Berkeley teams have divergent strategies

The Berkeley Institute has two teams playing to win in the KPMG Investment Challenge.

Both the Game Changers and MoneySavers are the hoping to walk away with the grand prize for Green and Gold.

Game Changers is made up of Dominic Lambe, 18, Aaron Lindsey, 16, Raymond Bean, 17 and Guisti Clarke, 17.

They have invested in companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon.

Team captain Dominic explained: “We also have some stocks in Hong Kong. We also have Lloyd’s Bank in the UK.

“We invested in all different types of stuff because it brings more interest to our portfolio.

“Some might say it’s random.”

Raymond pitched in: “Random, but calculated. The big name companies we picked are good stocks generally.”

Game Changers invested in Argus and Bermuda National Limited as their local companies.

Dominic said: “Those two companies are doing good and going up steadily, instead of a rapid increase or decrease.”

Game Changers meet as a group once a week to discuss what is going on in the world of stocks.

Dominic said: “But I check it everyday when I can and tell my team how we’re doing.

“When we see a company and it’s going down, a good thing to do is look to see why it’s going down.

“We look at stocks. My teammates give me suggestions and I look at how they’re doing first before I buy them.”

Dominic wants to become an actuary and is participating in the challenge to gain some experience in the field.

Raymond joined because he participated in a work shadow programme over the summer with Dominic.

“We work shadowed at different companies like KPMG and Endurance. We did an investment challenge and an insurance game.”

Aaron said: “I really enjoy it for the learning experience and I have learned that stocks fluctuate a lot.”

Money Savers

Money Savers is made up of Hans-Peter Roser, 17, Jamila Eve-Cann, 17, Marcus Christopher, 17 and Zariah DeSilva, 16.

Team captain Hans-Peter said: “We have invested in various kinds of companies. There’s no specific types — Time Warner, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Mobile Telecom.

“We have no specific theme, none whatsoever. Just whatever comes.”

Locally, Money Savers has invested in Argus.

Hans-Peter said: “We chose that one probably because we had to pick a Bermudian company. We weren’t too interested in Bermudian companies.”

As far as how the stocks are going, he said: “They’re doing so far so good. They’re going up pretty steadily.”

Marcus added: “I joined two weeks ago and I started learning about stocks and why they’re exchanged. Why stocks go up and down, rapid increases and decreases.”

Hans-Peter said he checks the numbers daily.

“I have the app on my smart phone. However, to buy or sell is a problem because I don’t have that much time at school.

“Before I buy or sell, I meet with the group first and see how they feel about it, that way we if we make a mistake, we’re all to blame.”

Hans-Peter said most of their advice comes from their teacher who pushed them to buy penny stocks.

“Penny stocks are companies that you can invest in with small amounts. It’s not like the bigger companies, which is like $25 a share to buy into. It could be $1 to buy in.”

He said an example of a penny stock is Mobile Telecom, a company they invested in for two cents a share.