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| 11th graders hard at work checking the value of their portfolios as they participate in the Ohio Stock Market Challenge. |
Recently, eleventh graders taking Mr. Nuñez's economics this semester
have been participating in the Ohio Stock Market Challenge, a program organized locally by Wright State University's College of Business.
Devin Wade, an economics student, summarizes the
project in an interview: “The Stock Market Challenge is using our understanding
of the market from class to exchange stocks as a group.” Devin is just one of
the students taking economics and participating in this 10-week project. For
this project, each group was given an amount of $100,000; this of course being
fake money. However, with this money, groups could invest in a simulated stock market. These stocks on the Ohio Stock Market Challenge mirror the actual stock market.
Some students, such as Devin,
visit the website nearly six times a day, always preparing for the stock market
to crash. Devin says the most frustrating part of owning stocks is that
sometimes his group invests in companies, such as NetGear, thinking it will
rise when it doesn’t. This has a negative impact on their ranking within the class,
region, and their division.
Students all over the state are currently participating in this Stock
Market Challenge. Overall, there are 656 groups currently competing to be
number one. What happens if you get number one? A selective few will get the
chance to go to New York to see the actual stock market.
Students in Mr. Nuñez’s class also have something to work
towards. Besides this being a highly-weighted project, the group who comes in first
place out of all the groups currently taking economics will get a $25.00 visa
gift card per person. This gives extra motivation to students, while also
helping them understand the stock market.
Points are awarded for the following project requirements:
- 20 points goes to actively tracking their portfolio.
- 20 points goes to creating another portfolio representing a “buy and hold” approach. According to Investopedia, “Buy and hold is a passive investment strategy in which an investor buys stocks and holds them for a long period of time, regardless of fluctuations in the market.”
- The next 20 points goes to students developing their own trading strategy throughout the experience.
- Another 20 points goes to the essay, set to be written at the end of the quarter. This essay asks students to reflect on whether the active investing or buy-and-hold strategy is better.
- 20 more points go to group collaboration.
When asked if he wished he had had projects like this while he was in high school, Mr. Nuñez responded, “Yes, absolutely. With economics, a lot of it can be just looking at charts, figuring out demand versus supply, and reading over economics theory. That’s just not a fun and engaging way to learn, and I wish that the classes that I took in high school and college would have engaged me like this project does.”
Dylan Flippo,
an eleventh grade student says, “This project definitely helped me learn
because I am a very visual learner, along with a lot of people I know in my
grade. Being able to compete in the Stock Market Challenge and experience it is
really helping me better than just learning from a PowerPoint.” Devin agreed, adding, “I think this project definitely helped me learn because
I get to see in real dollars [stock exchange numbers] how useful tactics of
buying and selling are.”
When also asked what DRSS quality Dylan is using the most during
this project, he responded with, “The quality I am most using is persistence.
There were so many times where our balance went so low, and we had to use
persistence to keep trading stocks and staying strong. The hardest parts was
during the trading periods.” The New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4:00 p.m. every day.
Devin Wade says that the quality he is most using throughout
this project is communication. “I am using communication to consult my group on
which stocks to buy or sell.” Buying and selling during this project is a
crucial key to having a high ranking. Most groups follow the “buy low, sell high”
rule. What this means is that when a company has just crashed, or is crashing,
they buy shares. As that company starts to recover and go back up, they sell their shares. This can
create quite a large profit for students. However, if shares are held on too long,
the company can crash again, leaving the return negative.
“This project was meant to be highly
collaborative, highly stressful, and fun. Students so far seem to be really
enjoying watching their stocks go up and down throughout the school day,” says
Mr. Nunez. Taryn Hughes, another eleventh
grade student says, “I am having the best time during this project. I get to
work with my classmates and learn skills I will need for the future.”
