KO Teams Win Regional Stock Market Game

For the second consecutive year, teams from swept the top two spots in the regional competition of the Stock Market Game.

Despite playing the game in a historically treacherous financial climate, the first place team—Bailey Collins, Sydney Cowan, Miranda Snell and Hannah Tobin—captured a remarkable 15.6 percent return on investment above the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 growth rate, which was good for 11th best in the state. They will be honored at a luncheon in May.

The second place team of Jessica Long, Miranda Gales, Katie Boyle and Alyssa Sabo enjoyed a 6.7 percent return on investment above the S&P 500, which was 27th best in the state out of 1,624 teams.

Each team starts with a virtual cash account of $100,000. From there, students strive to create the best-performing portfolio using a live trading simulation.

In building a portfolio, students researched and evaluated stocks, and made decisions based on what they’d learned. Teams traded common stocks and mutual funds from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), earned interest on cash balances, paid interest if buying on margin and paid a commission on all trades.

To determine why certain stocks performed the way they did or why the broader market moved up or down, they needed to understand how the economy works, and to calculate their returns they needed to do the math.

According to Government and Economics teacher John Murphy, who mentored the teams, the game’s greatest value is that it gets students thinking like real investors. 

"Exercises like this one are important because they encourage our students to read, research, and be attentive to international, national and local news and learn how everything impacts them in some way," said Murphy.

About 134 teams from local area high schools, including Mt. Lebanon, Fox Chapel and West Mifflin, competed in the two-month fall session, with only 13 teams managing to profit. KO sponsored 18 teams, with three finishing in the top 100 statewide.