Over 200 Students Compete in the 2019 Stock Market Challenge

With the familiar ring of the stock market opening bell, over 200 Connecticut high school students kicked off the trading day at the 5^th Annual Stock Market Challenge, offered by Junior Achievement of Greater Fairfield County, testing their trading and investing knowledge and skills.

Students from 52 teams spent the morning buying, selling and trading 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 knowledge and good judgment to maximize their investments.

The student teams hailed from Academy of Information, Technology and Engineering High School; King School; Stamford High School; Trinity Catholic High School; Westhill High School; St. Lukes’s School; Fairfield Ludlowe High School; Fairfield Warde High School; Ridgefield High School and Cheshire Academy, all getting a good feel for the hustle and bustle of the stock market floor, trying to build the most successful and stable investment portfolio.

This year’s winning team, “King 5” from King School, reached a net worth of $993,769.33 over the mock 60-day trading period. In second place was team “The Falcons” from Fairfield Ludlowe High School, which earned the second highest portfolio value of $931,997.03.

The Stock Market Challenge is part of an initiative to increase financial literacy among young people, helping them to develop the skills needed to evaluate debt and risk, accumulate savings and a good credit score, and make wise decisions about managing money.

Each team of 4 students was issued $500,000 in virtual cash to buy or sell shares in 26 fictitious public companies. Three ceiling high screens projected and tracked stock prices, stock performance graphs in real time and displayed the teams along with portfolio values and rankings.

“This competition was fierce, and everyone involved learned a valuable lesson about financial literacy and its many benefits in planning for the future,” said Bernadine Venditto President of Junior Achievement of Greater Fairfield County. “This challenge opened these students’ eyes to the idea that the stock market creates jobs and opportunities around the world and they get to see first-hand what impacts the success or failure of a company or stock. I want to thank all of our sponsors, including Gabelli Funds and Patriot Bank for helping us create an outlet to teach teens about money management in a creative and entertaining way.”

“It is important for people of all ages to understand personal finance and the most basic fiscal knowledge, from creating a monthly budget to investing for retirement, Patriot Bank is a strong advocate for teaching financial literacy,” said Rick Muskus, President at Patriot Bank. “I congratulate these young women and men who participated in the 2019 Stock Market Challenge, who have demonstrated their knowledge about financial markets and how to manage investments. We at Patriot Bank are so pleased to support this event as it helps develop the financial learning process for students.”

Patriot Bank is among the local businesses and organizations that sponsored the event as part of its initiative to help local schools and community organizations teach financial literacy. Judith Corprew Patriot Bank’s EVP – Chief Compliance & Risk Officer, rang the opening bell. She leads the bank’s financial literacy initiatives.