Staff at the investment giant Invesco put Stockopedia’s Fantasy Fund trading league through its paces in June as they went head-to-head with each other in an investing competition for charity.
Invesco was taking part in the month-long Micro-Tyco Wildhearts event. This is an international challenge that spans schools, universities and businesses. Corporations that take part are given ‘seed capital’ and must use their creativity and impact to turn it into as much money as possible.
Profits from the competition are used by Myco-Tyco to provide micro-loans for poor entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Invesco called on its staff to raise as much money as possible and challenged them to put their money management skills to the test in the stock market. But it also wanted to add a competitive edge.
So it brought in Stockopedia to host a competition using our Fantasy Funds league.
Fantasy Funds are a real-world simulation designed to introduce some competitive excitement and allow users to test their strategies. Each fund is constructed and managed using buy and sell orders, with trading fees included. The league keeps track of all trading activity and the performance and valuation of each fund over time.
As per Stockopedia’s regular Fantasy Fund rules, the participants from Invesco started out with a notional $1 million. They weren’t allowed to hold more than 20 percent of their capital in one stock and each portfolio had to hold between five and 30 securities.
In order to enter the competition, each staff member had to make a donation to the Wild Hearts.
For Invesco’s staff there were some pretty mixed performances. But the top performing fund during June delivered an impressive 16.5 percent gain - well above its S&P 500 benchmark, which was flat during the month.
And while Invesco didn’t win the Micro-Tyco challenge either, a lot of fun was had.
You can read more about how the Fantasy Funds work in the Stockopedia Guide here. You can also get started with your own Fantasy Funds here.
