How to enter the Student Investor Challenge

Every year, thousands of students discover that the fastest way to understand how markets really work is to run one — with none of your own money on the line. The Student Investor Challenge is exactly that: an education-first competition where teams manage virtual portfolios on live London prices, learn from the results, and, for the best UK teams, chase a trip to New York. If your class or your group of friends fancies a go, the first question is a practical one: how do you actually get in?

This guide walks through the whole entry process — who is eligible, what you need to sign up, and what the road ahead looks like once your team is registered. None of it is complicated, but knowing it in advance saves a scramble when registration opens.

First, who is it for?

The challenge is built around teams of four students. That size is deliberate: four is enough to spread the research, argue through a decision and share the workload, without so many voices that nobody can agree on a trade. If you are picturing yourself playing solo, the game is really designed for you to team up instead — and the discussions are half the point.

Round one is genuinely open to the world. Teams from schools anywhere can take part in that opening round. There is an important catch, though: teams from schools outside the UK compete in round one only, playing for the International Online Trader of the Year prize. The later stages — the semi-finals and the live national final — are for UK teams. So wherever you are, you can start; how far you can go depends on where your school is.

Teachers are welcome in the game too. A teacher can enter and run their own portfolios against their students in round one, which is a lovely way to model good decisions and keep the competition friendly. The only condition is that teachers are not eligible for the student prizes.

The one thing you need to register: a TRN

Here is the part that trips people up if they do not know it in advance. Teams do not sign themselves up individually. Instead, a teacher registers the team, and to do that they use a seven-digit Teacher Reference Number — a TRN — supplied by The London Institute of Banking & Finance.

If you are a student desperate to play, this means your real first step is not filling in a form — it is finding a willing teacher. Someone at your school needs to hold or request that TRN and act as the point of contact for your team. If you are a teacher reading this, the TRN is the key that unlocks registration for as many teams as you want to enter from your school.

Registration itself opens ahead of round one each year. So the practical checklist before that window opens is short:

• A teacher who is happy to sponsor and register teams, with their TRN to hand.
• Four students per team — decide your line-ups early so nobody is left out at the last minute.
• A team name, because half the fun of the league tables is spotting the wittiest ones.

That really is the whole barrier to entry. No fees, no real money, no brokerage account — just a teacher, three teammates and a bit of curiosity.

What you are signing up to play

It helps to know what the game asks of you before you commit, so the entry does not feel like a leap in the dark. Once you are in, round one gives every team not one but two virtual portfolios to run, each starting with a simulated £100,000.

• Active Investor — you can trade every day, reacting to the market as it moves. It rewards attention and punishes over-trading.
• Strategic Investor — you get only a limited number of trades each month, so patience and long-term thinking count.

Running both at once is the clever heart of the design: you feel the difference between reacting and reasoning, side by side, with the same starting pot. We dig into that split properly in what a portfolio really is, and it is worth reading before your first trade.

One rule to know from day one, because it catches out newcomers: the game gently pushes you to stay invested. If you leave more than £15,000 sitting as cash in either portfolio, a daily Windfall Tax of £1,000 kicks in — a nudge that mirrors how idle money in the real world quietly leaves returns on the table. And if your team starts trading late, do not panic: your opening balance is index-linked to the FTSE 100 so that latecomers still get a fair shot.

The road after round one

Entering is the start of a journey, not a one-off quiz, so it is worth knowing the shape of what follows. For UK teams, strong performance in round one opens the door to a four-week online semi-final, where five hundred teams predict the Friday closing prices of selected assets and earn points for accuracy and patience. From there, the eight strongest teams are invited to a live national final of business challenges — and the winners take home the headline prize, a week-long educational trip to New York.

You do not need to memorise all of that to sign up, but seeing the ladder helps you understand why round one matters and why building good habits early pays off. The rewards, from scholarships to the New York trip, are laid out in full on the prizes page, and the complete structure of rounds and scoring lives on the how it works page.

Once you are in: what to do first

The moment your teacher has registered you, resist the urge to start firing off trades. The teams that do well tend to spend their first few days getting oriented — agreeing how decisions get made, learning the interface, and placing a few small, deliberate trades rather than a flurry of guesses. We wrote a whole friendly walk-through of exactly that in your first week in the challenge, and it is the natural next read after this one.

Above all, remember what the challenge is for. It is an educational simulation, not real trading, and nothing here is financial advice. The prize is not just the trip to New York — it is walking away actually understanding how a share price moves, why patience so often beats panic, and how real markets breathe. That understanding starts the moment a teacher types in a TRN and four students pick a name.

FAQ

Who can enter the Student Investor Challenge?

Teams of four students take part, signed up by a teacher. Round one is open to teams anywhere in the world, but teams from schools outside the UK compete in round one only, for the International Online Trader of the Year prize. UK teams can go on to the semi-finals and the national final.

How does a team actually register?

A teacher registers the team using their seven-digit Teacher Reference Number, or TRN, supplied by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Each team needs four students and a teacher to sign them up, and registration opens ahead of round one.

Does it cost anything to play?

The money in the game is virtual. Each of the two portfolios starts with a simulated £100,000, so no real money is ever invested or at risk. It is an educational simulation, not real trading.

Can a teacher take part as well?

Yes. Teachers are welcome to enter and run their own portfolios against their students in round one, which is a good way to model decisions and keep an eye on the game. Teachers are not eligible for the student prizes, though.