Stock market game

By Mary Alice Garrett

This story originally appeared November 23, 2000 in the News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

PIKE CREEK — Move over; Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. Some money-savvy youngsters in Delaware are gaining on you.

The would-be investors from Skyline Middle School are role models for the Stock Market Game, an educational simulation that teaches about stock markets, the US. economic system and the global economy.

Skyline’s SMG club was filmed last week by a professional video crew from New York. The film will be shown to educators nationwide to encourage more participation in SMG, which already attracts more than 600,000 students each year — 3,000 in Delaware.

"Skyline was chosen because it is a strong and popular program," said Arlene D. Hitchens, SMG’s Delaware coordinator at the Center for Economic Education at the University of Delaware.

Skyline’s 30 participants handled the filming with the same aplomb they exhibited while making their hypothetical stock-market trades. Based on current events, they ticked off the latest hot stocks, with the financial research to back it up.

"The elections are making health-care stocks go up and technology stocks go down," said Andrew Trzonkowski, 13, eighth-grade president of the Student Council. Andrew has been an SMG member since fourth grade at Warner Elementary.

"I always liked money and economics, so I thought this would be a way to explore the world, through the stock market. It’s always a challenge. You never know what’s around the corner," Andrew said, adding that he was looking at drug firms with promising cancer-fighting medicines.

Emily Taylor, 13, eighth-grade council vice president, said her three years in SMG have made her "more conservative about money."

"You never know what a stock is going to do," Emily said. "You never know whether it’s going to go up or down. lt’s all guess and check."

Seventh-grader Danny Jennings, 12, wanted his team to buy stock in Sony because of its new PlayStation 2, predicted to be a big seller in the next few months.

Other students touted companies dealing in oil, computer software, toys and trendy clothing. Lauren Lloyd, 13, a new club member plans to research clothing companies. She joined because her grandmother gives her stocks every Christmas. Last year, it was Dell.

Over a 10-week period, Sky1ine’s six teams have invested a hypothetical $100,000 in common stocks of the Nasdaq, American and New York stock exchanges. They began Oct. 2 and will finish Dec. 8. During this time, they will have researched stocks, studied the financial markets, chosen their portfolios, managed budgets and followed companies making news.

"They can buy, sell and short sell," or sell shares they borrow from a broker said Hitchens. All of it is done on the Internet in the school’s computer lab on Mondays after school. "It’s amazing what these kids can do," Hitchens said. In 1999, the SMG Club at Alexis I. du Pont C High School parlayed $100,000 into $242,840 in just 10 weeks.

A second game will run from Feb. 12 to April 20, 2001. Education — not amassing the most money — is what the Stock Market Game is all about, said Donna Haggarty, national marketing director.

SMG is a program of the Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education, a non-profit foundation on Wall Street. Begun in 1977, it has spread to schools in all 50 states and 15 other countries. lt’s been available in Delaware since 1984.

Teachers have found SMG suitable for all ability levels — from the learning-disabled to the gifted. Pilot School, a private school in Talleyville for youngsters with learning problems, has an SMG club. So does the Kent Intensive Learning Center in Dover. Ferris School for Boys started its first SMG club this fall.

Delawareans as young as 9 are involved in the program at Warner, Brandywine Springs, Claymont, Bancroft, Harlan, Absolom Jones, North Smyrna and P.S. du Pont, among other schools, Hitchens said.

The program helps students in several subject areas, said Tom Karpinski, one of two SMG coordinators at Skyline. Besides math, it helps them with geography and reading. SMG clubs also promote teamwork and decision-making skills.

One parent credits SMG and Karpinski with helping his son learn English so quickly Riohit Sarda moved with his parents to this country from India only six months ago. A sixth-grader Riohit now reads the Wall Street Journal, Baron’s and Morningstar Online — every day. "I have a feeling that someday that student will be a multimillionaire," Karpinski said.

The youngsters are learning lifelong skills to carry them into retirement, he added. "The stock market is going to affect their lives — one way or another."