A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market: Investment Mentorship Program Open Session

Written by Emina Sotto / Photos by Andrea Chan / Poster by Monica Dimapilis

The Investment Mentorship Program is a year-long, progressive learning program that teaches the basics of investing all the way to advanced topics.

“Hanggang saan aabot ang 100 pesos mo?”

The Investment Mentorship Program: Open Session started with this question, asked by MEcO’s very own mentors Jaime Manzano and Kahane Pe, who facilitated the event to a room full of mentees and non-mentees, including invited senior high school students from the Ateneo, striving to become student-investors in CTC 114 last October 13.

The answer to the question according to the duo is to invest. Why invest? To battle inflation and to buy financial freedom for your future self.

To start the lesson, Jaime and Kahane first defined stocks as the portion of a company or a good located in the Philippine market that move with supply and demand. Afterwards, they moved on to explaining the difference between investors and traders. They compared investing to a marathon, where enduring the longest is more important than being the fastest.

The main point of their discussion revolved around the FTSR Framework that stands for fundamentals, technicals, sentiment, and risk management; those of which are important factors to consider when it comes to stocks and the stock market.

Under fundamentals or creating the portrait of a company, concepts such as market capitalization, the P/E ratio (price to earnings), and earnings per share were given light.

Moving on to technicals or the forecast using a chart of where prices will go, the types of trends were explained as well as the concepts of support and resistance. Support is the point in the where the stock price does not fall, while the resistance is the point where the stock price does not rise.

Furthermore, sentiments predict the stock prices based on current events regarding a specific stock. They summarized this in one word: news. They emphasized how powerful news can affect how investors perceive the company thereby dictating their desire to invest.

Lastly, they explained risk management, examples of which are cut-loss and diversification.They compared cut-loss to an “exit point” when things do not go as planned, where investors must minimize their losses. On the other hand, diversification was explained as “not putting all eggs into one basket” or investing in more than one stock.

In order to facilitate the discussion and to deepen the understanding of the attendees, simple activities were given.

To understand fundamentals, attendees were asked to search the stock code, CEO, and net income of a certain company.

An activity using an online application called Investagrams, made use of the line tool to distinguish support and resistance points in a graph, to grasp the concept of technicals.

To give emphasis to the impact of sentiments, a group challenge on determining why the stock price dropped for a certain company was accomplished.

Finally, to give sense to diversification, an activity on classifying a list of stocks based on their sectors (according to pse.com.ph) was executed.

Mentors were present in assisting the attendees throughout the session.

To end the workshop, Vice President for Investment Strategies, Jason Gusilatar, announced the expansion of the program to senior high school students, also acknowledging the few who were present, as he believes in investing on the youth. He also extended his invitation to the attendees to join the other open sessions of the Investment Mentorship Program in the near future, hoping to encourage more students to become student-investors.

The first open session of the Investment Mentorship Program was highly informative and enjoyable. Mentors Jaime Manzano, Kahane Pe, Dan Reyes, and Thea Zabala were successful in organizing the first open session for the Investment Mentorship Program, as the room full of attendees were able to acquire new knowledge regarding the basics of stocks and the stock market. Together with other mentors present: Jolo Gutierrez, Tim Sio, and Adrian Syliangco, they were able to effectively and efficiently guide the participants in having a fruitful and meaningful experience all throughout the workshop.

Through this event, MEcO was able to highlight its core competency of financial literacy, with the goal to educate and build a community of student-investors in the Ateneo.

Interested in attending the next Open Session? Be sure to like the Ateneo Management Economics page on Facebook for updates and announcements.

Enter the Bulls: IgniSOM 2017

Written by Kevin Choa / Photos by Dannica Cabangon, Kevin Choa, Monica Dimapilis, Marco Millan, Golda Sarmiento, and Bea Tabios

SOM Week is an inter-organization competition among the Business Cluster (BC) organizations. Each of the eight BC organizations will host and compete in various events throughout the week showcasing various skills needed in today’s business world.

Last October 23, the Council of Organizations of the Ateneo’s Business Cluster (COA – BC) opened this year’s School of Management (SOM) Week: IgniSOM. Each of the eight BC organizations will host and compete in various events throughout the week showcasing various skills and talents in today’s business world. As one of the eight BC organizations, the Ateneo Management Economics Organization (MEcO) are competing this year under the slogan: “Awaken the bulls.”

MEcO enters this year having gone through a major re-branding, especially with their new logos and new team members. This year’s contingent is led by Mr. and Ms. MEcO: Fitz Shioda and Frannie Reyes, also known as F&F. The pair hope to capture the title of Mr. and Ms. SOM with their bold, yet sometimes cutesy image as they compete in the Mr. and Ms. SOM pageant this Friday, October 27.

Other events MEcO competed in were Spark of the Intellex, a quiz bee on the various fields of business, hosted by Ateneo Lex last Monday, October 23. The 4-person team featured one participant from each batch: Alyssa Go (Freshmen), Lorraine Lau (Sophomores), Yu Chong Lim (Juniors), and Mari De Leon (Seniors). Despite all their best efforts, the maroon-clad team finished outside the Top Four.

MEcO also sent a team to compete in Liyab: Blazing a Trail to Sustainability, a case study event based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), hosted by AIESEC Ateneo and the Ateneo Management of Applied Chemistry Association (MACA). Led by Juniors Doty Palafox and Migs Caparas, while featuring newcomers in Jolo Gutierrez, Willette Lim, and Sophia Bulalacao, the team proposed for a sanitation project in Bos Sbov in the Cambodian province of Bantey Meanchey, an area struggling with contaminated water and a poor waste management and disposal system. Focusing their proposal on proper education on waste disposal and femenine hygiene, the team impressed the judges, but failed to gain a spot in the Top Four.

Finally, a team of MEcOnistas hope to show their creativity in this year’s ISOM video competition hosted by the Ateneo Association for Communications Technology Management (ACTM). Each team had to create a creative video promoting local industries. While the submissions have been closed, there is still no word of the results as of press time.

However, all hope is not lost with five more events to go, plus the Mr. and Ms. SOM pageant during the Culminating Night on Friday (October 27). Two more teams hope to redeem their case competition skills, competing in the P&G Case Competition hosted by the Ateneo Junior Marketing Association (AJMA) and the Project Nurture Product Presentation hosted by the Ateneo Management Association (AMA). The P&G competition will take place on October 25, 5:00 to 9:00 P.M., at the Escaler Hall, while the Project Nurture Presentation will be held the next night (October 26), 5:00 to 9:00 P.M., at the Ching Tan Room (SOM 111).

Other events which will see MEcO go after this year’s SOM Week Championship are Flare, hosted by the Ateneo Management Engineering Association (MEA), and Blaze It to Win It, hosted by MEcO. Flare will be held on October 25, 5:00 to 9:00 P.M., at CTC 105. Blaze It to Win It, meanwhile, will take place on October 26, 5:00 to 9:00 P.M., at the Escaler Hall. The week ends with a Culminating Night on October 27, 5:00 P.M. to midnight, at the Henry Lee-Irwin Theater, where this year’s SOM Week champions will be crowned.

However, SOM Week isn’t all about competition. Other MEcOnistas pitched in their ideas, skills, and resources in creating Astwig: a drinking straw made out of bamboo. Astwig is still available for sale throughout SOM Week at this year’s SOM bazaar: Project Nurture. Project Nurture, hosted by AMA, is still ongoing and is open from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. at the SEC-C Foyer throughout SOM Week. The bazaar features various products from the different BC organizations, each made with supporting local industries and overall sustainability in mind.

As the end of SOM Week approaches, there is no reason for the bulls of MEcO to turn back. This year, the bulls have been awakened and are ready to charge towards the title. With much of the week still underway, it is still difficult to predict an outright champion. Nevertheless, MEcOnistas only have their eyes on the title and nothing more. This year, MEcO has risen.

Kidpreneur at AGS fair

Written by Julian Uy / Photos by Dannica Cabangong

Kidpreneur provides ateneo gradeschoolers with yet again naother avenue to show off their entrepreneurial skills.

For the Ateneo grade schoolers, the school fair is a long-awaited event before the beginning of a long and arduous period of studying. It is an opportunity to relax and let loose, but while some may take this opportunity to run around and play, others such as the kids from Kidpreneur use this time to immerse themselves in the experience of entrepreneurship.

18 kids chose to be part of this experience, each having 1 hour to man the stall and roam around the boisterous campus in search of more customers.Their snacks for sale entailed the small yet juicy sisig wrap and the thin yet filling cheese sticks.

The volunteers of Meco aided the kids by accompanying them around the campus and helping them sell their products

The kids were like little balls of energy for the entirety of the two-day fair. They ran, they sold, they laughed, they cooked (putting food in a microwave), but most of all, they learned! So finally, after having sold 400 pieces of sisig wrap and 420 cheese sticks, the little entrepreneurs of MEcO reported feeling happy to have been able to step out of their comfort zones to talk to people.

FM DevSeries: Pitch Your Ideas to Walrus and Tortuga

Written by Michelle Tiu / Photos by Red Fabros and Monica Dimapilis

MEcOnistas were given the chance to test their creativity and skills in pitching product and marketing ideas to the owner of Walrus and Tortuga Katipunan.

With Ateneo MEcO’s rebranding, one of the things included is the M.A.P. (MEcO Advancement Program). This revamping gave birth to a new DevSeries by the Human Resources department. Various departments will take turn in hosting workshops and talks specifically for its members.

Held last October 4, the Fund Management department (FM) hosted the first ever DevSeries for the year to further immerse freshmen and FM members what their department is all about.

Special guest Zachary Riskin, co-owner of Walrus and Tortuga Katipunan, came by to talk about entrepreneurship based on his personal experience. Surely, the crowd of Ateneans were thrilled to get to know the secret behind Walrus’ famous chicken skin.

Like most startups, especially a food and beverage business with numerous competitors, the task of opening one with no prior experience was not an easy job. The most basic checklist to be completed was: have a good team, know the business’ market, have a good product, and be prepared to wait. To quote Zachary,

“The long fight is when the work really begins. No tangible reward in sight at first other than the continuity of the business. It takes a lot of perseverance and cooperation. You can’t just get bored, quit, or slack off.”

When asked what he thinks of money, he said,

“Every entrepreneur might be to earn money, and that’s not bad; however, one must not pursue money simply for money’s sake.”
“Money can give you freedom, help you help others, and ease your mind.”

After the talk, MEcOnistas were asked to break into groups and socialize with fellow FM members. The task given was to pitch an idea that will help the sales of Walrus Katipunan to the owner, himself. FM members got competitive and started brainstorming for clever and even hillarious ideas for Zachary to declare a winner.

A couple of minutes had passed, and the teams were ready to pitch their ideas. One team pitched that Walrus Katipunan should host games. In addition, a Drinking Wheel, much like the Wheel of Fortune, can be an addition wherein in guests can test their luck and spin the wheel to win free food and drinks and have a lot of fun! Zachary loved their idea and finally declared them as the winner.

Truly, MEcOnistas showed that they are more. Stay tuned because Ateneo MEcO has more in store this school year!

MEcO Pledge Week: Make Your Every Pledge and Peso Count

Written by Janella Virrey / Photos by Archie Bocalbos, Mariel Avendano, and Andie Lim / Interviews by Janella Virrey / Post-processing by Mariel Avendano

Pledge Week is a week-long selling event that aims to fund the Save! Campaign by garnering pledges from the students of the Ateneo community.

The last week of September ended on a good note for MEcO because of the success of Pledge Week 2017. Held last September 25-29, Pledge Week is a week-long project that aims to garner pledges from generous students who voluntarily gave different amounts of money to fund the Save! Campaign. All profits earned from Pledge Week directly impact the Community Development department and its Save! Campaign project.

Pledgers posing with their stickers and piggy bank

Save! Campaign is one of MEcO’s year-long initiatives that aims to teach the kids of its partner beneficiary, Kalumpang Elementary School, the fundamentals of saving and financial literacy, in order to propagate its core competencies not just within the organization, but also the communities outside of it. It aids in building the children’s awareness on the importance of saving at a young age— it teaches these children the basics of saving and helps them improve their saving habits.

For this year, the superhero theme dominated Pledge Week. Rigorous efforts were made to promote the event; these efforts were manifested through the dissemination of both traditional and non-traditional promos around the campus and on social media.

Main promotional poster by Ysa Cuison

During the event proper, the Pledge Week booths situated in Kostka extension and JSEC were greeted by an overwhelming influx of pledges, especially during the first few days. By pledging to the project, the students were able to sponsor a Kalumpang elementary student with a piggy bank— one of the most basic yet effective forms of saving for children as young as them. However, pledgers did not go away empty-handed, because in return, they were given free stickers depending on the package they availed. Since the theme for this year is focused on superheroes, the sticker designs were also superhero-themed.

Superhero-themed stickers designed by Mariel Avendano

Volunteer rovers wearing red hero capes

Pledge week booth at Kostka extension

Rapa Limpingco, co-project head responsible for organizing and leading the Pledge Week core team, had this to say on the turnout of the project.

“It went above our expectations. I feel like we were able to gain more than enough funds for the kids of Save! campaign.”

Archie Bocalbos, co-project head, also agreed that the turnout of Pledge Week was successful.

“Okay naman. We exceeded our expectations twofold. The turnout [of the project] will be helpful to the Save! campaign since the expenses will be covered.”

However, before attaining success, they still encountered difficulties in terms of planning and execution that slightly threatened the project. Upon being asked, Archie said,

“For planning, yung token na ibibigay namin sa mga pledges, as well as cost for pledging was hard. Yung pag-forecast ng demand for pledges is also tricky. [We also encountered difficulties since] this pledge week is not the same as the pledge week last year. Before, we only had fundraising, walang token. Now, we had to think of a product to sell. Execution-wise, mahirap yung [task of] organizing volunteers, as well as booth maintenance.”

Meanwhile, Rapa said,

“As for planning the project, we didn’t face that many problems. But, as for execution, I feel like we lacked in getting enough volunteers to continuously look for pledges throughout the week. However, overall, like I said, we went beyond the goal we set for ourselves.”

Considering that theme for Pledge Week was superheroes, both Archie and Rapa had persons in mind whom they considered as the heroes of Pledge Week 2017 and served as the primary factors that contributed to the success of the project. Without any hesitation, Rapa said,

“For me, there was only one primary factor [that contributed to the project’s success]— that was the commitment of the volunteers to raise funds and get pledges for the Save! campaign and the kids. And with that, the heroes for this project were those who pledged and those who worked hard to gain enough funds for Save! campaign to be a memorable one for the children.”

On the other hand, Archie considered the volunteers and his core team as the heroes of Pledge Week.

“Of course, yung mga volunteers, number one. Especially the freshmen who were consistent throughout the week. Siyempre, core team ko, sila rin nagplan nito— hindi ‘to mangyayari kung wala yung sila.”

Volunteers of Pledge Week, with co-project head, Rapa Limpingco

Bong Ramos, a newcomer in MEcO, shared to us his reasons for volunteering for Pledge Week.

“[I volunteered] because I felt like I wasn’t doing my job if I didn’t volunteer. I didn’t sign up for Save! campaign, so it’s my way of contributing to the organization.”

Pledge Week was more than just a simple fundraising activity. It sets the bar high for future projects of the same nature, since, it has exceeded the expected outcome in terms of profit and number of pledges. The tally of pledges amounts to a total of 560 pledges during the whole week of operation.

Yet again, another fruitful project for MEcO has passed, hopefully, signifying the onset of more successes in the upcoming projects. Kudos to the project heads, core team, and volunteers who made the event possible, as well as the generous students and alumni who pledged for the benefit of the Kalumpang Elementary School kids, the beneficiaries of MEcO’s Save! Campaign.

SAVE! Day 1: A SUPER way to start the Campaign

Written by Migs Caparas /

The superheroes of Ateneo MEcO once again return to Marikina to meet the kids of Calumpang Elementary School. Armed with knowledge on basic financial literacy, it is time for Ateneo MEcO to help the kids SAVE! the day once again.

SAVE! Campaign is back and bigger than ever! Now catering to two-hundred kids, one can say that the superhero themed event has been SUPERSIZED!, but it was still able to bring out the same quality of smiles from the kids just like last year.

What way would be better to start the program off than a short dance number from the hosts Migs Caparas and Mikay Abisana? The very bibo duo welcomed the kids by showing their super dance moves and super kulit energy! Their introduction set the mood for the very exciting day to come.

Having set the mood of the day for the kids, the hosts took a step back and had the kids show their own energy through chants and cheers. With the help of their kuya and ate facilitators, they all were able to come up with creative cheers for their groups. One group even had their own take on Queen’s We Will Rock You as their cheer! The energy was undeniably SUPER! It was at this point that the MEcOnistas knew that the kids were ready for the day and to learn how to SAVE!

Shortly after, the Kids studied basic budgeting, and the concept of needs and wants. No lesson is too hard for the kids thanks to their very knowledgable faci’s! They then applied the lesson a a short ball game wherein they needed to shoot balls into boxes with items labeled on them. The balls needed to be shot through boxes that are labled with items that are considered as economic needs. This is in hopes that they will do the same thing in day-to-day life! Of course SAVE! Campaign isn’t all lectures and lessons. It wouldn’t be as SUPER! without these adrenaline-pumping activites.

After all the tiring lessons and activities, the kids needed a SUPER! break with SUPER! food! A prayer before meals was led by one of their teachers, ma’am Emma-lyn. She also announced that one of the kids, Jessica, was celebrating her birthday on that day! Happy birthday Jessica, we hope you enjoyed your day!

After the break, it was time again to learn. This time, the lectures were about the dangers of Impluse Buying and how to prepare for emergencies where money is needed. The last lesson was about tips on how to actually SAVE! money.

It is also worth nothing that MEcO alumni were present in the event. They were the ones who started the org nearly three decades ago and they are happy to see what MEcO has accomplished these past years, most especially SAVE! Campaign. One of them, ma’am Gia, even shared a story to the kids on how she teaches her child how to SAVE! the allowance that she gives him for school.

After all was said and done, the MEcOnistas had to leave the kids of Calumpang Elemtary School. But fret not for this only the beginning! the MEcOnistas are only preparing for the second day of SAVE! Campaign. Project head Hannah Wagayen gave her final words and thanks to the kids and the Calumpang Kids expressed their gratitude as well.

Until next week, Kids. See you on DAY TWO!

INVEST! Day 2: A World of Storytellers and Number Crunchers

Article by Robert G. Tan / Photos by Marco Millan

Invest! is a two-day event that strives to provide an avenue for investment education and stocks training.

The Ateneo Management Economics Organization (MEcO) once again held its annual INVEST! With this year’s theme being entitled “Seek the Peak”, the organizers thought of inviting two speakers to talk – with the first one (link to article: tinyurl.com/INVEST-First-Day) being held a week before the other.

Last September 18, Edmund Lee, the head of a trading institute, had given a talk about the stock market and personal finance. On the 25th of September, however – the event’s organizers were able to invite a professional trader to talk about investing and trading, as well as the implications that arise from each of the two.

With Day One having a corporate CEO take the stage – Day Two of INVEST! saw Brian Ngan, the Chief Investment Officer of the Cedarside Holdings Corporation, grace the newly renovated halls of Escaler. MEcOnistas Alex Cordova and Nicole Salazar returned as the event’s hosts – first introducing Daisie Zeng, who lead the opening remarks in front of a jam-packed audience.

Mr. Ngan began his talk by introducing two words – investing and trading, terms that are different but often used interchangeably. These two form the stock market’s first and second paradigm, respectively. The first one, investing, is when you buy stocks now and hold on to it for a long time. “Investing is about picking the right companies to invest in,” said the speaker. Trading, on the other hand, is when you buy a stock and sell it after a few days. He then said that you shouldn’t do both simultaneously and that it is “more prudent to be the first one – the long-term kind of investor.” This is because according to him, people either don’t have the time to invest/trade or don’t know how to altogether.

He recalls the story of when he met with a couple of people from Macroasia Corporation, an aviation company specializing in aircraft maintenance and catering. He did this after noticing something unusual in Macroasia’s income charts. The fact that it is a business owned by corporate magnate, Lucio Tan, gives it the identity of being the prime food provider in Philippine Airlines (PAL), also owned by the Tan family; and that is exactly what people think it is in the investment world. However, after meeting the people behind Macroasia and tasting their food (which he said rivalled that of five-star hotels), Mr. Ngan discovered that for eight years, Macroasia Corporation has been the food supplier of twelve airlines, including Singapore and Cathay Pacific. And the only thing they supply to PAL is their famous arroz caldo. He says that, “Not only is this company misunderstood. They are hedging their risks.”

He told this story to show the crowd that investing isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about the story. And from this, he claims, arise two types of people: the number crunchers and the story tellers. The reason why people didn’t know anything about Macroasia is because they didn’t ask. Mr. Ngan describes investing as a “bridge between the numbers and the narrative.” Storytellers need to learn the discipline gotten from numbers, while number crunchers need to get the imagination to know about the narratives behind them.

Indeed, there is a place for everyone in the world of investing. But if one wants to do trading as a profession, Mr. Ngan points out that one needs to learn the rules of the game. Active trading is not for the faint of heart. And even though “the mind, the money management, and the method” are very vital in trading for a living, they are not the most important thing. “You need to have the fortitude or the mental preparation to win a lot or to lose a lot.”

If one were to survive in a world of story tellers and number crunchers, one has to have “balls of steel.”