Stocks surged, headlines broke, and 90 high school students raced to outsmart the market. With every tick of the clock, profits were made or lost, and every decision had the capability to push a team ahead or send their portfolio crashing. On Wednesday, April 16, students from all across District 214 gathered at Forest View Educational Center for the inaugural Finance and Investing competition. They made fast, strategic investments in stock market simulations to compete for the title of top trader.
The all-day event featured two one-hour-long stock market simulations. Using specially developed software, students were placed in a simulated stock market scenario from a past year and had to make investment decisions while reacting to real-time updates, headlines, and analyst reports based on that simulation. Unplanned events, such as international war or a global pandemic, were introduced. Students then applied their knowledge from this school year to predict how these events would impact the market and make decisions to maximize profit.
