Junior Achievement of Western Pa. hosts high school students for stock market competition

In the volatile world of the stock market, the difference between finishing on top and, say, 98th place is about three minutes.

At least that’s one of the lessons learned by budding Deer Lakes School District investors.

“The stock market is unpredictable,” said Sam Guthrie, a Deer Lakes senior and part of his school’s team at last week’s Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge.

With just three minutes to go in the challenge, his team was in first place, only to finish in 98th place after market changes decimated their portfolio.

Stage AE on Pittsburgh’s North Shore was set up like a stock market with a board showing the stock prices similar to the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest stock market on earth, where matches are made between buyers and sellers trading shares of public companies.

In the live trading simulation, students formed teams to compete in maximizing their investments, strategizing in response to the ups and downs of a simulated market.

Each team began with $500,000. They came prepared with a portfolio of fake company stocks that might include companies such as Donut House, a global doughnut and coffee chain, and Nichols Sporting Goods, an American manufacturer of sports equipment.

There was buying, selling, trading and some tense moments.

A bell rung to open the day’s trading, just like on Wall Street.

Presented by Citizens bank, the challenge was held to empower students with real-world financial literacy skills.

This was the first time for such an event in Pittsburgh.

“This is what Junior Achievement does across the country,” said Patrice Matamoros, president of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania. “We help with real-life skills. What we do here is an extension of what they are learning in the classroom.”

That includes learning how to manage money through stocks, which was the lesson of the day.

There were 108 teams and 385 students from Allegheny, Beaver, Cambria, Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland counties and Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia.

Deer Lakes High School business and computer teacher Doug Clark said some of his students already have shown an interest in the stock market.

“This is part of their future,” said Clark, who brought 10 teams. “It is great for them to experience this kind of competition.”

Al DiFranco, president and CEO at Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland, would announce information such as the price of coffee beans on the rise. If students owned Donut House stock, they might want to make a decision on what to do with it.

And they didn’t have a lot of time because, for this competition, one minute was equal to one day.

“This JA Stock Market Challenge is about the stock market but also about financial literacy and wellness and investing wisely,” DiFranco said. “When you work on Wall Street, you have to constantly be paying attention because the stock market can change in a minute.”

It definitely can be unpredictable, said Andrew Tsangaris, financial literacy teacher at Springdale High School who brought two teams. That’s why being able to get first-hand experience like this is of great value, he said.

“Students get to see what the day-to-day trading is like,” he said. “Some students have begun investing already.”

Springdale seniors Brooke Taliani and Tara Overly said the stock market challenge was fun. It taught Overly about problem-solving, time management and the importance of making smart decisions, she said.

“It’s extremely high-paced,” Taliani said. “It’s about finding and investing in good stocks. It takes a lot of research.”

Greater Latrobe School District personal finance and AP statistics teacher Kelly Echard was so excited for her two teams of students to experience it that they were the first school to arrive. The school recently started a finance club, which includes sophomores Domenic Racculia and Mateo Dorazio.

“We wanted to be dressed well to reflect and represent the New York Stock Exchange,” said Racculia, who was wearing a suit, white shirt and tie just like professionals on Wall Street. “This was fun. It was intense. It is teaching us about real life and how to handle our money.”

Latrobe classmate Henry Bradley said he had no idea how to trade stocks until attending this event.

“It is great to be surrounded by other students from other schools who have a shared interest in this,” Dorazio said. “This is an important life skill to have.”

The event was free, and Junior Achievement helped with transportation for any school that needed it.

An award was handed out for the best dressed. Deer Lakes juniors Luca Mangieri, Alex Godinez, Colby Sutch and Garrett Waybright wore suits. They called themselves The Mariachis. It was Sutch’s idea to dress up.

“I said if we weren’t going to be the best by winning, we would be the best dressed,” Sutch said.

Winners of the stock market challenge were Peters Township High School students Laci and Lexi Vance, both first-year students, and their older brother, Wyatt, a junior.

Their first-place win earned them $500 — in real money.

River Valley High School in Blairsville, won $300 for placing second, and each player on the Riverview team received $25 gift cards for placing third.

From their $500,000 starting point, the Vances finished with $662,000, Quaker Valley ended up with $563,000, and Riverview pulled in $559,000.

Wyatt Vance has been studying the stock market since he was 9.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “I’ve read a lot of books about it. In real life, in the blink of an eye, you can go from the top to the floor.”