The students

Students at John Warner School make stock tips to see if they can beat the professionals. Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos

It's not often you get to hear a young man encouraging the women in his life to go out and buy designer handbags. But if you have an investment in the company making the bags, your perspective becomes a little different.

OK, so teenager Salvatore Tona has not invested real money in Mulberry, but he is investing his group's hopes of success in the brand.

"In the last 12 months its stock pricing has tripled, so this means demand for handbags is getting higher and therefore prices can get higher and there is the potential for profit," he said, explaining some of the rationale behind his choice of stock.

The week before Tona picked the stock, Mulberry recorded profits of £15.6m, up from £4.7m in the previous year. Sales soared 62% to more than £72m. At the time of the announcement, John Cummins, analyst at Altium Securities, said there was more growth to come as Mulberry is "only just scratching the surface" in many luxury goods markets outside the UK and is under-represented globally. An analysis Salvatore agrees with.

"I think Mulberry will be looking at using some of the money it has made to expand and perhaps target all those Russian and Chinese billionaires. Maybe its strategy will now be to get out of areas of recession and into the good areas."

Salvatore is one of 11 pupils from years 11 to 13 at The John Warner School in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, who were wittled down from a group of around 30 after competing to make the best case for their stock choice.

The school was recently awarded the Personal Finance Education Group's Centre of Excellence Award for its financial education lessons for all students aged seven to 11. Its efforts have clearly paid off, with more than one self-confessed budding stockbroker in its midst.

Year 12 student Jack Wood picked British American Tobacco. "Unfortunately, there is a lot more peer pressure on kids and a lot want to smoke, so there is demand for BAT's products," he said. "People, no matter the warnings, are going to carry on smoking."

So what chance do these budding young financial whizzkids think they have against the team of professionals?

"I think we have a good chance as the people who do this for a living have a clouded judgment, whereas we are the market," said Year 13 student Lauren Tye. "We're the ones buying these things. We know what people want."

GCSE student Taylor Mack was a little more scathing about their other opponent, Orlando the cat. "As a group we are quite confident we have good brands to compete with," he said, before adding with a snort, "especially against a cat."

Their portfolio
Mulberry
WM Morrison
Savills
British American Tobacco
Cable & Wireless

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