Insider Spotlight
At Enderun Colleges this January, students weren’t just memorizing concepts—they were making decisions under pressure, reading market signals, and defending strategies the way professional traders do.
Why it matters
Early exposure to investing and capital markets equips students with decision-making skills that extend beyond finance, from risk assessment to disciplined thinking—capabilities increasingly seen as essential for the next generation of leaders.
The momentum was on full display during Enderun Colleges’ Stockmarket Showdown 2025, an inter-school trading simulation that brought together 96 students across 24 teams for months of competitive market analysis and strategy execution.
While the event culminated in an awards ceremony, its deeper value lay in immersion: students tracked trends, executed simulated trades, and presented their thinking to industry veterans.
Edmund Lee, president and CEO of Caylum Trading Institute and an Enderun faculty member, said the competition reflects a broader push to prioritize youth financial education.
“Financial literacy has been at the forefront of whatever we’ve been doing in all our business organizations. Education and the youth are always what we’re focused on, because the youth is the future,” Lee said in a press release on Jan. 12, 2026.
The final round was judged by professionals with decades of experience, including lawyer Fred Cruz of the Enderun League for Economic Development and Antonio Takahashi, chief trading officer of Tecnologías Financieras Capricorn, grounding the student strategies in real-world market expectations .
The finalists—representing institutions such as De La Salle University-Manila, University of Santo Tomas, Jubilee Christian Academy, and Chiang Kai Shek College—showed how diverse academic backgrounds can converge through market literacy.
Fourtfolio of De La Salle University-Manila ultimately emerged as grand champion, with judges citing disciplined execution and clarity of insight.
What they’re saying
“We have been very grateful to be given this opportunity to learn real-life application skills,” the team said. “What we learned from this competition is something that we could have only learned outside of a textbook and outside of school doors.”
The big picture
As financial decisions increasingly shape career and life outcomes, initiatives like Stockmarket Showdown signal a shift in education—from passive learning to experiential training.
By turning classrooms into trading floors, schools are helping young people build confidence, competence, and financial fluency long before their first paycheck. —Vanessa Hidalgo | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
