and the winner is...

[mahaba ang kwento na 'to, pero gusto ko ikwento]

For the spirit of fun and of course learning, we've had a Financial Trivia Contest in the office courtesy of the Training Team. We were divided into 4 groups and the games were played every Tuesday and Thursday wherein 1 group competes against another.

Each game was composed of an Easy (250pts), Average(375pts) and Difficult(500pts) round composed of 5 questions each. The first 2 rounds were supposed to be answered by only 1 team member without repeating turns while the last round was a group effort.

We lost our first game because we've already forgotten how to compute future values and bonds. And yes, the other group was good.

Because of this, we started to browse through books to refresh our memory and be somewhat prepared for the next games. And I've memorized that formula of Future Values.

FV = initial amount x [1 + r (t)]; if it's not compounded
FV = initial amount x [1 + r ]^t; if it's compounded

Our second game was exciting because the competing team was leading the game up until the second to the last question. The last question was a multiple choice type question about Bonds. It was a tough one. Buti na lang nakahula kami! So, we won the game.

The third game was the most exciting as we were facing the unbeatable group. They are very good and they know how to solve accounting problems. And on game day, we were missing a team mate as she's on leave. The Training Team said we had to push through with the game.

I guess luck was on our side on that day. There were no computations in the questions. Pagalingan na lang manghula! We were leading by a small amount at the last question. But it was not yet over. If the other team gets it right and we do not, we'll loose. But it turned out to be the other way around.

That was our last game for the eliminations round. The team standing are as follows:

W L
Group 1 2 1
Group 2 1 1
Group 3 2 1
Group 4 0 2

This meant that Group 4 had to beat Group 2 so we can get into the Finals. Or if Group 2 wins, they should have a smaller total score than us, so we'll be the ones to compete for the Finals. It wasn't on our hands anymore.

But then, Group 4 won the game. And they were also missing a teammate on that day!

They had the same overall score with Group 2, so they were tied at the 3rd place.

Today was the Finals Round. The rules were reformatted -- there are still 15 questions but 1-10 have the same points at 100 each while the last 5 is worth 200 points each. The first 10 questions are still to be answered individually and only the last 5 are to be answered as a group.

There were 7 additional questions to add spice to the game. After each question, the team who has answered correctly was asked to pick the next question. If they pick one of the extras, they have an opportunity to earn points if they get it right. If not, it'll be subtracted to their score.

We were leading the game up until the 10th question. But they got most of the hard questions so the game was tied at 900pts when the 15th question was over.

But the game was far from over. There was still a final question. This time, we were asked to decide how much of our points will we bet -- if we get it right, it will be added; if not, it will be subtracted. We wrote this in a piece of paper and handed it over to the Quiz Masters.

Both teams did not know what was written in the paper.

The question was: "In 3 minutes, write down all the Main Stock Indices you know."

Of course, we should know these because we come across them every working day. We just wrote and wrote and wrote and at the same time panicked.

3 minutes elapsed and we submitted our answer sheets and were asked to leave the room and go back to work as they checked the answers.

After a few more minutes, they announced that it was 19 indices to 17 indices. It was in favor of our group! Our bet was 700 points while the other group is just 450. Buti na lang mas madami kaming naisulat na tama, kung hindi and daming mababawas na score sa 'min. Ayun, kami ang nagwagi. hehe

[sabi sa 'yo mahaba e..]


By the way, may price yun. We won SM GC's worth 500 pesos each.