The fifth grade math class has begun a new challenge this week. We have officially entered the Stock Market Game. Sponsored locally by the Denver Post, students are able to login to the game's website and create their own portfolios with a fictitious $100,000. This week we have not officially begun trading yet but have spent our time learning about these topics:
1. What is a company? 2. What is a corporation? 3. What is a parent company? 4. What is a stock? 5. What is a ticker symbol? 6. How and where do I research stocks? 7. What are sectors? 8. How do I diversify? The rules of the game are basically this: * Each team of students gets $100,000 to trade on the NYSE or NASDAQ. Teams cannot trade on the margin (borrow more than they actually have in cash.) * Stocks must be traded in 100 shares or more. We will not trade penny stocks (those stocks worth $5 or less.) We will not be trading bonds or mutual funds since this is their first experience with the stock market and its complexity. * A 1% brokerage fee is assessed on all transactions. * Students can trade only on trade days during math class (Mondays and Thursdays for us.) * All trades must be completed by May 17 and students do not need to sell everything at the end to determine final portfolio value. (FYI... This is a competition between them, and they do see their rankings when they log in!) So far they are a little confused by the complications with public/private companies and the idea that there are brands, companies, and parent companies (and you must know the parent company to determine the ticker in order to trade on the stock market!) However, I think they are very excited to work their first deal. Even though the money is not real, how often do they get to spend $100,000. I love it when math learning can reflect real-world work, and teaching some sense of finacial literacy is a great idea. Who knows, maybe these kids will be managing your 401K in the future!
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Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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