Tyran Ledner has played the stock exchange from an Emmanuel College classroom for the past 10 weeks. 

By his own admission, the markets are half research, half chance. 

The 16-year-old worked alongside 20 others in the Money Matters class led by teacher Paul Azzopardi. 

“In the stockmarket game you put in your shares and you start off with a virtual $50,000. You buy shares in companies and see if the shares go up or down,” Tyran said. 

“I came fifth in Australia and the second in Victoria. 

“I invested in Harvey Norman and an IBM company.”

It proved a winning combination. Tyran ended up with $58,000, just behind the top investor’s $59,000.

“Between fifth and first person there was only $1000 difference,” Tyran said. 

His profile name on the Australian Stock Exchange was suitably voracious.

“My friends call me the animal,” he said. 

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in 1987’s Wall Street might be going back too far for a role model, but “Leonardo Dicaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street — I wouldn’t mind that”, Tyran said. 

His career ambitions are a little more down-to-earth — perhaps something in the Australian Defence Force.

But he also has investment plans. 

“I’m going to try and invest in house properties, doing them up, and have some massive real estate,” he said.