YIP Toronto Closing Ceremonies

Written by Roger Nath, YIP Toronto Class of 2017

On April 1st, 2017, the Young Investor Program (YIP) Toronto cohort held their final event of the year — the closing ceremony. It was an action-packed day consisting of a case competition, stock portfolio pitch competition, speeches from sponsors and the YIP executive team, and so much more!

Delegates and outside competitors from across the GTA assembled nice and early at 8:00 in the morning outside the Starbucks in the North York Center to collect their cases- then they were off to the races! The case involved strategy for David’s Tea, a corporate-run tea chain across Canada and much of the US. With eight teams of 3–5 people each, competitors were given four hours to discuss, plan, and create a presentation on how to optimize David’s Tea given two alternatives to make them more competitive in an increasingly tough market place.

At 12:30 PM, following lots of head-scratching, aggressive keyboard typing, painstaking PowerPoint design formatting, and (more than) a few Starbuck’s beverages, teams finished up their presentations for the case and headed back to the North York Memorial Hall. Here, the teams were split: even numbered teams went to the Maryam Hotel, while odd presented at the RBC branch across the road for the preliminary rounds of the case competition, from which two teams would advance to finals!

Following months of investing and trading using a variety of strategies, 12 teams were asked to make a presentation and executive summary about their portfolios to compete in the final round of the competition. The two teams — the finalists- were Team Pinnacle and YIPToronto7, and today was the day they battled it out for the grand prize of $250 (and YIP glory)!

“What was your annualized return?”

“How concentrated was your position in the SNAP stock?”

“How did you deal with your lack of diversification?”

All tough questions the judges (sponsors; Mr. Dennis of Imperial Lifestyle Management and Mr. Waxman of Millenium Financial Group) had for our teams.

After a brief intermission and lunch, the case competition took place featuring the finalists: Team 3 and Team 8. With a new panel of judges, each team vied for the second grand prize of $250 (and of course, more YIP glory)! Each team possessed a unique, impressive strategy (e.g.- Pods from which iced-beverages of David’s Tea could be dispensed across North America, Social Media Marketing Campaigns, producing more economically, etc.) that wowed the audience and the judges.

As the judges deliberated for either competition, the heartwarming concluding remarks about the program year were made by the YIP exec team, thanking us for our enthusiasm, engaged participation, and a job well done (we thank you too exec team)!

And finally, after a long day, the results were in at 5:30. The results turned out as follows:

Portfolio Pitch Competition:
1st place — Team Pinnacle
2nd place — YIPToronto7

Case Competition:
1st place — Team 8
2nd place — Team 3

While it was a bitter-sweet ending to a fantastic program, it was a terrific day overall, with all delegates and competitors having a great time learning and applying many of the financial literacy concepts they learned throughout the workshops.

I’d like to finally thank all of the delegates, competitors, staff and exec, sponsors, and any and all of those involved throughout the program for a phenomenal educational experience in YIP Toronto 2017!

More photos can be found on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/younginvestorprogramcanada/

Note: The Young Investor Program is currently accepting applications for the executive team via www.yipcanda.com/apply. Make a difference in improving financial literacy education for Canadian youth!

Application Deadline: April 30th, 2017