THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas’ delegation ranked third among Philippine teams in an investment competition held by a Singaporean financial firm and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The ThomASEAN Traders, which consists of four students from the UST Commerce and Business Administration, finished second runner-up in the Philippine leg of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Investment Challenge 2025.
“This milestone marks an exciting step toward representing our university on the regional stage, with the finals set in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We are gladly representing the University of Santo Tomas as we take on this challenge,” the team told The Flame.
Financial Management students Carlos Salinas, Andrea Cafirma, Jemia Co and Prince Guarino will vie for their chance to represent the country in the competition’s next phase, which will be held online on Sept. 24.
Meanwhile, the final round will take place in Malaysia this November, where the country’s winning team will compete against various universities from Southeast Asia.
Two trio teams from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) grabbed the top two spots, while an Ateneo De Manila University student and another from PUP settled for fourth and fifth place, respectively.
The sixth place went to a De La Salle University Manila student, while two other Thomasians claimed the seventh and tenth spots. Two students from Mapua University ranked eighth and ninth.
The country-level challenge will be on stock trading, with a minimum of three unique local stocks. Their presentations will be judged based on the following criteria: profit and loss (40%), completion of E-learning (20%), risk management (20%) and ESG or environmental, social and governance metrics (20%).
For the regional level, the country representatives will be showcasing their stock trading experience, which will be graded 35% on presentation quality, 30% on ESG metrics, 15% on risk management and 20% on portfolio performance.
The winner of the regional round will take home S$20,000. The first runner-up will receive S$10,000, the second runner-up S$5,000 and the fourth placer S$1,000.
There will also be a cash prize for the country-level winners of the Philippines.
The competition is the youth program of Singapore-based investment company CGS International, which aims to empower college students with financial literacy and knowledge on the stock market. F
