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The Guru looks stern and declaims:

ifs Student Investor Challenge Rules

The rules for ifs Student Investor Challenge are very simple, but very important, so listen up!

Registration Rules

  • Registration opens at midday on 1 September 2010 and closes at midnight on 21 November 2010. Why not register straight away?
  • Only teachers can register teams. Registering a team requires that you have a Teacher Reference Number. These will be sent to schools in early September, alternatively if you are a teacher you can request your reference number online.
  • Teachers must not disclose their Teacher Reference Number to their students as they will be able to make changes to other teams from your school. Doing so may result in disqualification.
  • Student teams must consist of four members aged between 14 and 19 on 31 July 2011.
  • Each school or college can enter as many teams as they wish, but only one team from any establishment can gain a place in the regional finals via the main qualification route (exceptional performance over the course of the challenge). A second team from the school may receive a place at the regional final by winning the 'wild card draw', which is drawn from a list of the most improved teams (on a percentage basis) each month.
  • A student may only be a member of one participating team and team membership cannot change during the challenge without prior permission from ifs School of Finance. Students found to be a member of more than one team may cause all teams to which they belong to be disqualified.
  • Using a vulgar, insulting or otherwise inappropriate team name will result in that team being disqualified.
  • Any attempts to hack into the site (e.g. by a student using a teacher's unique login number or by more dubious methods) will be grounds for instant disqualification.
  • Should a disqualification occur, the ifs School of Finance's decision on disqualification is final and can only be negotiated through the formal appeals procedure. Appeals go through an independent committee. Once a team has been disqualified from the challenge the details of the appeals committee will be forwarded to their teacher contact should that teacher contact indicate that they wish to contest the decision.

Trading Rules

  • Trading for the ifs Student Investor Challenge opens at 9am on 1 November 2010 and closes at 4.30pm on 4 February 2011. Teams may also participate in a practice game which will be available from 9am on 4 October 2010 until 4.30pm on 29 October 2010.
  • Each team registered before the challenge starts will have a 'virtual cash pile' of £100,000 to invest. Once the challenge starts this figure is index-linked to the FTSE-100 until the team starts trading, so if the team cannot start trading when the market opens on 1 November 2010 they will not be at a disadvantage.
  • Teams can invest in stocks chosen from a list designated 'FTSE 100 companies' (based on the constituents of the FTSE 100 at the start of registration) and a list of around 50 selected smaller companies designated the 'ifs SmallCap 50'. ifs School of Finance reserve the right to alter the constituents of these lists at any time without notice.
  • Should a stock be withdrawn from the challenge compensation in the form of extra 'virtual cash' will be made to those teams that hold said stock at the time of withdrawal at a rate determined by ifs School of Finance at the time of withdrawal. No other compensation will be offered and the rate of compensation will be non-negotiable.
  • To be eligible for prizes, at times of judging, a team's portfolio must consist of stocks from a total of 10 different companies, no more, no less. Of these 10 different stocks, a minimum of 6 must be taken from the list designated as 'FTSE 100 companies'. Judging occurs at the close of trading on the last trading day of each month and at 4.30pm on 4 February 2011. The ifs School of Finance may introduce additional judging points at any time – these will be clearly advertised on the website.
  • When a team buys stock, they will be charged stamp duty relief tax and flat rate commission.
  • When a team sells stock, they will be charged flat rate commission.
  • Teams also have the option to invest up to £20,000 of their 'virtual cash' into an investment trust.
  • The charges for investing in a trust vary. Each individual trust information page outlines the costs for that trust.
  • Holding more than £15,000 in hard (virtual) cash is not very helpful and against the rules (the challenge is all about investing, after all)!
  • The minimum investment in any one stock or investment trust is £1000.
  • A team can invest up to a maximum of 20% of their overall portfolio value in any one company.
  • All stock market data is genuine live data, provided courtesy of Bloomberg, but may be delayed by up to 15 minutes so should not be used for trading decisions outside of the challenge!
  • Should the data shown on the ifs Student Investor Challenge site differ from data shown elsewhere on the internet the data shown on the ifs Student Investor Challenge site will be considered to be correct for the purposes of the challenge. This means teams should always base their final trading decisions on the information provided by the ifs Student Investor Challenge website, not on information found elsewhere.
  • The 'ifs Student Investor Challenge Stock Market' operates on the same trading days as the London Stock Exchange. On days when it is operating, the 'ifs Student Investor Challenge Stock Market' opens at 8.35am and closes at 4.30pm (except on certain days around Christmas when trading finishes at 12.30pm).
  • Trades requested outside the operating hours of the 'ifs Student Investor Challenge Stock Market' will not be processed until the 'ifs Student Investor Challenge Stock Market' next opens. Such trades will be processed at the opening price of the stock in question on the day that it is processed which is likely to be different from the price displayed when the trade is requested.
  • There is a limit of 1 transaction per team per company per day. This restriction refers to the day that a trade is processed, which may be different from the day on which it was requested (see above).
  • Each team can own a maximum of 0.01% of the available shares in any one company.
  • As a whole, the teams taking part in the challenge can own a maximum of 0.5% of the available shares in any one company. If 0.5% of a company is already in the ownership of teams taking part in the challenge then no further purchases of stock in that company will be possible by any team until such a time as some stock is sold by teams that currently hold said stock.
  • To be eligible to receive dividend payments, teams must hold shares in the company paying the dividend at the start of trading on its ex dividend date (i.e. the shares must have been purchased before the ex dividend date). The dividend payment will be added to the team's 'virtual cash pile' on the dividend payment date.