Escrow Group-a registry and investment administration services company has come up with a fantasy trading feature on its C-Trade platform that will provide a replica of the actual market trading using virtual money for practice.
The move attempts to demystify capital markets and broaden participation among Zimbabweans using digital innovation.
There are concerns over low levels of an investment culture in the country which if broadened could yield positive returns for both the listed companies and investors. Currently, local capital market attract just between 200 and 700 trades per day reflecting a low level of participation.
“It will act as a demo platform for those that require a practical feel of our capital market without parting with their real money. Trading will be as if one is participating on our real market but only using virtual money they will be able to test their skills in analyzing and in picking the right stocks to build their virtual portfolios,” said Escrow Group chief executive, Collen Tapfumaneyi.
The C-Trade Fantasy enables participants to register for fantasy while instantly registering for live investment accounts.
Escrow has partnered with Nedbank which will provide bank and settlement support.
Participants will then be each allocated ZW$ 1 million in virtual cash for practice and will have access to live market data replicating what will actually be happening on the live market only that the participant will have virtual money credited into their C-Trade virtual money wallet.
The platform will track performance of virtual portfolio for each participant and rank them according to the relative performance against each other.
“The highest monthly performers will be rewarded with prices while the very best performers will be rewarded after each season that runs for 6 months and they will be awarded the full value of the portfolio that they will have built,”
“This means they will be given the real monetary value of that portfolio that will be deployed in actual market investment,” said Tapfumaneyi.
C-Trade currently has just above 30 000 registered traders buying and selling equities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
The C-Trade Fantasy will for the meantime track ZSE stocks since it yet to be integrated with the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX).
However, according to Tapfumaneyi, the group is still in discussions to incorporate the VFEX with Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) set to be incorporated to the C-Trade Fantasy soon.
