ISBF Playnomics Report

ISBF Playnomics: Bulls and Bears

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On the 16th of March, the students of HFSI IBDP-1 participated in a stock market-based game conducted by the International School of Business and Finance. Our mentor for this session was Siddharth sir. This session was intended to improve our understanding of the stock market and to encourage us to pursue trading as a future career.

They covered the basics of the stock market functions from the minimum selling price to the maximum buying price. They made us understand this using a model of the actual stock market. The buyers and sellers in the stock market are divided into two factions either bulls or bears. Bulls usually grow the market by buying shares at the lowest prices in bulk, hence raising the value of the stock. The bears usually crash the market by selling stocks in bulk when they reach their peak price. We also addressed the concepts of maximum buying price and minimum selling price; the maximum buying price is a predicted limit to the price at which the trader purchases a specific stock. This prediction of the trader can be wrong and if wrong the trader won’t receive the share. The minimum selling price is a predicted limit to how low the trader is willing to go to sell their stock. The concepts of maximum buying price and minimum selling price are very risky but very lucrative. With all this in mind, all of us were split into three teams. The goal of each team was to achieve the highest portfolio value by the end of twelve successful trades. They set up an evolving table of listed prices of stocks for fifteen companies such as Netflix, Starbucks, Apple, etc. We were expected to work together with our teams and formulate a strategy for investment as we were simultaneously given news updates about the status of the market and consumers.

We observed an immense amount of teamwork and cooperation amongst the students. Three students who volunteered to lead the teams were: Hriday Adani, Janay Asher, and Sadhil Singh. The team led by Hriday Adani emerged victorious in the competition because of their aggressive and quick strategy of buying and selling large quantities of shares. This was a highly eventful, intellectually stimulating, and fun activity conducted for us and we students certainly gained a better understanding and appreciation of what it means to be a trader in the stock market.

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