The winner of the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) trading competition Lim Kok Heng has said he utilized a high-frequency trading method on high volatility stocks to achieve a 41.45% return on initial investment and win the KHR 8 million ($2,000) first prize.
In addition, Heng also won the most active trader award turning over this initial investment 113.9 times to win an additional KHR 4 million ($1,000).
Speaking to Cambodia Investment Review Heng who does not work in the finance industry said he learned by observing the market for a few years and that his strategy was simple but required him to closely monitor key stocks price movement during the competition period which ran from March 22 to June 17.
“In the first 2 weeks of investing I was able to achieve around 10% increase in my initial investment buying the volatile stocks Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (CSX:PPSP), Grand Twins International (CSX:GTI),” Heng said.
“I was feeling great and looking for the trades that most people didn’t see. Normally people flock to the big stocks like ACLEDA Bank (CSX:ABC) the stocks I bought were mostly GTI and PPSP which have me around 15 and 25 percent respectively. In addition, I bought some of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (CSX:PWSA),” he added.
Heng stressed he was lucky that during the competition the market was very volatile and I think the people are irrational about stock prices here. For example, when the stock goes down everyone else sells, and when it goes up everyone buys. Heng who is now in his late thirties first opened a trading account with SBI Royal Securities in 2019 when he came 6th in that year’s stock trading competition.
He added, that he wanted to use the prize money to invest more in the local stock market as there are more many companies now than when the exchange was first created in 2012. Heng added that he wished the CSX was around when he was younger and recommended all young investors to learn as much as they can about the local market.
Chief Executive Officer of the CSX Hong Sok Hour told Cambodia Investment Review he encourages young investors to distinguish between short-term and long-term investments.
“While short-term one focuses on flipping stocks frequently, it can be monthly, weekly, daily, or even many times a day, long-term one focuses on buy-and-hold stocks. So, investors can choose one of them, or use different strategies for different stocks,” Hong said.
“If [investors] they have day jobs or other businesses and don’t have much time to analyze the market, they can just look for stable and steady-growth stocks, and invest long-term,” he added.
There are seven stocks and eight bonds currently listed on the exchange. The CSX is trying to attract more high-profile companies like ACLEDA Bank, which was listed shares in May of last year.
