The Western Cape’s Avuzwa Mphithi and Gauteng’s Ivone Stanley have been named overall winners of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE’s) virtual trading game (VTG).
Mphithi took top honours for the speculator portfolio, while Stanley won for the ETF/ETN portfolio, with each walking away with R60 000 in investment vouchers.
According to the JSE, this year’s VTG winner announcement coincides with the seventh annual World Investor Week, a global campaign that aims to drive financial literacy and promote investor protection.
Idris Seedat, head of transformation and CSI at the JSE, comments: “We’re seeing that South Africans have a keen interest in learning about financial markets and the increased uptake is testament to this. The VTG makes investing relatable and accessible to the general public.”
The VTG is an annual financial literacy programme focused on educating South Africans about investing on the bourse and the importance of economic investment.
The game depicts a simulated trading environment in which players invest R1 million in a risk-free environment. The player with the highest return at the end of the competition wins R60 000.
Other winners in the speculator portfolio hailed from Gauteng and the Western Cape. Bradley Minords and Eugene Smith took second and third place, respectively. They received R30 000 and R10 000 in investment vouchers.
In second place for the ETF/ETN portfolio was KwaZulu-Natal’s Nadean Gopaulsingh, taking home a R30 000 voucher. Avela Balintulo from the Eastern Cape received the third prize, with a R10 000 investment voucher.
According to the Human Sciences Research Council, poor financial literacy hinders South Africans’ ability to save, with 48% of people not being able to save at all, while 42% reported having no long-term savings of any kind.
The JSE introduced the VTG in 2021.The local bourse says the online trading competition has grown from over 5 000 entrants in 2022, to over 8 600 in 2023.
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