When it comes to investing in and trading stocks, it is important to adapt and be flexible.
That’s what more than 1,300 Delaware elementary, middle and high school students discovered this spring by participating in the 10-week Stock Market Game (SMG), a national competition sponsored by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).
The event was coordinated locally by the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) at the University of Delaware. In addition to SIFMA, the competition was funded by the Investor Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice and WSFS Bank. On May 8, CEEE held a ceremony over Zoom honoring the winners of three grade categories as well as the winner of the InvestWrite essay contest in the spring 2024 edition of Stock Market Game.
“In this simulation, these incredible young students are able to learn about the risks and rewards of the economy,” said Scott Bacon, assistant director of CEEE and coordinator of the Stock Market Game at Delaware.
In the simulation, each team receives a virtual budget of $100,000 in fictional money to build and manage a stock portfolio of publicly traded companies. Before investing, they research companies as investment options and are able to follow the market’s ups and downs, while also keeping track of how they’re performing against their competitors in real time. After 10 weeks, those with the highest dollar value portfolio in each age group are the winners.
This competition has trained tens of thousands of students, as it was first offered by CEEE in 1983. This year, the competition included 1,338 students from 275 teams and 38 different schools. Delaware students’ strategy and adaptability became crucial, especially in the final hours of the competition.
The winners of the grades four to five category were students Victoria Pyle and Wareesha Amin from Claymont Elementary School. Pyle and Amin had a total return of $6,982.99 (+5.10%), investing in stocks that they found to be successful and reliable in their previous participation in the Stock Market Games, such as Microsoft and Micron Technology. Amin revealed that they were not afraid to take risks, and found out how taking risks can pay off. “A strategy we used was being generous with our money. It might seem risky, but we spent a lot on our shares. The more you buy, the more you gain,” she said.
Their teacher, Nicole Anacay, expressed pride in her students and their endless dedication to the Stock Market Game. “Victoria and Wareesha spent so much time working on this,” she said. “When the girls got a chance to just hangout with the other kids, they insisted on checking their stocks and the exchanges and they did amazing.”
The winners of the middle school category consisted of students from Newark Charter Junior High School: Aadhya Aneja, Victoria Cobb, V. Guyenne, and Fall Stock Market Games winner Sofia Rosetto-Angel. The students had a return of $11,180.17 (+9.29%) and came in second overall, beating many high school teams. They invested in larger companies such as Microsoft and Tesla, but found themselves ranked very low until the final hour of the competition. They decided to trade their Tesla shares minutes before the end of the competition, which proved to be the right move. Rosetto-Angel said the biggest thing they learned was to “manage risks and not avoid them.”
The group’s teacher, Sverrir Georgsson, could not have been more proud of his students and said, “These young ladies had absolutely no quit, and even better they learned so much about microeconomics and macroeconomics.”
The high school category’s winners consisted of four seniors from Newark Charter Senior High School: Owen Mathias, Noah Jones, Will Soyer and Russell Young, who placed first overall out of every team in all categories. The group used a lot of teamwork, and each chose two companies to invest in and then adjusted accordingly. Some of the companies they invested in included Paramount, CVE (energy company), and SoundHound (AI company). They had a return of $12,844.44 (+10.96%).
Their teacher, Michael Renn, commented on their strategy, saying, “As some of the trends changed, they modified their portfolio which shot them up to the top, changing their strategy if it was not working.” He was impressed with their determination and patient approach.
A final award was presented to the first place winner of the InvestWrite essay contest, which is open to any participant in the Stock Market Games. The essay component reinforced the newfound knowledge the young students had just honed in on during the Stock Market Games. This year’s winner in the high school category, Peyton Moore, wrote about how comfort in life is overrated, and how risk and reward plays a huge role in life and in the economy as well. Although Moore did not win the Stock Market Games, she believed InvestWrite to be “a good reflection to look back at the game.” Moore, who attends Lake Forest High School, also said she plans to invest in stocks when she’s older.
As the ceremony came to a close, Bacon once again congratulated all the winners and thanked them for their participation in the Stock Market Games, as well as their “free investment advice,” as he was very impressed after hearing from all of the winners. A special thank you also went out to all the teachers, parents, administrators and sponsors.