About the Wharton competition
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is an opportunity for students to use and build their analytical, teamwork, and communication skills through the world of investing. This investment simulation runs for 10 weeks. Teams who make it to the finals are invited to Wharton itself.
The teams will compete against more than 5000 students around the world. Their challenge is to prepare a portfolio that meets the needs of the client and win their business. Teams are able to trade against a limited number of stocks to win their client's business. They will apply all the knowledge they have learned and some more to get the business!
Wharton team members
The Explorer Hop team interviewed Wharton participants on their experiences to help prepare future students and offer them insight into what it's like to compete.
Read on for a written version of our interview with Yunkai
EH: How was your experience with the Wharton competition?
Yunkai: I wouldn't say I exactly loved it but it was a very interesting experience for me, I think generally I'm very interested in what it represents and what it allowed me to do. It taught me a bunch of things I otherwise would not have learned by myself.
EH: What was your favorite trade.
Yunkai: I would have to say it was an investment we made out of nowhere, one of our team members mentioned potentially investing in the Bank of Brazil. We spent the entire meeting researching world banks and it was fun since we never really considered buying a stock that was company based. The trade set us on a track to more niche and interesting trades.
EH: What did you like most about the competition
Yunkai: It put me together with people I haven't worked extensively with, and it allowed us to divide up responsibility, come together by creating a schedule and research a topic.
EH: What did you dislike most about the competition
Yunkai: I disliked how rigid the structure and how there was no information on how to use the website. It was a large part of the difficulty we had.
EH: What is your biggest takeaway from the competition?
Yunkai: Coming from a financial standpoint I learned a lot, there was a lot of knowledge to gain. Managing your time and scheduling was my biggest dislike but because of this I learned how to coordinate schedules and do research on stocks we investing.