KenTrade Trading Challenge is a resounding success for Kenanga IB

by **Cals** Sun 16 Nov 2014, 23:54

KenTrade Trading Challenge is a resounding success for Kenanga IB

Saturday, 15 November 2014
By: EUGENE MAHALINGAM

FOR Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga IB), which recently concluded its KenTrade Trading Challenge, the aim of the whole endeavour was an educational one – to promote trading on Bursa Malaysia and for Malaysians to familiarise themselves with online trading.
But organising it was also an educational journey, says Kenanga executive director and equity broking head Lee Kok Khee.
With 12,000 participants taking part in the KenTrade Trading Challenge, the event was no doubt a resounding success for the brokerage.
Organising it was a learning experience, says Lee.
“It went within expectations and within target. But if you ask whether we can hype it up some more, I truly believe that we can,” he tells StarBizWeek.
“I think there is a lot of room to improve – not so much a game but to make it fun. We’ll definitely have a challenge like this, but on a quarterly basis. We’ll likely have smaller games.”
The Trading Challenge concluded on Thursday, which saw 20 participants taking part in a final “Face Off” challenge from 9.00am to 12.30pm at Bursa’s Listing Gallery.
Each participant was given RM1mil worth of virtual money to trade. Its grandwinner, 27-year-old analyst See Kwan Chian amassed close to RM70,000 during the three-and-a-half hour period – a feat that saw him driving home a brand new Volkswagen Jetta worth RM130,888 at the end of the day.
“I am very excited on winning. I did some homework and looked at charts. But it was also a bit of luck as the shares (I bought) surged,” says See.
For those looking to make it big on the stock market some day, he advises individuals to spend more time doing what they like to do.
“Every time you trade, you learn something new. Learn from your mistakes and improve on them,” he says.
Puravi Ganesh Shanmugam, a medical student and one of the top-five participants at the Face Off challenge, amassed RM1.04mil in total during the contest period.
He believes that taking part in the challenge was a good experience, especially for students.
“I’d like to say to other students that they should not limit themselves to the courses that they’re studying. I’m a medical student and if I can still trade, I think it would be better if everyone participated.”
On his strategy in making it to the top five, Puravi says he invested in companies with very high turnover. “Pick the stocks that are most active and very liquid. By doing this, I could buy and sell off fast.”
Puravi, who has been actively trading in the stock market for two years, says the KenTrade Trading Challenge is a good experience for people wanting to learn how to trade.
The KenTrade Trading Challenge was launched on Oct 9, with the aim of simulating real-life trading and was based on real-time market data from the local bourse.
The contest period ran from Oct 13 to Nov 13, targeting individuals within the Gen-X and Gen-Y age groups.
There were two categories under KenTrade Trading Challenge, the student and public segments. The top 33 participants from each category that achieved the highest percentage portfolio growth received cash prizes.
Out of the 66 semi-finalists, only the top-10 in each category qualified for the Face Off Challenge.
Prior to the launch of the game, Lee pointed out that Gen-Ys, who despite being technologically savvy and comfortable conducting transactions online – were not actively trading or investing.
Looking back after the conclusion of the KenTrade Trading Challenge, Lee is pleased with the fact that the game attracted a large group of Gen-Y individuals.
“Well if you look at the crowd today they’re all younger than me,” he quips.
“I think we hit the right target. By and large, most of them were below 40.”
For Kenanga IB, the KenTrade Trading Challenge has helped to bring in new investors.
“There is no guarantee that everyone that trades will sign on with Kenanga IB. Nevertheless, there’s greater awareness that we support and invest in tools that assist the market.
“It also helps put (the tools) at people’s fingertips and with a campaign like this, it also draws people to our website to be more familiar with what we have to offer.