5. November 2019
The final week of LHV’s stock exchange game “Stock Shark 2019” offered an extremely exciting match between Risto Lehtsalu and Valeri Tõnismaa, with Risto Lehtsalu coming out on top in the end.
Risto Lehtsalu, who took the lead in the penultimate week, had to work on protecting his leading position, since the leader changed every day. In the end, USD 439.58 separated the first two competitors, to the benefit of Risto Lehtsalu. Among students, the final outcome was also exciting: Robin Särg won, surpassing runner-up Karl Kert by USD 295.83.
A record number of 4626 players took part in “Stock Shark” this year, which exceeds last year’s number of competitors by more than 2000. During four weeks, the participants had to invest virtual dollars in the stocks belonging to the Standard & Poors 500 index. This index is comprised of the 500 biggest and most famous US stocks. At the beginning of the game, initial capital of USD 10,000 was allocated to the participants and an additional USD 1,000 was added on the morning of each trading day. Thus, the competitors had to find a way to invest a total of USD 30,000.
“Even though the interest in investing has been on the increase for quite some time, the high number of participants came as a small surprise to the organisers as well,” commented Sander Pikkel, Head of Brokerage at LHV. “This year, the fact that competitors at the top of the leaderboard were able to show such a large rate of return, was remarkable: with the first two competitors, the total rate of return surpassed 75%,” said Pikkel.
Commenting on the general course of the game, Sander Pikkel said that this time, players could enjoy quite a tailwind, as the S&P 500 index rose 4% during the game, and reached its historical peak by the end of the game. As a result, almost 2/3 of the players finished the game in the black. Still, the median portfolio was surpassed by the market and reached a 1.62% rate of return.
The entire ranking of participants is available at www.lhv.ee/et/hai/edetabel.
The winner of “Stock Shark 2019” takes home €2,000, a book on investment, and a six-month subscription to the digital version of Äripäev or Delovõje Vedomosti. The winner among youths was awarded 200 €, a book on investment, and a six-month subscription to the digital version of Äripäev or Delovõje Vedomosti. The winners shall receive the money in their bank account.
Schools, companies and other teams were welcome to participate in the game, to find out who was the best money raiser in the collective. This opportunity was used most by Pipedrive, whose team had 20 portfolios in the running. Stock Shark is usually popular among schools, and this time was no different. Vasalemma Basic School had the most participants, 15, with the University of Tartu following with 12, and TalTech and Jaan Poska Gümnaasium both with 8 players.
LHV organised the “Stock Shark” game for the 18th time, and we thank all this year’s participants!
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