Five Wylie students made more than $41,000 by investing in the stock market as part of their Banking and Finance class.
Too bad it was pretend money.
Nevertheless, the success that Cameron Hanna, Mason Schubert, Kassidy Munton, Addison Shipley and Jaden McDaniel had playing The Stock Market Game paid off in other ways. They learned a lot about the Stock Market, and they won 1st place in their region in the nationwide competition. Their region includes 350 teams in West Texas and the Austin area.
Wylie teacher Reagan Berry divided her class into groups to play the Stock Market Game to teach them about trading stocks and mutual funds. The Texas Economic Council sponsors the game, and nine Wylie teams competed against other schools throughout the nation.
Each team has $100,000 to invest over three months.
“It was basically like we were investing in the stock market, but with pretend money,” Jaden said. “So it didn’t matter if we lost it.”
The game allowed students to invest the pretend money and trade in real time with the market. Mason said the team, who called themselves Berry Business, went with a risky strategy.
“It only lasts about three months,” Mason said. “Our strategy had to be risky enough so we would separate ourselves. Normally, you would not be that risky.”
Cameron said it took a little skill and a little luck to win the competition.
“It was a little bit of both,” he said. “We did a lot of research before we ever invested.”
“But we also got pretty lucky,” Mason said.
Cameron said the team looked for stocks that were close to their 52-week low which meant they had plenty of room to grow.
The strategy paid off. Mason said from the beginning, the team wanted to try to win.
“We were going to try, but it wasn’t expected,” he said. “Once we got in 1st, we took it more seriously.”
Cameron said he and Mason were on a baseball trip when they heard the team was in first.
“People were texting us that we were in 1st,” he said. “We didn’t believe them.”
The students will get $50 each for winning their region. The top 10 teams in the country get a trip to the White House. The Wylie team finished 14th in the nation.
Addison said Mason and Cameron took the most interest in the trading.
“They knew what they were doing,” she said. “It was a lot of fun.”
And the game accomplished its purpose.
“I knew nothing about the stock market before,” Kassidy said. “Now I know more. I at least know what the stock market is.”
“It gave us real life experience on how it works and how to trade,” Cameron said.