Stock Market Challenge opens to students

The fifth annual Stock Market Challenge is open to students

Business teacher Julie Cuvelier said students “are given $500,000 to day trade as if it is a simulated stock trading day,” and despite this large sum of simulated money to use for whichever stocks the students wish, they have all (thus far) abdicated the opportunity to partake in the event.

Not only are the students able to use a large amount of virtual money for the event, but Culvelier said learning about stocks at the high school level is an important thing for the future. As stocks change and grow, they also impact us all.

Financial literacy teacher Jeremiah Longnecker strives to teach his students about the importance of the stock market.

He said when one invests at a young age, he or she can take advantage of “the power of compounding interest,” and if those who wish to “retire some day, they need to learn about the stock market. The vast majority of people are going to have to invest in the stock market in order to be able to retire.”

Not only will you need to know stocks to retire, but almost everyone will invest in stocks one way or another in their life.

He also said, no matter what, people should always find a way to make sense and understand what they are investing in.  

Regarding the contest, Longnecker said not only will learning about how to use stocks at this event be important for your future, but competing in challenges perhaps forces one to grow a broader knowledge than one had before.

Along with this, he said simulations are a great form of learning, seeing as “learning and having fun at the same time is an unbeatable combination. The competition just happens to have significant real-life applications that aren’t available regularly.”

The challenge takes place on April 25 at 9 a.m. in Cedar Rapids in the Olympic Southside Theater.