The stock market is a rapidly changing financial forum where investors can buy and sell shares of companies worldwide. Investing in the stock market is one of the most effective ways to increase one’s net worth over time.
Learning about the stock market can benefit your financial stability and future lifestyle. The average investor can double their portfolio every 7 to 10 years by investing in stocks. With the proper practice and smart investments, your assets can grow even faster.
In order to make smart choices, beginner investors need to become familiar with the stock market’s unpredictable nature. The best way to do this without the risk of losing money is to navigate the stock market without any real money. Online investment opportunities and challenges like ‘The Stock Market Game’ allow students to do just that.
The Stock Market Game is a virtual investing program that allows students to invest in real-time markets without the significant risk of money loss. Mr. Lewis, the economics teacher, explains this system in more detail.
“Students get $100,000 obviously not real money, but they get 100,000, I put them into teams of four or five, and then they get 10 weeks to invest that money in the stock market,” Lewis said. “They can invest in stocks, mutual funds, and bonds. And then, over the course of that 10 weeks, they calculate how their portfolio has done compared to the S&P 500. Whichever teams do the best are ranked.”
This year, Lakewood placed higher than ever before. An all-girls team ranked 7th in the state, growing their $100,000 by $22,000 in only 2 and a half months.
Obtaining this gain was no easy feat. Kathryn Jirousek, a member of this group, discusses the challenges she faced during the game.
“The stock market fluctuates so much,” Jirousek said. “One day we were doing really good and the next day we dropped a whole bunch of points. Really, the challenge was how unpredictable it is. It changes and fluctuates all the time, minute by minute, day by day.”
Learning how to manage your stocks takes a lot of hard work and practice. This team faced and overcame many hardships throughout the 10 weeks. Lauren Lange, another group member, explained how they bested these challenges and came out on top.
“At first, we were the lowest in the class. We overcame it by being very present in the news especially,” Lange said. “I was really looking at what is going on today, and looking at a lot of business articles was also really important. I feel like this helped us overcome only investing in the biggest brands.”
Staying informed about your investments is crucial for controlling your money’s growth and decline. Just by staying informed and relevant, this team was able to turn their portfolio around and grow their money within weeks. A huge factor in their success was their focus on timely companies. Katie explained why they made this deliberate decision.
“In the beginning, we were kind of just looking at the basic, typical stuff like Amazon and big companies,” Jirousek said. “But it’s kind of harder to make money off of those because [their stocks] already start off really expensive. So, when you sell them, you don’t make that much. So we started looking more into AI because AI is growing more and more.”
While investing in big companies can sometimes be beneficial, it’s hard to make the most money while focusing on already prominent businesses. This team decided to put their money into upcoming companies that grew at a faster rate. This risky decision was a key factor in their success and overall ranking.
Katie and Lauren believe this experience greatly impacted their knowledge of the stock market. They both recommend taking Mr. Lewis’s economics and playing the Stock Market Game.
“I feel like [the class] really benefits you, and it teaches you a lot about how our economy works and what’s going on around us,” Lange said.
The Stock Market Game is an incredible resource that teaches beginner investors how to manage their money. Katie and Lauren recommend that all students get involved because of their amazing growth and exciting experiences playing the game.
