PSE to gamify stock trading for Filipino students
What’s the best way to demystify the stock market for the next generation of Filipinos? Maybe gamification is the way to go.
The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will launch next year a stock trading game for college students, aiming to jumpstart investor interest in schools and encourage participation in the local bourse.
PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon tells the Inquirer in a chance interview on the sidelines of the Philippine Tax Academy Convention that they will first offer the training program at the De la Salle College of Saint Benilde and the Ateneo de Manila University in the first quarter of 2026.
Both schools are currently offering PSE’s Certified Securities Specialist course. This is a 124-hour, 14-module education program on financial and securities market theories, valuation techniques and analysis, investment portfolio management and “real-world” applications of financial principles.
Participants in the stock trading game will be given virtual money to “invest” in stocks using actual market data, according to Monzon. They will access the game through a website developed by PSE Academy, the market education platform of the local bourse.
Every three, six and 12 months, the PSE will reward the student with the highest portfolio, Monzon explains. He did not elaborate on the specific prize to be given.
For OFWs too
“We’re testing it on our employees … it’s really a stock investing competition,” he says.
Eventually, the game will be offered to Filipinos abroad.
“We want schools, OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to have the real-life experience of trading,” Monzon added.
This comes amid a challenging time for the stock market, which recently suffered some heavy bleeding because of corruption allegations involving high-ranking government officials.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) has so far tumbled by 6.74 percent to 6,108.86 on Friday from 6,550.39 at the beginning of the year. It also dipped to a six-month low by the end of September, erasing its recent gains brought by improving macroeconomic conditions.
While analysts were initially optimistic, the current political environment has not been promising for the index.
Monzon himself tells reporters that only “very positive results” from the government’s investigation into anomalous flood control projects could revive the market.
“The market’s No. 1 ally is confidence,” he says. “A very good, credible investigation [is] the only thing that can bring back confidence.”
