Stock market a field for team sport
By David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
Buying Hershey Foods Corp.'s stock ahead of Valentine's Day and selling after was the winning strategy employed by a team of high-school seniors from Hawaii Baptist Academy who shared top honors in the Hawaii Stock Market Simulation game last year.
What: Stock Market Simulation, run by the Hawaii Council on Economic Education When: Feb. 17 to April 25 Cost: Free for teachers with teams of students, $19.95 for adult teams Registration: www.hawaiisms.com Telephone: (808) 956-7009
Each semester, the Hawaii Council on Economic Education, a non-profit educational organization, sponsors the stock-picking contest at schools across the state to educate young people about the potential rewards and risks of financial markets.
How to get in on the simulation
"It gives teachers a chance to apply a real-world activity to the lessons they are teaching in the classroom. It encompasses current economics, history, social studies and math," said Kristine Castagnaro, executive director of HCEE.
This semester, starting tomorrow, about 300 students will participate in the simulation. Students from grades 4 through 12 participate in teams of up to four students. Each team gets a theoretical $100,000 to invest over 10 weeks. High school and intermediate school teams are divided into categories: growth, aggressive growth and income growth. Each student on a winning team gets a $100 mutual fund or savings bond from Merrill Lynch, a sponsor.
Larah de Bussy, a 12th-grade teacher of economics at Hawaii Baptist Academy, says her students get caught up in the game.
"They really get emotional about it," she said. "They enjoy the ability to use real information, to be able to simulate investing in real stock. They like tracking the performance of the portfolio."
And as with many investors, watching stock prices can also bring them down.
"When the market dips, they were disappointed," she said. "What they do learn is about the risk. What they learn is how much they can lose."
Students at King Kekaulike High School on Maui didn't experience too much disappointment. In the aggressive-growth category, King Kekaulike teams took first and second place last semester. For several weeks the school had seven teams in the top ten. The winning team turned its initial $100,000 into $115,659.48 by the end of 10 weeks.
King Kekaulike teacher David Fukuda, who retired from business seven years ago to teach economics and social studies, said he made each team pick at least 10 stocks. That diversity was the key to their success, he said. "This time around, diversity worked," he said. "It may not work next time."
Fukuda said his students often surprised him with their stock picks.
"One girl in the group picked things that I never would of thought of, and those were the ones that really moved," Fukuda said. "Girls are a big part of the market out there. It is not only Harleys." Her picks included The Gap Inc. and Hot Topic Inc., a clothing retailer that specializes in music-influenced apparel. Hot Topic went from about $18 a share to about $24 during the 10-week game.
