7 Dec 2007
BURSA PURSUIT A HIT WITH OVER 55,000 VIRTUAL INVESTORS

Grand Prize winner quadruples virtual portfolio and wins RM100,000

With RM100,000 and a wider knowledge on the capital market, Chong Chen Keng, Grand Prize (Individual Investor Category) winner of Bursa Pursuit’s main league gained triumph over 55,000 other players in the end. Chong Chen Keng, grew her virtual portfolio from the initial RM250,000 given capital to over RM1 million in Bursa Pursuit, Bursa Malaysia’s inaugural online stock trading game, that proved to be a hit amongst the young virtual investors.

Present at the Bursa Pursuit Awards Night to honour the winners, Bursa Malaysia Berhad Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said, “The participation from Malaysians to this game has surpassed expectations as it was initially forecasted to attract 22,000 players. It is interesting to note that 72% of the participants were below 30 years old, confirming a healthy interest in stock trading amongst the younger generation. The overwhelming response from the potential young investors bodes well with Bursa Malaysia’s overall aim to expose, engage and educate the young generation, especially the targeted age group of 20 to 29 years, on looking at the stock market as an investment option.”  

Bursa Pursuit is the first phase of the exchange’s long-term commitment to familiarise and engage the younger target segment into identifying opportunities for investment or career in the capital market.

This two-month challenge also attracted those who have never traded before as acknowledged by 62% of the total participants of the game. Dato’ Yusli added, “We provided technical trading tools and educative articles which were made available on the website to guide the participants in learning how to maximise opportunities from the stock market. These were part of the exchange’s initiative towards building future investors who rely on information and tools in making their investment decisions.”

Coming from a sales and marketing background, Chong Chen Keng said, “The virtual trading experience that I’ve gained will be helpful for me to trade actively in the real market. I’ve actually learnt that trading is not that difficult once you pick up the skills and use the right information to make investment decisions.”  

Bursa Pursuit ran from 1 October 2007 till 30 November 2007.  The programme gave participants the opportunity to win prizes valued up to RM560,000.

Participants to this online game started off with a virtual capital of RM250,000. The online game consisted of 3 leagues: the main league for any individuals above 18 years of age; sub-league with a minimum of 5 players and maximum of 15 players; and a pro-league for individuals licensed by the Securities Commission.

A Grand Prize of RM100,000 was awarded to the best performing individual and teams of each league. In addition, weekly prizes worth RM2,000 were given to top 5 performers from the main league.  Due to the overwhelming response, Bursa Malaysia added another category called the Young Investors which awarded RM1,000 to overall top performing male and female participants from different age groups. With the exception of weekly and Young Investors prizes, all winnings are deposited into the winners’ trading accounts.

Guests at the Bursa Pursuit Awards Night were entertained by local artists which include Arafah, Reshmonu, Beat Boys, B Boys, Skeltor and DJ Fuzz.