Students tapped as vanguards of online stock market trading

More people are discovering online stock market trading. In Asia, this trend started in countries like Japan, where over 70 percent of Internet users are online investors.

Now, CitisecOnline is promoting the concept in the Philippines to specific market segments that could appreciate the benefits of online trading.

Following its sponsorship of well-attended seminars on Web-based stock trading at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), the company is now inviting graduate students from top schools in the country to join the MBA Investment Challenge, an online stock trading simulation game.

The contest will be held from Nov. 20 to Feb. 16, 2007.

Students are encouraged to visit the CitisecOnline’s Virtual Tycoon website daily to learn the latest developments in the Philippine stock market and to read up on research and analysis as well as recommendations from its team of analysts.

With online graphs that accompany the list of top stock picks of the day as well as write-ups that rationalize these choices, students are then encouraged to virtually purchase stocks and profit from them. The student with the highest portfolio value at the end of the contest period will get a P25,000 trading account at CitisecOnline.

Conrado Bate, president of CitisecOnline, said the company has been successful in educating students with no or minimal experience in the stock market trading.

Since 2003, it has been using its trading simulation program, called Virtual Tycoon, to encourage students as well as business and socio-civic associations to formulate and implement investment strategies. Moreover, its stock trading tournaments have been attracting participants from well-known schools in Metro Manila as well as premier institutions in the South.

"Because they are Internet-savvy, students have been proven to be early adaptors," he said, adding that just as the youth picked up on SMS first, he believes that online trading will eventually be embraced by other investors.

CitisecOnline’s client base has grown by over 400 percent since the site was launched in January 2006.

To register for the tournament, visit www.citiseconline.com or call (02) 6-333-777.