Stock Market Challenge – Queen's Careers and Employability Blog

Our popular Stock Market Challenge returned on 28 January 2026 to provide the opportunity for Queen’s students from any course background to gain real-world experience of analysing markets and making investments.

Stock Market Challenge is a fast-moving and exciting stock market simulation game called Finance Lab Pro owned by SolutionSim, who were our hosts for the evening at the Queen’s Computer Science Building.

Set in a fictitious world financial market this competitive game gives participants the opportunity to experience analysing the market and making investments.

The best part is you do not have to be studying a finance related subject or have any specialist knowledge of finance!

It’s a game of strategic thinking and pressured decision so the students got to demonstrate many of the skills necessary for business life, including, team-working, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Students taking part enjoyed some pizza and networking with the Employers also taking part on the night, with prizes including insight opportunities with the participating Employers. This Careers programme is also Future-Ready Award accredited through the Combined Route so students who took part can apply for this award before they graduate.

We want to give our thanks to the Employers that took part, Deloitte, Kainos, First Derivative, Funds Axis and Grant Thornton and thanks also to our delivery partner Liam Barnes at SolutionSim, and to everyone who took part and made it the success that it was!

Congratulations to our Stock Market Challenge 2026 winner Cadhan Nelis, you played a great game! And congratulations also to the runners up and everyone who took part in the popular competition.

List of Stock Market Challenge 2026 Winners and Runners Up:

1st Place – Cadhan Nelis, Queen’s Computer Science ,with William Gordon from Deloitte.

2nd place – Diarmuid Lawell, Queen’s PPE, and Robin Smyth, Queen’s PPE, with Hannah Flemming from Kainos.

3rd place – Kyan Cassidy, Queen’s Finance, and Oliver Billing, Queen’s Applied Maths – with Joanne Marron, Aoibhin McKinney from First Derivative.

4th place – Alex Dunne, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering and Colm Daly, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering – with Hannah McCloskey, Phoebe Callista from Funds Axis.

5th place -Yash Somaiya, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering, and Neha Hendre, Queen’s Business Management – with Conor Gallagher, Jason Smyth from Grant Thornton.

6th place – Rosaleen Grant, Queen’s Finance and Trading, and Harry Jackson, Queen’s English student.

Any tips and tricks that previous winners have used?

The key to a profitable investing is good research. The thing to remember when working in Finance Lab is that every piece of information you receive will have an effect on the share price of the investments you hold. Don’t ignore the news feed!

Common mistakes people make?

The most common mistake investors make is thinking that price is the main indicator of how well a company is performing. But of course it’s not an indicator of how well a company is doing in its own market, with its customers, with regulators or within its sector. A share price can be high at the same time as a company is performing poorly. A price fall will come; knowing when is the key.

What makes the game exciting?

Like all good games, it is the pressure of competition that makes the process exciting. In Stock Market Challenge you’ll be competing against other investors who want to come out on top on the night. There are some exciting opportunities to win so the stakes are high!

How not to lose your nerve.

Commit to the game, invest in the process and act methodically and with certainty to ensure you are in control of your actions. You control the market; don’t let the market control you. You will only lose your nerve when you don’t know what you are doing.

What ways can you prepare (even if it’s just binge-watching Industry on BBC iplayer!)?

Binge watching Industry will do no harm. It might even give you an insight into what not to do! The main skills are understanding what kinds of factors affect share prices. The most important thing is to keep an eye on the business news.

It’s not always obvious how actions affect share prices. When Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, investors decided to sell Twitter shares and its share value took a hit. The expectation was that the hit would be temporary, and the price would recover. But was that what happened? You may think as an investor that you’ll hold on to your shares (or buy more now that the price is lower) or dispose of them. Both strategies can be correct, depending on the market context. Following the news carefully is the key to successful investing.