Rules of the competition

1. The Shares4Schools competition is open to Year12 students studying in any UK school or college.

2. The competition runs from 11 October 2010 until 20 May 2011.

3. Entry will be in the name of the school, for whom a dealing account will be established with The Share Centre.

4. Each team will start with £1,500 to invest. Teams should raise these funds from sponsors, which may include sponsorship from The Share Centre (see rule 9).

5. At the end of the competition period, the team with the highest value portfolio shown on the league table will be the winners.

6. Schools will retain the final value of their account to use at their sole discretion, or retention to form the fund for entering next year's competition.

7. The Share Centre will donate at the end of the competition the value of all dealing commission (excluding stamp duty or other statutory charges) paid by the team in the course of the competition.

8. The competition ends on 20 May 2011, after this date schools will need to sell any remaining investments before 30 June 2011. Any remaining investments after this date will be automatically sold on 1 July 2011.

9. Several sponsorships, each of £750, will be awarded at The Share Centre's discretion to part fund a team's participation. Only one such sponsorship will be awarded per school.

10. Two authorised representatives of the school must be appointed to administer actual investments, acting to carry out the team's investment decisions and as custodians of the school's funds.

11. The Shares4Schools competition aims to enable participants to experience trading in different market conditions and the following sub-rules therefore establish trading levels to encourage ongoing activity:

11.1 with effect from 11 November 2010, teams must have a minimum of £750 of their overall funds invested;

11.2 a minimum of one transaction (sale or purchase) equivalent to a minimum of 10% of the overall account value, must be made in each calender month;

11.3 teams who fail to observe both the specifics and the spirit of these rules will receive a penalty of £30.00 each month in which the breach occurs. Any such penalty will apply only for the purpose of calculating final league positions, and will not be deducted from actual funds held.

12. Investments must be in UK Equities, Investment Trusts, OEICs, ETFs and Overseas Stocks (excluding US shares). Investment via Unit Trusts; Covered Warrants; Gilts, Bonds or any other investment category are not permitted.

Regular monthly competitions will run alongside the main competition, starting from November 2010. Entry into these additional competitions is optional and the results of these monthly competitions will have no bearing on the overall competition result.

13. All entrants agree to take part in relevant PR activity as and when required.

14. Prizes, as described from time to time will be awarded and are not transferable and no alternative will be offered.

15. The decision of The Share Centre shall, in all matters, be final and no correspondence shall be entered into.

16. All entrants are deemed to have read and agree to be bound by these rules.


The Share Centre Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is entered in the register (www.fsa.gov.uk/register/) under reference 146768. Registered office: Oxford House, Oxford Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP21 8SZ.

Registered in England no. 2461949. VAT registration no. 596 39 18 82.