Michael David brings Wall Street to Carver students

Michael David, a junior at Columbia Prep High School in New York City, recently introduced his Fun with Finance workshop to enthusiastic Carver elementary students.

“Interest in the Stock Market began when I was around your age,” Michael told the Carver kids. “A teacher introduced us to the idea of researching stock in companies that were familiar to us and assisting our class in developing our own mock portfolio. “

With initial help from his parents Michael set up his own E-Trade account and has been actively trading on his own for the last several years. Michael is good with numbers and “I enjoy the idea of owning a piece of a company and taking a risk with my money to hopefully earn more,” he said.

Financial literacy has long been a priority for Carver after school education programs. Up until they start earning a living, and sometimes well beyond that, young people need to learn how to handle money responsibly.

Michael’s workshop teaches young people how to check stock quotes, look up ticker symbols, learn stock market terminology, track performance daily, and compete with the market. Carver youth are learning how to trade on stocks listed on the New York, NASDAQ, American and other US Stock Exchanges and how to keep track of their portfolio.

When most people think of a stock exchange, they picture a scene of frantic activity, with traders in funny-looking jackets simultaneously jostling for position, shouting commands, making strange hand signals, and writing up orders. Behind this frenzied spectacle, however, is a methodical and organized system of trading, in which the price of any stock is set purely by rule of supply and demand in an auction setting. Michael David is helping Carver students understand the tools and news that traders use to find and trade good performing stocks and how to journey into the Carver mission to become Lifetime Achievers.

Michael is a member of his school’s Business and Finance Club, plays varsity basketball, participates in Model UN Conferences, volunteers in community service programs such as Boys & Girls and now Carver, to name a few of his interests and activities.

Carver is lucky to have Michael making the journey all the way to Norwalk from the West Side of Manhattan to invest his time and talent in the great potential of Carver’s young people!