CedarBridge surges into first in KPMG Investment Challenge

Can CedarBridge Academy do it again?

It won last year’s KPMG Senior School Investment Challenge and after the first week of this year’s contest, finds itself in first place.

The ninth KPMG Senior School Investment Challenge has 16 teams from seven of Bermuda’s senior schools competing.

Besides bragging rights for having the most investing acumen, the winning teams will win prize money for their school. 

CedarBridge Academy is gearing up to defend its title with a triple threat.

After the first week of initial trading, the T & Ls eKard Investors from CedarBridge were leading the Challenge with a portfolio value of $51,544.00.

They were followed closely by Wall Street Warriors from Saltus and DT1 Investors from CedarBridge Academy with a portfolio value of $50,967.00 and $50,813.00 respectively.

The initial portfolios of all teams are highly concentrated in United States, Bermuda, and Britain, with minor positions held in various other countries such as China, Brazil, and Canada.

All teams are required to hold at least one Bermudian company traded on the BSX in their portfolios, with most teams opting for well known names such as Bank of N.T. Butterfield, KeyTech Limited, and Ascendant Group Limited.

Across industry sectors, the portfolios are very well diversified with the Communications, Consumers- Cyclical, Consumer- Noncyclical, and Financial sectors leading the way.

At the end of last year’s challenge, CedarBridge Academy’s Core Investment team were the winners.

Not only did they win the challenge, but also the school’s second team, Crunch Time Investors, placed third. It is the first time two teams from the same school have been in the top three.

The school walked away with a total of $14,000 in prize money — $10,000 for first place and $4,000 for third.

Berkeley

Second place went to Berkeley Institute’s Game Changers who walked away with $6,000, making it a public school sweep.

Dean Foggo is the teacher in charge of the challenge at CedarBridge. He said this year they have three teams competing.

Mr Foggo told the Bermuda Sun: “This year, they have changed the rules and there are major changes. Each school could have three teams so the way that we’re doing it is one female team and the two men who were on the winning team have their own team.

“So we are having an internal challenge and, so far, the female team is ahead.  We’re competing inhouse and outside.”

Mr Foggo said another change was that a school can only win one prize, unlike last year.

He said: “Ethan Rogers and JD Simons of last year’s winning team are excited that they can have a competition within the teams at the school. They are also excited that they can be on the same team again this year.

“So far, we’re excited about the girls team because they picked up some stocks that jumped by $8 on the first day so they made $800 that day. 

“I think they made some great picks.” 

Mr Foggo said the school was thankful for the $14,000 they won last year, which went to scholarships, laptops and iPads.