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OFFICIAL: Investa partners with PhilEquity Management Inc.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Investa partners with one of the Top-Performing fund management companies in the Philippines — PhilEquity Management Inc. 

Last Nov 15, Investa held the last episode of its 3-part series called The Feeling is Mutual: Finding your Perfect Mutual Fund Match. And for the final installment of the investment learning series, Investa was joined by the Independent fund management company — PhilEquity Management. 

Joanne Marquez, Marketing Lead at Investa, kicked off the live event by giving an overview about how Mutual Funds work. She also added that different mutual funds serve different kinds of investors. She further discussed the diverse PhilEquity funds and their performances over time. 

Investa CEO, JC Bisnar, continued the livestream by giving some extreme scenarios relating to investing. He discussed how people lost so much during market crashes like the Great Depression. However, looking at the big picture, long-term investments like Mutual Funds still can grow over time. 


“Kahit na nakuha natin ang greatest depression… over time, nag-uptrend pa rin [the markets]. Because there is value creation. As long as di nagsara ang bansa… then that value creation becomes revenues and earnings. Then those earnings make companies’ valuations bigger. Ang tanong na lang… what did you do during the market crashes?”

The event moved forward with the special participation of @marksenpai26, a financial content creator from Tiktok. He discussed how saving alone could not free Filipinos from financial burdens. Investing is the way, he implied. 

Finally, the main segment of the learning session has begun with the appearance of one of Investa’s partners — PhilEquity Management. Darlene Sy gave a brief introduction about PhilEquity’s fund management journey. She mentioned that the company started way before the term Mutual Funds were familiar to many Filipinos. It has become one of the pillars of fund management in the country. And over the years, PhilEquity has proven to be one of the best and top performing fund management companies in the Philippines. 

The learning episode was also graced with the presence of PhilEquity Vice President, Miguel Agarao. He discussed different funds for different risk appetites. He also boasted about their funds’ performances over the years all because of the heavy commitment of their fund managers.

“You will never find a mutual fund where the fund managers are heavily invested in their own mutual fund,” Agarao confidently stated. 

The two parties were gathered once again to seal the partnership through a virtual signing, as seen below.

Investa is now officially partnered with the three biggest fund management companies in the Philippines — PhilEquity Management Inc (PEMI), BPI Investment Management Inc (BIMI), and Sun Life Asset Management Inc. (SLAMCI) just to bring financial inclusion and affordable investing to millions of Filipinos. 

Diverse funds for diverse financial goals, FOR ALL FILIPINOS, can be enjoyed in #TheNewInvestaApp very soon. For more information about Investa, visit www.investagrams.com/investa

 

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OFFICIAL: Investa partners with BPI Investment Management

IT’S OFFICIAL: Investa partners with one of the Top and Biggest Banks in the Philippines — BPI Investment Management, to bring financial inclusion to Filipinos.

Last Nov 10, 2021Investa hosted the second episode of their 3-part investment learning series named The Feeling is Mutual: Finding Your Perfect Mutual Fund Match. The livestream started with the Investa Ambassador, Deorie Caraca. She shared how important it is to never delay investing. She emphasized that the best time to invest is now because compounding is powerful. Even though an investor started with just a little, but started investing early, the profits will eventually grow.

Investa CEO, JC Bisnar, seconded Caraca’s points. He discussed the misconceptions of many Filipinos about investing. He said that we were taught to let our money grow in a bank. In hindsight, Bisnar recalled the moment he realized that the said teaching is false. It could take decades or centuries for our money to grow in a traditional bank.

“Instead na tinago mo yung pera mo sa baul for 5 to 10 years, kung sa Mutual Fund mo nilagay mas lumago na sana.” Bisnar furthered his discussion by explaining the power of compounding and peso-cost averaging on our investments if placed in mutual funds.

The live event continued with the special participation of our guest content creator, Joshua Salazar (@IamJoshSalazar on Tiktok). He generously shared his investing experience. He recalled how expensive investing was years ago. Investors needed at least 5 digit-funds to start investing. Now, he is thankful that through innovative apps and teams like Investa, investing is made more affordable and for every Filipino. 

Then, the learning session came to the main segment with the representatives from BPI Investment Management Inc (BIMI). Jan Bueno, BIMI Wholesale Distributor Officer, started the segment about the inspiration behind BIMI’s effort. He shared that BIMI wanted investing to have these three pillars: prudent, accessible, and affordable. And all of those can be found in the trusted fund management of BIMI. Bueno continued his discussion by giving an overview of BIMI’s different mutual funds.

Lastly, the President of BPI Investment Management Inc, Marty Enrile, took on the livestream. He showered Investa with good words about the app’s efforts of pushing financial inclusion in the country. Enrile also discussed how he was confident with the new partnership of BPI and Investa. 

“This is our initial foray into a digital distribution na may app. And we purposely picked Investa because I looked at the platform, I looked at the user experience, ano ang mga natututunan ko dito. And for a long time stock market professional, the platform is actually very useful to me…I see the credibility in the information that I’m able to gather from Investa, and this is why BPI picked a partner that is equally credible to our institution and Investa is that platform.” Enrile added. 

The two parties gathered together for the live question and answer portion, adding Investa’s Operations Manager, Erwin Angeles to the livestream. Angeles discussed that with the partnership of Investa and BIMI, Filipinos’ hard-earned money are rest assured secured and in good hands. 

Finally, the partnership was sealed with the virtual signing of the Memorandum of Agreement as seen below. 

Before the episode ended, Marty Enrile gave a few parting, yet impactful words.

“That’s something that we also want to see, financial inclusion. Lahat ng tao sana matuto mag-invest palaguin yung mga naiipon nila hindi lang yung may kaya or yung may risk appetite. Pero yung mga hopes and aspirations din na to live a better life. And I find that Investa is the right platform for that… We’re excited for this venture and to see where this can go and how many lives we can touch and how many people we can help.”

The three-part investment learning series will conclude on November 15, 7PM with Investa’s another Top Fund Management partner, PhilEquity Management Inc. The New Investa App will be available for the public very soon. To get early access, visit www.investagrams.com/investa


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OFFICIAL: Investa Partners with SunLife Asset Management

IT’S OFFICIAL: Investa partners with SunLife Asset Management to help Filipinos lead more and prosperous lives. 

Last November 4, 2021, Investa held the first episode of the 3-part investment learning series called THE FEELING IS MUTUAL: Finding the Perfect Mutual Fund Match. JC Bisnar, Investa’s CEO kicked off the event by sharing how Investa has worked hard making an impact in the Filipinos’ investing journey. He emphasized that the company started developing education & trading tools to make investing less intimidating.

“Ang pinaniniwalaan namin sa Investa, ang mga Pilipino, masisipag yan. But the opportunities aren’t provided everywhere. Kayang yumaman ng Pinoy,” Bisnar added that Investa is now moving forward and helping more Filipinos by becoming a legitimate investment platform, easily accessible for everyone.

Teasing the audience, Bisnar gave a sneak peek into the UI of the New Investa App. 

He pointed out that Filipinos can now invest in the Top Funds in the country. And the best part is that the App will help the investors find the perfect fund match for their own risk appetite.

The live event then continued with the special participation of Lovely Charmaine Gomez, well-known as MissInvest on Tiktok. She generously shared how she started her investing journey. She pointed out that before she makes any investment, she checks these things: Transparency, Diversification, Leverage, Safety, & Legitimacy. She further urged the viewers to start small and start now in their investments. MissInvest lastly expressed her gratitude that Investa has finally made investing affordable & friendly for all Filipinos.

 

Finally, SunLife Asset Management (SLAMCI) was represented by its very own CEO, Gerald Bautista, and Banks & Alternative Distribution Channel Manager, Angeline Cruz. Bautista was proud of how SLAMCI has been helping around 200,000 investors with Php 168+ Billion Assets Under Management. Furthermore, Baustista boasted about SLAMCI being awarded as the Best Asset Management Company in the Philippines by Euromoney, implying that investors’ money are safe in SLAMCI’s hands.

Angeline Cruz continued SLAMCI’s presentation by giving an overview of different SunLife’s prosperity funds. She shared the different fund performances to help investors make the best decision for their investments.

Eventually, the two parties gathered together for the live question and answer portion, adding Investa’s representation by its Operations Manager, Erwin Angeles. Angeles noted that the two parties worked hard for 2 years. And that this the start and the first time that Mutual Funds will reach the masses, being true to both parties’ advocacy of Financial Inclusion. 

“We welcome the partnership with Investa. The next step really is education, education to our investors, to our public, and providing it to the right platform such as Investa. And we are really happy that Investa is in front and in the trenches of making this happen. To the team of Investa, JC, and Erwin, maraming salamat sa inyo of allowing this opportunity to educate more Filipinos,” Bautista said.

Finally, the partnership was made official and sealed with a virtual signing of the Memorandum of Agreement as seen below. 

This is just the first of the many Top Fund Company partnerships with Investa. On November 10, 7PM, BPI Asset Management will be sharing their mutual fund offerings. And on November 15, 7PM, PhilEquity will also be live to discuss more investment opportunities.

The New Investa App will be available for the public very soon. To get an early access, visit www.investagrams.com/investa.

 


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The Basics of Financial Ratios

Stock investing requires you to do a careful analysis and research of the company you’re buying stocks from. Part of that analysis comes from the financial data from the business. Crucial to fundamental analysis, financial ratios are relationships determined from a company’s financial information and used for comparison purposes. Although there are multiple ratios, here are some of the most commonly used financial ratios for assessing the company’s value.

Earnings Per Share (EPS)

Earnings Per Share is basically the net profit that a company has made in a given time period divided by the total outstanding shares of the company. Generally, it is a good sign to invest if the EPS this period exceeds performance from the last time period. It can be calculated on an annual or quarterly basis however it’s important to remember that preferred shares are not included while calculating EPS. This is the most important ratio on this list since EPS is also used in various other financial ratios for their calculations.

Price to Book Ratio (PBV)

The PE ratio is one of the most widely used financial ratio analysis among investors for a very long time. A high PE ratio generally shows that the investor is paying more than the share is worth and a low PE ratio is preferred while buying a stock. The definition of low varies from industry to industry so you cannot use this ratio to compare a company of one sector and a company from another sector.

Debt to Equity Ratio (DE)

The DE ratio measures the relationship between the amount of capital that has been borrowed (i.e. debt) and the amount of capital contributed by shareholders (i.e. equity). Generally, the higher a company’s DE ratio is, the riskier it becomes to invest in that company since it means that a company is using more leverage despite its weaker equity position.

Return on Equity (ROE)

ROE refers to the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholder’s equity. The rule with this formula is always invest in a company with a ROE greater than 20% for at least the last 3 years and year-on-year growth in ROE is also a good sign. It measures a corporation’s profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders for ther investment. 

Dividend Yield

If dividends are important for you, then this formula is what you need. The dividend yield gives a better picture of whether the stock being assessed comes from a high or low dividend yielding company. The rule with this formula is that a consistent or a growing dividend yield is a good sign for dividend investors.

It is important to note that financial ratios are time sensitive. They can only present a picture of how the business is doing at the time that the figures were prepared. Though this is not a foolproof method in gaining profit, it is a good way to run a quick check on the company’s financial health to make smart and informed decisions.

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How to & Advice Latest Posts

Planning To Buy A House? Tick this Checklist Before You Invest

Having a house to call your own is one of the biggest financial goals of every Filipino. Buying your own house means not worrying about rent, landlords, and most importantly having more control of your own life. Here are some things to consider when saving up to buy your dream home!

1. Visualize your future

This means thinking about where you are 5-10 years from now. where would you want to live in, how many members are there in your household, and if you would have pets to take care of. Knowing the specifications of where you want to live and the number of people or pets there are in your home allows you to prepare in advance when buying for your own house, and it also serves as your motivation to keep on saving for your house

2. Plan

They say failing to plan is planning to fail, and it’s very much true for your finances, especially big ones! For this, you can set up a timeline on when you want to start saving, and set specific amounts for you to reach within a period of time. 

Simple math would be to get 30% of how much a house in the area you want to live costs, and divide it by how many months until when you want to live there. If you’re interested in a 3M house, and you’re planning to move within 5 years, then here’s how much you should save monthly to have enough money for the down payment:

30% of 3m = 900,000php / 60 months = save 15,000 per month to save up for DOWN PAYMENT

3. Create a system for saving

You should save money regularly, religiously, and relentlessly. When encountering a huge financial decision such as buying a house, know that it comes with huge sacrifices as well. It means: Refrain from touching the money you’ve set aside, avoid unnecessary spending, and avoid all budols online.


Start building your dreams. Start investing in the best performing Mutual Funds in the country through the New Investa App.

Get early access now!

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Our Newest Innovation: Investa Guild

For the longest time, we have always encouraged everyone who joins our trading competitions to represent the community they are part of. However, there was no real tangible way to show that you were part of a certain community back then. We wanted to make this year’s Trading Cup different by innovating a new feature that will allow you to represent your community. We give you the Investa Guild!

Now you may be wondering, “Para sa Trading Cup 2021 lang ba ito?” Nope! The Guild feature is here to stay and will be used as well in future competitions and events. So if you would like to create a Guild and invite your friends to join or if you would like to find a Guild to join, you can do so here: https://www.investagrams.com/Guild/Profile/

Already have a guild? If you’re the GUILD LEADER, simply follow these instructions to get your friends and community members in your Guild:

1. Kindly log out and log in again to your Investa Account so your Guild Leader status will reflect on your end.

2. The role of the Guild Leader is to invite his/her community inside the Guild through a special link that you will see at the bottom of the homepage inside the Guild.

3. Share the link with your community! Encourage them to represent your community in the upcoming Trading Cup 2021.

4. Anyone from your community can join the Guild, members don’t only have to be Trading Cup Participants because the Guild feature will still be used in future competitions and events.

So now let’s answer the question on everyone’s mind, “HOW WILL THE GUILD WORK IN THE INVESTA TRADING CUP 2021?”

HERE ARE THE MECHANICS

1. CREATING OR JOINING A GUILD. To create or join a Guild, just head over to this page: https://www.investagrams.com/Guild/. For those looking to CREATE a Guild and are a bit confused, feel free to message Investa’s official Facebook Page or via InvestaChat so we can assist you. For those looking to JOIN a Guild, it’s important to note that there are two types of Guilds: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.

If a Guild is set to PUBLIC, then you can join anytime you want. If a Guild is set to PRIVATE, then you can only join through a special invite link that only the Guild Leader has access to. If you’re part of a trading guild (ie Open Journal) but you’re not part of your guild’s Guild yet, simply message the assigned Guild Leader or the heads of your guild to send you the invitation link.

Each user can only join ONE (1) GUILD. Although you can leave a Guild to join another, it’s imperative that you stay in your FINAL GUILD BEFORE THE TRADING CUP STARTS. Once the competition starts, you are NOT ALLOWED to leave your current Guild anymore.

2. SCORING SYSTEM. The rankings will play a huge role in the scoring, not just the number of participants from a Guild that makes the Top 20. The higher your rank, the higher the points you bring home for your Guild. We will tally the Guild with the most points at the end. The Guild with the most accumulated points at the end of the competition will be crowned as “The Best Performing Trading Guild”

3. CASH PRIZES. The more Double Up Pass Holders you have in your Guild will equate to more cash prizes if your Guild wins. Each Double Up Pass Holder will add PHP 500.00 to your Guild’s cash prize. Invite your teammates and win up to PHP 100,000.00! (Note that the Guild Cash Prize is on top of the individual cash prizes)

Basically this means that YOUR GUILD will determine your potential prizes. Everyone is incentivized to have as much Double Up Pass Holders in their Guild as possible to maximize the cash prizes in the scenario that their Guild is crowned the “The Best Performing Trading Guild”

Each Guild’s starting potential prize is PHP 0. For each Double Up Pass Holder part of a Guild, the potential cash prize will increase by PHP500.

In order to win PHP100,000 if your Guild wins you guys will need a total of 200 Double Up Pass Holders. (We can check how many DU Pass Holders a Guild has on our end)

Computation: 200 x 500 = 100,000

So if your Guild only has 100 Double Up Pass Holders; if your Guild wins you will receive PHP50,000 in cash prizes for the Guild.

Computation: 100 x 500 = 50,000

In the scenario that the winning Guild only has 10 members, for example, that Guild will only win PHP5,000 in cash prizes.

Computation: 10 x 500 = 5,000

The cash prize for the winning Guild will be deposited to the GUILD LEADER.

So to maximize the potential winnings of your Guild bags the top spot, make sure to encourage your community members and friends to join the Trading Cup with the Double Up Pass! The more members with the Double Up Pass, the bigger the potential rewards if you win.

THAT’S A WRAP

So that’s all you need to know about our newest INVESTA GUILD feature and its implications to the Investa Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade. Goodluck to all participants and may the best Guild win!

For those who are interested to join the Investa Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade, click here.

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Investa Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade Rules and Mechanics

THE BIGGEST STOCK MARKET COMPETITION IN THE PHILIPPINES IS BACK!

Presenting the Investagrams Trading Cup 2021:

READY. SET. TRADE.

This competition is OPEN TO ALL and will run for three months from November 8, 2021 to January 28, 2022.

1. Registration. Anyone can still join the competition before the official competition begins (Monday, November 8, 2021). For those who will be joining late, you are still allowed to participate until Sunday, November 21, 2021. Don’t worry, you will receive a notification once you have been automatically added to the Competition Room and the Trading Cup is about to begin. Click here to join the competition.

Important notes:
– Verification of ID is required to join the competition room and the exclusive InvestaGroup for participants. Please submit your ID here.
– Only one (1) entry and account per person is allowed.
– If you have more than 1 account to join the competition, all accounts will be immediately DISQUALIFIED.
– You can change your Display Name, Username, and Profile Picture until THE DAY BEFORE the competition starts. Once the Trading Cup begins, the system will not allow you to change the above-mentioned anymore.
– You can change Guilds until THE DAY BEFORE the competition starts. Once the Trading Cup begins, the system will not allow you to change Guilds anymore.

2. Platform. The participants of Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade will use the Virtual Trading Platform of Investagrams which tracks the real-time stock price movements in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The system automatically calculates transaction fees to make it more realistic.

To know more about Investa vTrade, click here.

You can access the platform through the web, or download the app on Google Play or App Store.

3. Goal. For this year’s Trading Cup, you have two goals:

  • Goal #1 is simple — trade your account for the whole competition period and aim for the highest profits. The participants with the highest rankings while playing within the rules will be recognized as winners.
  • Goal #2 is to represent your guild by making the Top 20 to receive special points to help your Guild win an extra PHP 100,000 on top of the overall prizes.

4. Starting Capital. Each participant will start with PHP 1,000,000.00 virtual money to trade.

5. Trading Hours. Weekdays from 9:30AM – 1:00PM. This is the current PH trading hours and will be changed once the pandemic quarantine is lifted. Meaning, you can’t trade during off-hours and on weekends.

6. Tradable Stocks. Participants can only trade the listed tradable stocks for this competition. The tradable stocks are filtered by our system and qualify as liquid and actively traded stocks. You will be able to access the whole stock list once you are added to the Competition Room. The initial tradable stocks list will be posted over the weekend before the competition begins.

Penny Stocks will NOT be included in the list of tradable stocks due to their susceptibility to rinse and repeat abuses. Stocks that have become come from PHP 1 levels and close at .99 or lower by the end of the week will be taken out of the list. This is to avoid any rinse and repeat abuses and deductions/disqualifications.

7. Diversification. To promote diversification and risk management, maximum exposure in a single stock can only be 1/3 or 33.33% of the portfolio. This requires the participants to buy at least 3 different stocks should they want to fully invest in their portfolio. The system won’t allow you to allocate more than 33.33% in a single stock.

8. Guilds. For the first time in Trading Cup history, we have now really made it possible for you to REPRESENT YOUR GUILD. Since this is a new feature, we wrote an entire article on it and its implications to the Trading Cup. Read it here: Our Newest Innovation: Investa Guild

9. Buying and Selling Conditions (For LONG positions). Participants now have two options when transacting. The first option is to transact using the current price of the stock and use market orders to buy and sell specific stocks at their real-time prices. The second option is to transact using our CONDITIONAL ORDERS. By using Conditional Orders, you won’t need to watch the market the whole day in order to transact in the market, you can now set AUTO CUT LOSS, AUTO TAKE PROFIT, and AUTO BUY ON BREAKOUT. You can also set these orders to GOOD TILL CANCELLED so that your order will remain active until your buy/sell price is hit. Watch this tutorial.

Buy – You can buy the same stock multiple times within a day.
Sell – YOU CAN SELL THE SAME STOCK SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.
In one stock per day you can sell TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
In one stock per day you can sell FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)

10. Buying and Selling Conditions (For SHORT positions). SHORTING is now available for this competition. The same thing applies if you want to short a stock, you can transact using the current price or set conditional orders if you can’t keep an eye on the market. We understand that many may not know the concept of shorting which is why we created a video tutorial you can watch here: LINK TO VIDEO

  • Sell – You can open a short position on the same stock multiple times within a day.
  • Buy – YOU CAN COVER YOUR SHORT POSITION ON THE SAME STOCK SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.In one stock per day you can cover your short position TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
    In one stock per day you can cover your short position FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)
  • FEES / COMMISSIONS: Same as long positions.
    COMPUTATION OF PROFITS: (Sell price – cover price)*shares – fees

For those who are not familiar on how to trade SHORT POSITIONS, here’s a STEP-BY-STEP guide to short selling stocks for this competition:

1. Choose your position from the market order type (long or short).
2. Upon choosing the short position, input the initial number of shares you want to sell.
Note: To short a stock, you have to SELL it first. Then to cover your position, you will need to BUY the shares back. To learn more please watch the tutorial: LINK
3. For closing the short position, select the short option in the market order type and input the number of shares you want to buy to close your short position.

11. Holding period for all stocks (For both LONG and SHORT positions).

  • We will be applying the twenty (20) minute time lock for taking profits to ALL STOCKS to avoid widespread and rinse-repeat trades.
  • There will be no time lock or restrictions when selling at a loss.

12. Revision of Tradable Stocks. Investagrams has the right to remove any stock from the list should it suddenly become too illiquid, abusable and/or delisted. Furthermore, Investagrams may also add new stocks on the tradable list as new stocks become more active and tradable in the market. All changes will be announced before implementation.

In such cases that a stock is to be removed, we will follow this process:

  • Investagrams shall notify all the participants via the Investagrams Platform before the market opens.
  • If you still have the stock in your portfolio, you can sell it at any point in time at your discretion.

13. Initial Public Offering (IPO). All upcoming IPOs that will happen while the Investagrams Trading Cup 2021 is on-going will be added on its SECOND (2nd) trading day.

14. On Dividends that will be given during the Trading Cup 2021.

  • Stock Dividends that will be released by a company will be credited at the MORNING BEFORE THE MARKETS OPENS of the ex-date. Please note that stock dividends will cause price adjustments, so be aware if a stock you’re holding will release stock dividends.
  • Cash Dividends that will be released by a company will NOT be credited to your total equity as the current system is still not able to credit cash divs.

15. On SRO that may happen during the Trading Cup 2021.

Stock Rights Offerings (or SRO) is offered to existing shareholders of a specific stock to purchase additional shares at a price lower than the current market price in addition to their current shares at hand.

SRO’s can be deemed good for longer-term investors. However, in the short term, may POTENTIALLY lead to a possible decline or gap down in the stock. So it’s important to always be aware of this.

Participants in the Trading Cup 2021 will not have an option to purchase additional shares from the SRO.

16. For stocks that will be detected by our WIDE-SPREAD DETECTION SYSTEM (WSDS). The Wide-Spread Detection System’s main condition is that the first (1st) best bid and ask should never be more than 2% at any moment during open market session.

Fig 1. Real-time Market Depth / Orderbook showing the first (1st) best bid-ask data.

Example: $ATN (Refer to Fig. 1)
Given:
1st best bid = 1.11
1st best ask = 1.14
Formula:
X = (1st best ask – 1st best bid) / 1st best bid
Condition:
If X is greater than 2% then WSDS detects that the stock is wide-spread and can be abused.
Solution:
X = (1.14 – 1.11) / 1.11 = 0.02700 x 100% = 2.70%

Verdict:
Since X is greater than 2% then the stock is wide-spread as computed by the system.

  • The participant will be given a prompt that the detected stock is not tradable upon executing a buy or sell transaction.
  • The stock will again be tradable once the system detects that the spread of the 1st best bids/asks are below 2%.

17. On Trading Abuses.

  • Day trading opportunities on natural market moves are normal, but please take note that Investagrams will be on full-guard against participants that abuse illiquid opportunities. We want our winners to show real trading skills that are applicable in the PSE. Abuse of intraday spread trades will NOT BE TOLERATED. These rules are set to protect against the usual ‘rinse-and-repeat’ abuses that are mostly used in virtual trading competitions like this.
  • Read more about ‘rinse-and-repeat trading abuse’ here and why this is not characteristic of a realistic trading strategy.
  • Any participants that has more than 10% of their profits from rinse-and-repeat wide spread, illiquid and other abusive trades will be penalized or DISQUALIFIED depending on the severity of their offenses. We will be able to validate this through our data and algorithms that verify the historical transactions of each participant.
  • Any form of hacks, cheats, and abuses shall not be tolerated and will have corresponding repercussions. Suspicious behavior that may not be specified in the rules may also be flagged as ‘abusive’ trading behavior. Warning shall be sent after Investagrams has reviewed and confirmed that the actions are against the integrity of the competition. All trade records shall be verified and those who fail to follow the rules will be disqualified.
  • Participants will only be given ONE (1) warning, any participant who has constantly repeated any abusive trading behaviors (whether illiquid stocks, system abuses, loophole abuses) will instantly be DISQUALIFIED. Investagrams has the right to review any suspicious activity, and if the behavior is deemed inconsistent with real life trading then the said participant shall be disqualified.
  • Questionable Transactions. Questionable transactions will be cross-checked through the buy and sell transaction time and the traded stock. Stocks that have more than 2% consistent gaps in the one (1) minute timeframe within the transaction period shall be deemed invalid and Investagrams has the right to deduct the profits from the said transactions. It is normal to trade natural intraday moves and gaps can really happen, but if a participant is constantly trading stocks that have gaps within one (1) minute timeframe and their profits from these kinds of scenarios make up more than 10% of their total profits, then he/she will be automatically disqualified.

Fig 2. Example 1 for one (1) minute time frame gaps with buy (green arrow) and sell (red arrow) transactions

Fig 3. Example 2 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps

Fig 4. Example 3 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps

Investagrams will warn the participant that is proven to be constantly transacting with illiquid stocks with 2% one (1) minute gaps. Basically, any stock that has 2% spreads and do not really have a trend is included in this definition. After the first warning, any participant that is proven to repeat this kind of behavior shall be disqualified.

18. Trading halt. Stocks that are on a trading halt will not be tradable during the halt and will be tradable again during the announced lifting time.

19. Participant rankings. This is constantly updated every 10-minutes and automatically ranked by Investagrams system according to net profit gain/loss.

20. Deliberation period and the announcement of winners. At the end of the competition, at least one (1) week deliberation period shall be given to Investagrams’ team of moderators to verify trades and the confirmation of winners. The participants with the highest net profits will win. The resulting Top 1 to 100 participants after deliberation will be announced as the official winners.

21. Top 10 Winners. Those who make it to the Top 10 will be REQUIRED to do a defense of their trading strategies used during the competition. This is basically a presentation where you will share your biggest winners, losses, and learnings during the Trading Cup. This has been the tradition of the Trading Cup for the past three years where the winners will share with the community how they made it to the top.

NO DEFENSE = NO CASH PRIZE.

PHP10,000 worth of the cash prizes for the Top 10 will be coming from RCBC Securities. The Top 10 would need to open an account with RCBC Securities and the prize will be credit to the account. The PHP10,000 is withdrawable. The Top 10 will have until June 30, 2022 to open an account, otherwise the cash prize from RCBC will be forfeited.

The remainder of the cash prizes for the Top 10 after deducting the 10k from RCBC will come from Investa to be deposited to the Top 10’s bank accounts.

22. Prize Pool. In the event that there is a winner from the Top 100 that is not registered using a Double Up Pass, the pot prize associated with his/her ranking will not be distributed to the other winners. To see further details and full list of prizes, please see the landing page.

23. Prize Pool Breakdown.
TOTAL WORTH OF PRIZES — PHP1,040,205

Breakdown:

CASH PRIZES FOR TOP 50 — PHP439,000
GUILD POTENTIAL MAX PRIZE — PHP100,000
LIFETIME ELITE FOR TOP 3 — PHP300,000
BONUS PRIZEPOOL — PHP201,205
TOTAL = PHP1,040,205

24. Unexpected events.
In the case of an unexpected event that interrupts the operations of PSE or the system of Investagrams, the competition shall be frozen and paused. Further notice shall be given and trading will resume once everything is back to normal.

25. Modification and adding of rules. Investagrams has the right to modify the rules of the competition and add protective measures against any future abuses that may arise to ensure the integrity of the Investagrams Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade Announcements shall be made if there are any changes. Rest assured, we prioritize keeping the competition as FAIR as possible to all participants.

26. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. All participants are expected to have read and understood the rules and mechanics of Investagrams Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade. These are published for the participants’ information and protection. Ignorance of these rules and mechanics is not an acceptable excuse for violation.

27. If you are part of the Top 50 winners, the FINAL DEADLINE to claim your cash prize is on MARCH 31, 2022. The cash prize will not be given anymore past this date.

28. Sponsors. Apple is not involved in any way in this competition. The sponsor(s) is/are solely responsible for providing the prize(s) listed herein. The prize(s) won are not apple products, nor are they related to apple in any way. The responsibility of organizing this competition and distributing the prize(s) are the sponsors’ responsibilities. Apple does not sponsor this competition in any way.

29. Prizes from Partners. Some of our partners will be giving out prizes (in cash or in kind) which may be distributed on a different timeline or date depending on the partner. But rest assured that we will make sure that they will be provided.

30. Fund Management Opportunity. Among the top 20 participants of the Investa Trading Cup 2021, at least 10 traders will be chosen by one of our strategic partners to manage and trade the internal funds of the said partner amounting to USD 20,000.00 or USD 10,000.00 depending on the performance during the competition. Among the top 1-10, a minimum of 5 traders will be chosen to handle USD 20,000.00 and among the top 11-20, at least 5 traders will be selected to handle USD 10,000.00 worth of funds to trade in the financial markets. This is not a requirement for the top 20, but an opportunity to grow your capital if chosen. A zoom session with Investa, the strategic partner, and the Top 20 participants will be held after the Trading Cup 2021 Defense, to get to know the partner and learn more about the opportunity as the complete terms of the Program will be disclosed to the participants after they qualify in Event Partner’s suitability test.

31. About Taxes. Gentle reminder that our competition prizes are subject to final tax of 20% except if the amount of the prize is Php 10,000.00 or less which shall be subjected to normal tax.

32. Joining the Investagrams Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade means that you agree with all the clauses mentioned above.


Click here to join the Investagrams Trading Cup 2021: Ready Set Trade

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