A national real-money stock market tournament among university and college students in Canada has earned a Queen’s University student $10,000 for achieving a 5% return on investment in the first 11 months of this year.

In the Growth Stock Challenge — a competition of 60 students across the country that ran from Jan. 2 to Nov. 28 — Max Zhang, 19, earned the highest return on his $1,000 investment. In the same period, the S&P/TSX composite index and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 33% of their value.

The second place winner was Isabelle Falardeau of the University of Ottawa, who won $5,000 for achieving a 2% return.

University of British Columbia student Bruce Lee took the third-place prize of $1,000, with a 2% loss on his portfolio.

In total, 21 students won prizes ranging from $100 to $10,000. Participants invested $1,000 individually or as a group.

The tournament was sponsored by Toronto-based ShareOwner Education Inc., which provides practical education for investors in growth stocks. The competition is unique because participants invest their own money in their stock choices, instead of “phantom” dollars used by many other stock market contests.

Zhang, a commerce student, said he did not have any previous investing experience. “I’m interested in how everything works in the finance world and I found it fascinating to invest my money in a portfolio of stocks that I got to choose,” he said.

At the tournament’s end, Zhang’s portfolio included shares of EnCana, Telus, Amgen, Genentech, as well as gold and bond exchange-traded funds.

“I’ll definitely continue to invest in the future,” he said.

The goal of the tournament was to encourage financial literacy among university and college students across Canada, according to ShareOwner’s chief education officer John Bart.

Of the participants who completed the challenge with at least five securities in their portfolio, 88% outperformed the indexes, with a median loss of 13%.

“Considering that the leading stock markets lost 33% during the tournament period, the students who participated did comparatively well,” Bart said. “Through the challenge, we’ve tried to provide students from all disciplines with the prospect of a brighter financial future through greater literacy about investing directly in high-quality growth stocks. Hopefully, that experience will help them to invest more successfully later on in their retirement savings plans or other investing accounts.”

The participants chose stocks from more than 150 Canadian and U.S. growth stocks, and ETFs selected by ShareOwner. All participants had free access to ShareOwner’s educational resources.

There was no charge to enter, to buy or sell securities throughout the contest, or to cash out at the end. To provide students with the opportunity to own a diversified portfolio, there was also no minimum denominations for the purchase of shares.

“The opportunity to invest a modest amount of your own money in a diversified portfolio makes for an educational tournament that pretend money just can’t duplicate,” Bart said.

IE