Tuesday, December 13, 2011
During November 2011, IRESS was once again front and centre at the AFA (Association of Financial Advisers) and FPA (Financial Planning Association) National Conferences.
As has become tradition in recent years, both conferences allowed us to showcase our IRESS, IPS and XPLAN software solutions to advisers, brokers, industry partners and participants alike. We ran our IRESS Market Challenge, where conference delegates could enter a portfolio of four ASX 200 ordinary shares ($25,000 each), that would trade based on the live market over the course of each conference. The entrant with the highest portfolio value at the close of business on the last day of each conference, won a magnificent LG 55” Full HD LED 3D television!
The AFA Conference at the Gold Coast saw a close contest during three days of positive market activity. Our winner, with a portfolio value of $107,001.47, was Phil Burt from Eastwoods in Adelaide. Phil, a risk insurance specialist, credited the win to his paraplanner at Eastwoods, who researched the stocks prior to the conference and entered the competition via our online pre-conference registration form. In 2nd place, and just $917 behind, special mention goes to Emma Oliver from Complete Financial.
The FPA Conference was held at the Brisbane Convention Centre, and over the course of the two day trading period, markets were somewhat less friendly to our contestants. With a portfolio value of $100,330.09 and a lead of just $269 over 2nd place, our winner was Rodney Lavin of Lavin & Associates (FinWiz) in Traralgon Victoria. Our runner-up was Vince Martin of DeMarche Financial in Brisbane.
Congratulations to both our winners. We have no doubt that XPLAN and all the new features of Version 2.1 will look truly magnificent on the big screen that will take pride of place in your lounge rooms at home! We look forward to seeing you all again at next year’s conferences, and thank you to all the participants that entered the IRESS Market Challenge games for 2011.