stand a chance to bag the grand prize of a Volkswagen Jetta worth RM130,888.
Kenanga is currently conducting extensive planning and preparation for the Face Off Challenge.
The Face Off Challenge will be hosted on Nov 13 from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm at Bursa’s Listing Gallery.
Last week, the KenTrade Trading Challenge named Lam Jun Wah and Ho Mei Sim as the third top traders under the student and public categories, respectively.
For Lam, he believes that the KenTrade Trading Challenges is a good platform for new traders like himself to put his trading skills to test before implementing them in the real world.
“I believe I’ll be able to further enhance my trading skills, besides gaining valuable and priceless experience here, which will indirectly help in building my future career in the real trading world. All these reasons combined pushed me into participating in the KenTrade Trading Challenge,” he says.
He has been doing a lot of technical analysis and research on companies’ prospects prior to starting his daily trades.
Since this challenge only runs for a four-week period, Lam says he is putting more effort into short-term trading and scalping. He is also trading slightly differently than how he would in the real stock market.
“I’m taking a little higher risk trading here in an attempt to grow my profit in the shortest period, so that I can have higher liquidity in every entry and exit. If I were to invest in the actual stock market with my own hard-earned money, I would probably trade slightly safer with a longer-term view on my trades,” he says.
Leading to the final week of the challenge, he is looking to change his investing strategy to even a shorter term with higher frequency trading, to increase liquidity and “catch” more opportunities.
Meanwhile, Ho puts in about an hour a day in monitoring and managing her portfolio. She adds that if she were investing real money, she would consider her stock selection more seriously and take a less risky approach in picking the stocks.