[caption id="attachment_2721" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Photo by pshutterbug"][/caption] Fundsupermart.com is currently holding a competition among students. The team with the highest capital gain over the 1 year period is the winner. Currently, students from NTU, NUS, SMU and SIM have created their respective portfolios using virtual money of $500,000. The objective of the competition is “to promote greater awareness for the need of investment among young undergraduates and develop student's interest in financial markets and the various financial instruments.” The objective sounds nice on paper but in reality is far from truth. A check at the 4 portfolios shows that there was no proper asset allocation. Frankly speaking, 1 year time horizon is too short. If my client would to ask me about what to invest for just 1 year, my advice is to put money into fixed deposit. Of course many financial advisers earn nothing by advising that and online portals will also have to eat grass. Also, since the winner is determined by the highest capital gain, all but NUS punted their virtual money into highly concentrated investments like Thailand, Indonesia, Emerging Markets, China, Energy, etc. NUS prefer capital preservation and invested into a single fund in short-term bonds. This kind of competition will not educate anyone about investing. Read more...