MANAMA, BAHRAIN: Bahrain Bourse (BHB) officially announced the kick-off of the TradeQuest Challenge for high school and university students for the academic year 2019-2020 for the 22nd consecutive year.

The kick-off meeting was held at Bahrain Bourse’s premises, where all participating students, schools’ teams and university advisors attended the event along with the investment advisors whom will monitor and coach the teams during the program.

TradeQuest is a simulated business-education partnership program that focuses on investment trading in world financial markets, which operated for the first time in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 1997 in cooperation with financial institutions and educational parties.

The program has been highly supported by various banks and financial institutions throughout the past 21 years. The program is held over a duration of six-months and includes three progressive stages. The top 3 finalists from each category (total of 9 finalist teams) are provided with cash awards totaling BD 30,000.

On this occasion, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Bourse, commented: “Bahrain Bourse’s financial literacy programs are aimed at equipping the future generations with core competencies to help select amongst complex financial products and services and to create a sustainable financial wellbeing.”

“TradeQuest is our flagship program catered towards younger generation, aimed at enhancing their knowledge of capital markets as well as enhance students future employability. During October 2019, Bahrain Bourse held a ‘Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy’ along with 30 other global stock exchanges to raise awareness about the importance of investor education and to highlight the various initiatives achieved on that front. Furthermore, all of Bahrain Bourse’s financial literacy programs follow International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)’s Core Competencies Framework on Financial Literacy to ensure that the program consists of 7 core competencies.” Sh. Khalifa added.

This year, Bahrain Bourse is particularly thankful to the following institutions who have sponsored TradeQuest in the interest of enhancing investment awareness among students: Platinum sponsors include: Ahli United Bank, Bank ABC, Khaleeji Commercial Bank, and National Bank of Bahrain. Gold Sponsors include: Ithmaar Holding, SICO BSC (c) and United Gulf Bank.

Silver Sponsors include: Al Salam Bank, Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), BBK, Bahrain Islamic Bank (BISB), Esterad Investment Company, and Gulf International Bank (GIB), and the Knowledge Partner: the BIBF.

The 2019-2020 TradeQuest program includes a total of 19 school teams, including 9 private schools and they are: Abdul Rahman Kanoo International School, Al Noor International School, Al Wisam School, British School of Bahrain, Al-Hekma International School, Ibn Khuldoon National School, Naseem International School, New Millennium School , St. Christopher’s School, and 10 Government Schools and they are: Ahmed Al Omran Secondary Boys School, Al Hidd Secondary Girls School, Al Istiqlal Secondary Girls School, Al Noor Secondary Girls School, Jidhafs Secondary Girls School, Khawla Secondary Girls Schools, Muharraq Secondary Boys School, Saar Secondary Girls School, Shaikh Abdulaziz Secondary Boys School, and Shaikha Moza Secondary Girls School.

 In addition, a total of 7 universities are taking part in the program this year and they are: Ahlia University, AMA International University, Arab Open University, Bahrain Polytechnic, the BIBF, Royal University for Women and University of Bahrain.

TradeQuest aims at stimulating relevant learning through realistic experience by learning the rules and regulations implemented in financial markets, analyzing and selecting shares, and managing a portfolio of investment instruments listed at New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Bahrain Bourse.

The program consists of three trading periods where the teams are required to present their strategy, objectives, and performance to the Investment Review Committee at the end of each trading period.