KPMG’s Senior School Investment Challenge is under way with two Mount Saint Agnes Academy teams setting the pace during the early days of the six-month competition.

MSA’s WallStreet Saints team is leading the challenge after the first month (November) of the competition and MSA’s Saintly Investments team is in second place, while CedarBridge Academy’s Money Mavericks are third.

The teams are ranked by how much they are netting in their mock investments trading.

In KPMG’s annual competition student-teams are given a virtual $100,000 to work with as if they were investing in the stock market.

During their first month in operation, the 15 virtual trades made by the WallStreet Saints would have made them $11,052.73.

The Saintly Investments would have made $9,086.88 with 29 trades and the Money Mavericks were up $6,883.63 with 11 trades.

Saltus’s Zebras were the only one that made more trades than the Saintly Investments - 36 trades to rank tenth. In this round, only one team, Berkeley Institute’s the Panthers, lost money – $947.81 from 22 trades made.

The WallStreet Saints, consisting of Alex Malo, Callum Adams, Josiah Tannock, Skye Ferguson and Williams Adams were cautiously optimistic.

“There are still a lot of chances to get ranked low,” the team said. “Our main strategy to placing first is keeping an open eye on the stock market and the trends that are created. We also listen to analysts to understand what the best stocks are to invest in. Events, such as Christmas, and other activities, are our main drive for investing.”

For the Saintly Investments, placing second was “intense”. Their strategy involved proposing five stocks and debating the top picks, while balancing risks for optimal gains.

Twenty-one teams from eight schools are taking part in the competition this year. It was launched in 2005 as part of KPMG’s ongoing commitment to education and youth development.

Two KPMG mentors are assigned to each team to coach teams in investment strategies. The challenge runs until May.