Stock Market Club

SCHOOL NEWS Stock Market Club

We have had a remarkable year at The Stock Market and Investment Club. The "black swan event" that was COVID meant that membership was limited to just Sixth Formers, but it meant that the depth of analysis and discussion became both more focussed and more sophisticated.In the club we have covered everything from Price Earnings Ratios, Book building during IPOs, Efficient Market Hypothesis (and why it wrong) the Morrisons Hostile Takeover, Inflation Hedging, Leverage Buy outs, Venture Capital, Tech Bubbles and Short selling. Phew!

As a part time member of staff at PGS with other interests, I worked in the winter and spring on a leveraged buy out in the FMCG sector. We were able to work through many of the issues in real time (where non disclosure agreements allowed!) and the students heard a few tales from the coal face. The intellectual capacity of the sixth formers to take on new concepts continually astounds me as does their appetite to push me for more skills and insight into the world of finance. As always, all the students play regular games of stock picking and their investment hypotheses each week grow in insight and technical understanding. A special shout out must go to two upper sixth pupils Fred Barry and Nic Ross who won the prize for the best performing portfolio. Their portfolio (see below) showed not only exceptional investment judgement but also some Exel skills worthy of an investment banking Associate.

As always, the pupils come for not only financial nouse but also for the games of spoof and the prizes each week. We have had an excellent range of pupils selecting the best stocks, winning spoof and collecting prizes this year.

Nic Ross Octavia Hynes