On the 29th of November our 5Y Business students, along with their Business teacher Ms. Butler went to the TF in Castlebar to represent the school in the Bank of Ireland Bond Trader challenge.
What is the Bond Trader Challenge?
The Bond Trader event aims to simulate a trading floor in a bank by providing teams with news articles and headlines to analyse and then decide on buying, selling or keeping their assets which are held in a portfolio. The assets include various bonds, stocks and cash.
It is a game that teaches a number of concepts;
- the laws of supply and demand
- the relationship between interest rates and inflation
- the importance of economic indicators
Based on news headlines the team work out what this could mean for the short term economy and would buy or sell accordingly.
How does it work?
It is all done through a fun, interactive, competitive game.
The challenge begins with;
- an introduction to markets and trading
- an explanation on how to trade with bonds, shares & cash followed by a sample scenario.
Each team consists of 5 students who will have to respond to real market scenarios and make decisions on how to manage their own bond portfolio under time pressure. The challenge has 8 scored rounds with an interval after round 4.