Two fourth graders from Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (HBHA), Havi S. and Isaac U., recently won the elementary division of The Stock Market Game in Kansas.
The competition, organized by the Kansas Council for Economic Education, is designed to help students learn about the stock market and investment strategies. This was the first year that the challenge was open to elementary-age students, and HBHA's fourth-grade team won.
The two students, despite being the only elementary team to take on the challenge, beat 40% of the middle school teams.
The game took place over a six-month period. Their teacher, Stevens McClure, taught the two students about stocks for a month beforehand and continued the lessons during the game period. In the game, the students traded stocks for two months and held them for the last four months, which is called a buy-and-hold strategy. They started with $100,000 and invested in approximately 20 stocks. Their best pick was Microsoft, which gave them a return of over $2,000.
Havi and Isaac spent most of their time learning about the stock market, what stocks are, how only public companies are traded, and more. They also went on Yahoo Finance to read graphs and long-term data. They learned about beta and risky stocks and, during the game, had to research a stock, look at long-term trends back at least 10 years, and look for news articles to see what the company was currently doing before buying a stock.
Participation in The Stock Market Game helped take the math skills the students had worked on and apply them in a real-life challenge. The students read graphs, looked for trends, did basic multiplication, and calculated percentages all to analyze stocks and make informed investment decisions. Overall, this experience was a way for the students to learn about the stock market, investment strategies, and financial literacy in a hands-on way.
