It proved to be third time lucky for Sharetrack 100's overall winner Mr John Leahy with his Highland portfolio. In his third year competing in the fantasy share-dealing competition run by The Irish Times in conjunction with Goodbody Stockbrokers, Mr Leahy finally came out on top to clinch the £15,000 prize.

His Highland portfolio won by a margin of 133,771 over Ms Joan Boulvin's Last Trade portfolio. The extent of the winning margin belies the closeness of the battle between these two portfolios over the past number of weeks, with each regularly changing positions at the top.

"It was up and down between Joan Boulvin and myself. She was ahead for a long time," said a relieved Mr Leahy.

"I've been playing the game for the past couple of years. I suppose the strategy of that last couple of years paid off."

Ms Boulvin can look forward to a cheque for £7,000 as a consolation for coming second.

It was double joy for third-placed Mr Charles Kingston. As well as seeing his Neptune portfolio race into third place from the previous week's number eight spot to take £3,000, he also saw his Iridium portfolio grab the final £1,000 weekly prize. It is the third time he has taken a weekly prize with Iridium, bringing his overall Sharetrack 100 winnings to £6,000.

Overall winner Mr Leahy has oil stock Bula to thank for netting him the top prize. "That's what won it in the last week. Bula turned out to be highest riser on the week - a nice and volatile Irish exploration stock," he said.

It posted a gain of 8.7 per cent to top the table of the five best shares in the last week.

Mr Leahy said a strategy of closely following volatile stocks was key to his success.

"It basically involved buying volatile shares when they were down and hoping they'd go back up again," he said.

"It's all about trading in volatility rather than trying to make sense of the underlying value of the shares. A professional would look at the long-term value of the shares, but I'm just looking at shares on a weekly basis and what's likely to jump in the week."

It was a strategy that paid off. But core holding Fyffes also turned out to be an inspired choice for Mr Leahy as its price picked up strongly in the closing weeks of the competition. It was the third-best performing share in the last week, posting a 5.69 per cent gain.

The consultant engineer, who originally hails from Mallow in Co Cork, but who now lives in Rathgar in Dublin, said he plans to use some of his winnings to invest in the stock market for real.

"I'll put a fair bit of it into shares and I'll also do some work on my apartment," said Mr Leahy.

Congratulations again to the winners. Thanks to all players taking part and better luck next year.