Stock Market Challenge

New York City

Hong Kong

Cairo

Venice

"Stock Market Challenge: An Intro to Finance & Investment"

Stocks? Bonds? Shorts? Margins? Cryptocurrencies? Mutual funds? Commodities? Yikes!

This online introductory finance class for high school students and advanced 8th graders, built around the SIFMA Foundation's Stock Market Game, is designed to give students the information and experience they need to invest in their futures. Working in teams, students compete to generate the highest returns on their (imaginary) money while learning about the ins and outs (and ups and downs!) of various investment strategies and the global economy.

In addition to lessons created to engage students in the Stock Market Game, the class involves readings ranging from Adam Smith and asset pricing through behavioral economics and blockchain technology to provide discussion and context for student investment choices. The readings are fairly short but assume high school+ reading skills. Because the stock market moves in real time, we also have a private Google Group to ask questions, share articles, and discuss investment opportunities outside our regular class time.

Because students work in teams of two to four, the ability to work cooperatively is a must. Student teams are expected to meet outside of class time throughout the week to discuss market activity and portfolio decisions. Students should also assume some time outside of class will be devoted to investment research, but the amount of outside research will depend on the student and the team. Students who are interested in doing so will also be able to enter the security industry’s InvestWrite essay contest.

Honors option: for students who would like to extend their learning, there is the option of developing an individual investment plan and engaging in additional finance study for honors credit.

$250 for the 12-week online class, which includes team registration fees; $275 for the honors version

"I'm really impressed by all [my son] learned in the past few months -- he joined your class with no experience and a fair amount of trepidation, and is now very knowledgeable and conversant in all aspects of personal finance and market dynamics. Thank you so much for a thorough and interesting curriculum!"

"Great class, awesome assignments, thank you"

"It was a pleasure and a delight to hear [my daughter] talking and engaging so much. It seems like not many online instructors require that much engagement of older teens anymore."