Nearly 200 High School Students Face Off in Stock Market Challenge

The familiar ring of the stock market opening bell kicked off the trading day for nearly 200 Fairfield County high school students, who tested their trading and investing mettle at the 2017 Stock Market Challenge, offered by Junior Achievement of Southwest Connecticut (JASWCT).

Students from Trinity Catholic High School, Academy of Information Technology & Engineering (AITE), King School, New Canaan High School, Westhill High School, and St. Luke’s School comprised 44 teams at the third annual competition on Tuesday, April 25 at King School.

This year’s winning team, “VIP 5” from King School, grew their half-a-million virtual dollars by 85%, reaching a net worth of $923,602.47 over the mock 60-day trading period. Close behind was team “AKVD” from AITE, which earned the second highest portfolio value. Students bought and sold stocks – with one minute equaling one day – during the hour-long competition based on their quick analyses of earnings and profits, value and risk, using their financial acumen to maximize their investments.

It was part of an initiative to increase financial literacy among young people, helping them to develop skills to evaluate debt and risk, accumulate savings and make shrewd decisions about how to manage money.

“Connecting the classroom to the real world is a key factor in keeping young people interested in their learning and we're always looking for exciting and innovative ways to do that at Trinity Catholic High School,” said Dave Williams, principal at Trinity Catholic High School.

Each team was issued $500,000 in virtual cash to buy or sell shares in 26 public companies. The mock trades were projected to three giant screens that tracked stock prices, stock performance graphs and displayed school team names along with portfolio values and rankings.

“April is Financial Literacy Month, and we are excited to partner with Junior Achievement in this important event,” said Richard Muskus Jr., President at Patriot Bank, the title sponsor for the event. “Teens competing in the Stock Market Challenge train for weeks or longer to understand the way the stock markets works, just as students might practice with their school athletic teams, and the knowledge they gain here will help them throughout their financial lives.  This event is important to Patriot Bank because it provides a high-paced financial learning environment that enables students to have fun and be engaged, while learning valuable real-world lessons about how to prudently manage money.”

“It is really wonderful to see the students this engaged and excited about financial literacy,” said Jan Ursone, President of JASWCT. “This event illustrates the positive learning opportunity when we make them available to our youth.”

Patriot Bank is among the local businesses and organizations that sponsored the event as part of its new initiative to help local schools and community organizations teach financial literacy. Samuel Davis, Patriot Bank’s EVP – Chief Credit Officer, rang the opening bell. Mr. Davis has served over a quarter century on the JASWCT board.

Junior Achievement inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy. During the 2016-2017 program year more than 11,500 students will participate in Junior Achievement of Southwest Connecticut throughout the communities of Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Westport and Weston.