Stock Market. Investments. Stocks. Portfolios. Stochastics. REITS…honestly, the last two terms I learned for the first time while attending Wylie High’s Securities and Investments class this past February.
As I sought to learn more about this class, it dawned on me a class such as this would have intimidated me when I was in high school. Let’s be honest, most adults today leave investing and financial planning up to a professional. However, here at Wylie, students in this class attribute their skills and knowledge to hands-on experience and the expertise of their teacher, Mr. Jason Boyd.
Hold, Trade, or Buy?
One-hundred thousand dollars is at stake and fortunately is fake, but all the other tools being used in the Stock Market Game are not. The students, who work in small investment groups of day traders, study the stock market daily and actively trade like investors with actual money. There are a total of 13 teams at Wylie competing in the Central Texas Stock Market Game (CTSMG), which is a region that boasts 264 teams and includes larger cities like Austin and Round Rock.
Wylie’s lead team* consists of junior Alison McCall, seniors Keira Olivarez Quick, Lyndsay Ayala, and Julia Swingle. They are ranked number 1 at Wylie and 10 in the region. While this group is holding their own very well, they said their start was a little rough and laced with intimidation.
“Finances and investing were totally foreign to me. I literally knew nothing,” says McCall. “There are so many things to look at like patterns, trends, quality, dividends.” McCall said she went home on the first day of class and started conversing with her parents to gain a foundational understanding. McCall said she knew coming into the class would push her out of her comfort zone, which is one of her goals as she completes the last two years of high school.
As seniors, Ayala and Quick came into the class expecting the curriculum would be helpful for their future endeavors. Ayala, who will attend ACU in the fall to earn a degree in finance, says she initially planned to go into real estate. However, thanks to this class and the guidance of Mr. Boyd, she’ll be earning a degree she feels confident will benefit her real estate goals, but also broaden her opportunities.
Quick, who will attend Texas State in the fall to earn a degree in accounting, says while she is good at numbers, the SMG was a little intimidating at first, but overtime has become less so. She said initially they were not winning but that started to change before Christmas.
“We check-in day by day and were down initially, but we made a few changes, traded some stocks and that’s when money started to come in,” said Quick.
McCall says they just started thinking about what consumers would want, and what do they want as consumers. Now the team is at the top, which they say is awesome seeing they are the only team of females in their class and knew that many of their classmates were coming in with knowledge on the subject. According to Mr. Boyd, the team has had a 15 percent return on their investment thus far, which the team is proud of, but at the same time thankful that if their investments take a hit that it is only a game.
“The more we did, the easier it got, but using your own money would be a little different,” says Ayala. “It’s a game and that is nice.”
The Great Exchange
According to Mr. Boyd’s students, they are learning more than how to invest money. They are learning skills that are applicable in all aspects of life.
“We learn so much more,” says McCall. “About owning a business, working with dignity and respect, establishing a presence in a room and having confidence. We learned to shake hands properly the first week of school.”
Boyd’s professional experience outside of the school and how he applies it in the classroom is something Blaze Valentine, a junior in Boyd’s fifth period, feels makes this class applicable and enjoyable. Valentine plans to go to college for business and accounting. “It’s knowledge for the future and everything Mr. Boyd is teaching is being applied in class,” said Valentine.
Senior Tyler Mood says he plans to use what he learns for personal reasons to supplement income while attending flight school after high school and deems it as his “most important class” thus far.
Boyd, who brings experience as a commercial loan underwriter, a commercial lender, CEO of a medical group of practices, and small business owner gives him a unique perspective on what to focus on in the classes.
“I have a lot of flexibility with what we cover in these classes, so we are able to really dive deeply into business concepts that I believe are the most beneficial for them to understand for their future careers in the business world.”
Senior Josh Patterson, who had Mr. Boyd for Business Law as a junior, said he specifically sought to be senior aide in this class because he enjoys learning from Mr. Boyd. “He knows what he is talking about, shares stories, has first-hand experience; he adds in what he knows supports the knowledge you are gaining.”
A Final Transaction
Swingle had just enrolled at Wylie after moving from England the week before this interview; she is a senior at a new school, in a new class, and thankful to be a team member with McCall, Ayala, and Quick.
“It’s crazy,” says Swingle. “We had nothing like this [class] in England. I never thought about going into business. I plan to be an attorney, but I needed an endorsement and felt it would be beneficial.”
I asked her what words of advice she would give to another student who may be like me — who would have been a little timid about enrolling in this class as a high schooler. “Keep options open because you don’t know what you want to do, but this class is about money.”
Sound advice. We all must deal with money no matter our professional and a sound understanding of how to handle it is something from which we all benefit and this class, according to McCall, does exactly that. “It’s empowering to manage your own money, to know how to trade it and save it.”
As for Mr. Boyd’s motivation. He hopes his students exit his class with an expanded idea of what careers are available, an understanding of the impact of cashflow, and characteristics of a successful company and individual. He hopes to push his students beyond what they each believe is their best.
“I hope my students come out of my classes with a little bit of exposure to all the different career paths available to them in the business world. I also want them to have a general framework of what makes certain companies successful and causes others to not be, specifically relating to cashflow management. I hope that my kids find interest in something that we discuss so that they can be motivated to become productive citizens and make a meaningful positive impact in their workplaces,” says Boyd. “I would encourage any student interested in pursuing a career in business to take my classes. As I tell my students often, most people stop when things get hard or when they start to feel insecure or intimidated, but I will encourage you to push into the hard and push through the awkward. It is here where most people get stuck, and the highest achievers separate themselves from the pack.”
*Team ranks change daily, but this team has maintained the lead consistently prior to this story and at the time of magazine production.
By Kristen Johnson