The first place team of South High students, Max Baer and Jayson Mears, were led by their economics teacher Elaine Marinakos. South High economics teacher Greg Maloney led the third place team of Dylan Knoch, Andres Lopez, and Jeff Nugent.
Students from South High School in Downers Grove earned first place and third place, and North High’s team earned sixth place, in the Northwest Suburban Spring 2018 session of The Stock Market Game program. The three teams competed against 867 teams across Illinois.
The first place team of South High students, Max Baer and Jayson Mears, were led by their economics teacher Elaine Marinakos. Max and Jayson invested in the following companies: JNP (Juniper Pharmaceuticals), SEDG (SolarEdge Technologies), KURA (Kura Oncology), TTGT (TechTarget Inc), ENPH (Enphase Energy). The students realized that they needed to diversify their selections to succeed, so they invested in technology, energy, and pharmaceuticals. The first place team’s best performing stock was SEDG, which they “bought” 300 shares at $36.28, and finished at $55.20 for a $5,675 profit.
“The Stock Market Game was a great experience and was a perfect opportunity to test the stock market without your own money,” South High senior and Stock Market Game winner Jayson Mears said. “Overall, this will be a memory that I keep from my high school experience and I loved the suspense of the race for first place. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this game and I hope that students continue to get the chance to play.”
“It was fun watching the students’ celebration when they made it to 1st place,” South High economics teacher Elaine Marinakos said. “Both Max and Jayson understand that the parameters of the Stock Market Game are not what the actual stock market was intended for - they understand that to be truly successful in the stock market you have to play long term and continuously research companies and current events.”
First Place: Jayson Mears, South High teacher Elaine Marinakos, Max Baer
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South High economics teacher Greg Maloney led the third place team of Dylan Knoch, Andres Lopez, and Jeff Nugent. The third place team invested in ULBI (Ultralife Corporation), ADBE (Adobe Systems), STMP (Stamps.com), NVDA (Nvidia Corporation). The team purchased 5,000 shares of ULBI at $7; it went up as high as $10 and ended in the $9 range at the end of the game.
“At the beginning of the game, we talked as a class about the “go big or go home” mentality you need for the Stock Market Game,” South High economics teacher Greg Maloney said. “The team told me that their plan for the game was to either ‘finish first, or finish last,’ so they researched cheap stocks that analysts said were on the rise. They ‘went big’ by buying 5,000 shares of a company they never heard of and rode it out for the length of the game. In the end, it worked out for them.”
Third Place: South High teacher Greg Maloney, Andres Lopez, Dylan Knoch, and Jeff Nugent
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North High’s Stock Market team, led by economics teacher Tom Saam, included Ethan Smith, Owen Wahlgren, Nathan Kaup, Chun Chan, and Robert Barnett. The team earned sixth place with their companies including Boeing, Lululemon, Snap, and Amazon. Lululemon was their biggest gainer with a 21.25% return in the game.
The Stock Market Game is organized twice during the academic year, once in the fall and once in the winter/spring. Students are given a starting capital amount of $100,000 in the simulation, and are encouraged to buy and sell stocks and mutual funds based on researching market trends and news that may be aligned with the company and the industry.
The Stock Market Game (SMG) is an online education program used in thousands of classrooms nationwide. It helps teach core subjects like math, social studies, technology, business, economics and language skills in a real-world setting while emphasizing the importance of long-term saving and investing. See www.stockmarketgame.org and www.econillinois.org for details about the program.