Sunway College’s AUSMAT Students are potential Wolves of Wall Street

Simulating New York’s Wall Street, the Business Investment Challenge 2014 at Monash University saw 40 pre-university students from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indonesia competed in investment skills. The champion team of Lee Kwok Vui and Chong Min Yu from Sunway College Australian Matriculation (AUSMAT) proved to have the talents to be potential ‘wolves of Wall Street’.

Besides the team challenge, Chong also won the individual category with the highest earnings of RM5.7 million in the competition. “One has to be mentally prepared in order to win this competition. The competition is not complicated, rather I perceive the competition as a game, which helps me to stay calm and analyse the stock market better,” said Chong.

Winners of the Business Investment Challenge 2014 –Lee Kwok Vui (left) and Chong Min Yu

Chong continued, “We had RM3000 to start the game, and our mission was to grow that with dividend which is subject to the stock or shares we have. Buying and selling a stock depends on our prediction of whether the stock will rise or fall. We receive dividend when the stock rises, and lose it when the stock falls. The stock market is affected by various factors, and these factors were set by the organiser for us to evaluate and predict the market. That’s why the game is not complicated as many real world factors were omitted in this game. In one of the rounds, I actually lost RM 400,000. I had to keep my head cool and in the end, I won back RM800,000 in profit in the last round. But I am sure the real world is not as easy as this.”

Reminiscing on the finals, Lee had much to thank Chong for, his support and advice to beat the odds as Lee’s body was still weak after his recovery from dengue. “My face was still red and hot at the final,” described Lee.

The victorious team took home RM2000 cash prize. Chong was also awarded the Monash University Malaysia Partial Scholarship, a 50 percent tuition fee waiver. Winning the competition provided the AUSMAT students a clearer perspective of their goals to work in finance or business and more confidence to pursue them.

Lee, who perceives AUSMAT as a fast track programme to an Australian degree, is aiming for the Bachelor of Business and Commerce at Monash University Malaysia with the 2+1 programme of transferring his final year to Monash Australia; whilst Chong, who was influenced by all his 5 siblings to do AUSMAT, is keeping his options open to any local or international universities for a degree in Finance.

Both Lee and Chong are full of praise for the AUSMAT at Sunway College. The 50 percent school-based and 50 percent examination based assessments offer them the platform and great flexibility to explore their interest and talents. “AUSMAT does not focus only on academic learning; it also helps develop essential soft skills needed for future employment. For example, the I-Care Day, an AUSMAT event to raise funds for charity, allows us to learn business management and trading in the real world,” said Lee.

Chong added, “I believe we (AUSMAT students) are given grounds to enable us to apply our knowledge effectively. I’ve learnt financial trends and stock market in Economics. This has helped me win the Business Investment Challenge; Cost management and cost volume profit theories from Accounting and the Four P’s (Place, Price, Product and Promotion) of Marketing from the Business Management subject helped us to understand the trading aspect of the I-Care Day.”