FOR more than a month, accountancy undergraduate Cedric Mui, 22, spent sleepless nights poring over stock charts and finance formulas.

He was not studying for an exam. Instead, with two schoolmates, he created a proposal for investing $10,000 in stocks and unit trusts.

The hard work of the three aspiring fund managers paid off on Saturday, when they won a competition offering a $1,000 cash prize and an opportunity to manage a virtual portfolio of $1 million.

After a year, part of the returns from this virtual portfolio will be translated into real money and donated to charity.

The 'Next Fund Manager' competition, organised by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Investment Interactive Club and sponsored by online funds distributor fundsupermart.com, gives NTU students like Mr Mui a chance to get exposure to investing.

'Before this competition, I had little idea what investing was about. But now, I've had hands-on experience in picking stocks,' said Mr Mui.

Fundsupermart.com will donate 10 per cent of the net virtual profits on this student-managed fund - or up to $10,000 - to the Straits Times Pocket Money fund.

This novel activity is just one of at least eight business- and finance-related competitions organised for tertiary and polytechnic students over the last two years.

Financial institutions like fundsupermart.com, OCBC Bank, Citi and Saxo Capital Markets are behind contests and events like these - often with a charity element - to financially educate young people, promote their brand name and even recruit talent.

And they have been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to sponsor such events.

They also often collaborate with investment clubs of the three local universities - National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and NTU.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.