THE TRADING

GAME

This teaching & learning resource is designed to support the delivery of the OCR Being Entrepreneurial qualifications.
Please note that the resource is not intended to provide full coverage of all assessment objectives.

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TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
The Trading Game is an interactive activity that is all about the classic entrepreneurial
process of buying and selling!
The underpinning idea behind The Trading Game is that learners purchase stock from
a wholesaler (CheapCo) to sell at one of three possible trading sites. Learners are provided
with a limited budget and they must decide where they are going to sell their stock and
at what price. Based on this information students can then estimate their gross and net
profit assuming they sell all their stock.
How well each group does is then determined by their choice of product, location and
selling price. Actual sales are calculated automatically in The Trading Game.

Purpose
The Trading Game is a group activity designed to get learners thinking about and experiencing a range
of entrepreneurial skills including:
Taking risks and assessing the potential rewards
Making choices because resources (finance) is limited)
Buying and selling in order to make a profit
Choosing where to sell products (routes to market)
Gross profit (the profit made on individual products sold)
Net profit (the overall profit made after all costs have been taken into account)

Length of activity
Approximately 60 80 minutes

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Resources needed
The PowerPoint file containing The Trading Game.pptm
Note: This activity has embedded macros. You will be prompted when opening the PowerPoint file
to enable these macros you must enable the macros for the file to work.
A set of product cards per group of learners
One set of scenario cards per group
A copy of the learner trading sheet per group

Running the activity

1 Split the class into up to 8 groups. Before The Trading Game starts a discussion should take place
around the concepts of buying and selling, choosing the best location to trade, gross profit and net
profit.
2 Give each group a set of the 30 product cards. Each card contains details of a deal that can be
bought from the wholesaler CheapCo. The card contains the name of the product, a product code,
quantity per deal and the deal price. For example, the deal might be: buy a box of 20 popular small
chocolate bars for 5.00.
3 After the product cards have been distributed, give each group a set of the scenario cards. There are
3 scenarios to choose from. Each scenario has a fixed cost associated to it and each scenario should
influence the choice of products that the groups might decide to buy.
4 Each group needs to choose a trading scenario and up to 8 products
to purchase within their budget of 1,000. Students then need to
decide how much they would charge (selling price) for each
product (unit) that they are going to sell.
This is an important decision: How many of each
product they are able to sell will depend on:
The trading scenario
The selling price chosen for each product
bought

MY NET
PROFIT
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This is an extremely important point to explain to learners. The PowerPoint presentation contains some
complex formula that works out actual sales depending on the price they charge for each unit and the
trading scenario chosen. This encourages learners to purchase a range of products to suit their chosen
market and set sensible prices to maximise sales. In addition, learners should be told that any unsold
stock will be sold to a local trader at a price well below cost price. This will again encourage learners to
make sensible product purchases.
(Please note that learners will receive 25% of the cost price of all unsold stock however the amount should
not be revealed to learners until actual sales have been calculated).
If possible, it may be a good idea (if time and resources permit) to allow learners to carry out some limited
research in order to find out recommended retail prices for their chosen products. This may help inform
their decisions when it comes to setting their own prices
5 Once learners have chosen their scenario and products they then need to complete the Learner
Trading Sheet up to and including selling price per unit.
6 After the groups have completed the above, each group comes to the front of the class and explains
the scenario they have chosen and which products they have decided to buy. The teacher then inputs
the relevant information directly onto the PowerPoint presentation. This will calcualte actual sales
for each product. The learners can record actual sales onto their Learner Trading Sheet and then
complete the rest of the trading sheet, working out their gross and net profit (remember to inform
students that they will receive 25% of the
cost price of all unsold stock).
7 Once step 6 has been completed, the team
with the most amount of profit (or the
smallest loss!) is announced as the winner
of the trading game.
MY
TRADING
GAME
PRESENTATION

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Further teaching and learning opportunities

The Trading Game offers many other opportunities for teaching and learning.
For example, the teacher could explain to learners that, for most businesses, any unsold stock would
actually go on the balance sheet, as would any unused cash. This would provide a nice link into the teaching
of balance sheets.
An alternative strategy could be to not tell learners what happens if they have any unsold stock. Once the
actual sales have been revealed (and unsold stock calculated) a discussion can take place around which
products were left unsold and why? Did they buy too much? Did they price their products too high? Did
they choose the wrong mix of products for their chosen scenario? What would they do with their unsold
stock?
Once the discussion has taken place then the teacher can then reveal that they will receive 25% of the
cost of unsold stock and then the activity can progress to its conclusion.

Resources for Courses

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Product Description

Scenario and overhead:

Product
Code

Total Revenue:
Cost of Sales:
Gross Profit:
Overheads:
Net Profit:

Qty per
Deal

Unit
Price
No of units
bought

TRADING SHEET
Deal Price
Total no
of units
purchased

Budget used:
Amount
spent

Selling
price per
unit

Actual
units sold

Revenue
generated
from sales

Revenue
generated
from unsold
units

Name of team members:

Unsold
units

Budget not spent:

Gross profit
per units
sold

Total
revenue

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Product code
Product description
Deal price
Quantity per deal
Unit price
No of deals bought

Revenue generated from sales + revenue generated from unsold units

Each product has a unique code which is indicated on the product card
A description of the individual product purchased
The price of purchasing the specific quantities of product, for example, the cost of purchasing 120 Freddos is 16.80
The total number of individual units included in the deal price. For example, 16.80 purchases 120 Freddos
The cost of each individual unit. For example, the cost of a box of Freddo bars is 16.80/120 therefore the unit cost is 0.14
The total number of packs/ boxes etc purchased rather than individual units. For example, 1 pack/ box of quilted velvet
toilet rolls consists of 10 units.
Quantity per deal x number of packs/ boxes purchased. For example, 5 packs of diet coke equates to 150 units

Total no of units
purchased
Amount spent
Selling price per unit
Actual units sold
Revenue generated
from sales
Gross profit per unit
sold
Unsold units
Revenue generated
from unsold units
Total revenue

Revenue generated from sales + revenue generated from unsold units

Amount spent on purchasing deals
Total revenue cost of sales
Fixed cost of individual scenario
Gross profit - overheads

Total number of units purchased actual units sold

(unsold units x unit price) / 4

(Selling price unit price) x actual units sold

Deal price x number of packs/ boxes purchased. For example, purchasing 5 packs of diet coke will equate to 29.90
The unit price set by the group
The actual sales of the products purchased
Selling price per unit x actual units sold

Total revenue
Cost of sales
Gross profit
Overheads
Net profit

Resources for Courses

Small Milk
Chocolate
Bar (18g)

Cola
(330ml)
Can

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

120

15.99

30

5.98

Phone
Charger

Diet Cola
(330ml)
Can
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

30

5.98

98.90

Fruit
Flavoured
Drink
(200ml)

Quilted
Toilet Rolls
(White 4pk)
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

10.78

48

8.38

Branded
Ladies
Jeans
(Sizes 8-14)

Tissues
(Box)

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

99.99

12

9.59

Chocolate Wafer
Bar (40g)

Blu-ray Player

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

159.99

10

36

15.99

Crisps - Salt
and Vinegar
(35g)

Chocolatecovered
biscuit (58g)
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

11

25

6.99

12

48

18.07

Crisps Cheese
and Onion
(35g)

Crisps Ready
Salted
(35g)
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

13

48

18.07

14

48

18.07

Disposable
Ballpoint
Pens - Black

A4 80 Sheet
Lined Refill
Pad

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

15

50

4.99

16

20

15.00

Branded
Mans
Aftershave
(100ml)

Disposable
BBQ (Small)
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

17

20

20.00

18

149.99

Car Air
Freshener Cherry

Scientific
Calculator

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

19

20

5.99

20

10

5.99

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

22

75.50

Mens Cotton
White T-shirts
(Med-Lrg)
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

21

20

12.99

Headphones
(Black)

A4 Printer
Paper
(500 Sheets)

8gb USB
Memory Stick
Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

23

25

31.00

24

8.98

Car Mat
Set 4 Piece
(Black)

A4 Lever
Arch File

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

25

10

35.00

26

10

7.50

AA Batteries - 16 Pack

Mints
(Single Pack)

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

27

20

20.00

28

60

6.50

Shaving
Gel
(200ml)

Womens
Deodorant (150ml)

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

29

60

75.00

30

12

12.99

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

Product
Code

Deal
Quantity

Deal
Price

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SCENARIO CARDS

School/ College Tuck Shop

An opportunity has arisen to run a small tuck shop in your
local school/ college on Friday. The opening hours of the tuck
shop will be 8 a.m. to 1.45 p.m. and will incur a fixed cost of 10.

Car Boot Sale

Every Sunday there is a local car boot sale which attracts
hundreds of local bargain hunters. The car boot sale begins
at 10 a.m. and finishes at 1.30 p.m. Taking a stall at the car boot
sale will incur a fixed cost of 20.

Saturday Town Centre Market

There is an opportunity to run a small stall in the popular
town centre Saturday Market. The market opens at 10 a.m. and
finishes at 5 p.m. The cost of running the stall is 50 which
includes public liability insurance.