Up or down market, the challenge is on

by **Cals** Sun 13 Sep 2015, 19:39

Up or down market, the challenge is on

Saturday, 12 September 2015
By: EUGENE MAHALINGAM

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Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd executive director and equity broking head Lee Kok Khee seen here promoting the KenTrade Trading Challenge 2.

DESPITE the current market volatility and generally cautious investor sentiment, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd does not seem deterred to launch its upcoming KenTrade Trading Challenge 2, which officially kicks off on Oct 1.
Kenanga executive director and equity broking head Lee Kok Khee believes the current market situation will make the new stock market challenge game “even more exciting.”
“Given the volatility now, it’s not going to be an easy game for the virtual investor. They have to properly select their investments,” he tells StarBizWeek.
Lee however admits that the volatility currently poses an added challenge when it comes to attracting investors to participate in KenTrade Trading Challenge 2.
When the game was launched last year, a big aim was to encourage youths, especially the Generation Y (Gen-Y), to trade in the stock market.
By introducing them to the online trading game, the Gen-Y (born in the early 1980s and beyond) would be more confident about trading in the stock market.
Citing an in-house research, Lee says many among the Gen-Y are not confident of the current Malaysian economy and are also intimidated by the stock market due to the lack of knowledge.
“The research was done to better understand the barriers keeping the non-traders and inactive traders from trading and what forms of marketing and communication would appeal to them.
“A lot of them view the stock market as extremely high risk, complex and difficult to understand.”
He says the general perception is that investing in the stock market requires high involvement to monitor and analyse data and reports.
“The stock market involves high risk and always fluctuates, hence non-traders find it difficult to generate returns.
“Stock market trading is also not an option for those with low disposable income, especially for those that have just entered the workforce, and they also feel that it requires a high capital investment to begin trading.”
Lee says the fear of the weakening ringgit is another deterrent.
“Many prefer a less passive approach to outreach and believe it should be supported with digital communication. Some are also deterred due to influence from movies and television shows.”
Whetting investor appetite
Lee says Kenanga has made improvement to this year’s trading challenge.
“This year, the game will be more realistic as it tracks the market closer. There were gaps in the game last year.”
On-ground activation for the game actually began on Sept 1. Lee says Kenanga will also be organising nationwide roadshows to create awareness of the game.
He says Kenanga is targeting a 30% growth in participants this year compared with the one held last year.
“We already have 3,500 people signed up,” Lee says.
Open to all Malaysians aged 18 years and above, the KenTrade Trading Challenge 2 game will once again feature two categories of participants, namely the Student (between 18 and 24 years of age) and Public (18 years and above) category.
The game will feature a number of weekly challenges, starting from Oct 1, and culminate in a grand finale on Nov 9.
The top 20 players (10 from the Student and 10 from the Public category) with the overall highest growth (which will look at virtual realised profit, unrealised profit and cash balance) from Oct 1 to 30 will qualify to participate in the grand finale.
These players will then face each other in a four-hour trading challenge, with the most profitable player driving home with the grand prize – a Volkswagen Beetle 1.2 TSI.
Last year’s challenge attracted 12,000 participants. The contest period ran from Oct 13 to Nov 13.
The top 33 participants from each (Public and Student) 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.
In collaboration with Bursa Malaysia and Volkswagen Malaysia, the KenTrade Trading challenge II also welcomes its partnership with Berjaya RadioShack, Equities Tracker, Chart Nexus, NetInfinium and also KenWealth.