The Thursday before Fall Break marked the beginning of a month-long battle for money between the students of Mike Freedline’s three Personal Finance classes.

The students, along with pupils from both Joe DiCiechi and Mim Eaton’s Personal Finance classes, are competing in an online virtual stock exchange in an effort to learn more about the fundamentals of investing in stocks and investments.

“I hope they gain an appreciation for the elements of risk and reward [in investing],” DiCiechi said. “And ideally that investing in individual stocks is risky and not the way to go.”

In the game, the students all begin with 100,000 virtual dollars. The objective
is to wisely invest the majority, if not all, of the money into lucrative stocks and by Thanksgiving Break have made the largest profit of all participating students. Students have the opportunity to buy, sell, and trade stocks in the virtual market just as real investors do on Wall Street.

“[The game] gives them an idea how they can make or lose money and shows them how the economy is doing,” Freedline said.

Personal Finance student junior Jason Cothern is one of the approximate 170 students currently playing the game. Like many of his peers, Cothern knew little about how to manage stock investments before being introduced to the virtual stock market.

“[I’ve learned] everything about stocks,” Cothern said. “I knew nothing
about it before.”