ATLANTA — Not everyone is making money in the stock market these days.  But that’s what students at South Effingham Middle School would have done, if it was real money. That’s because they are winners of the spring Stock Market Game in the Effingham County Schools.

The South Effingham Middle team, advised by teacher Gail Ellis and made up of students Dallas Perry and Carlton Redding, took their hypothetical start-up investment of $100,000 and in 10 weeks turned it into a portfolio with a value of $131,512. It’s not real money, but it teaches young Georgians real lessons without the financial pain many adult investors are feeling these days.

Teachers across Georgia use the Stock Market Game as an educational tool to help students develop a solid understanding of how private enterprise works and to explain how larger economic forces can affect everyone’s financial circumstances.

Beginning with a hypothetical $100,000 portfolio, teams of up to five students use the math and language skills they’ve learned to research publicly-traded companies on the Internet, read business news, and crunch numbers to invest in stocks.  

After 10 weeks, the team with the highest portfolio value wins. One winning team is selected from each public school district or geographic region in the case of independent schools.

Winning teams from the fall and spring were honored at the May 5 Stock Market Game Awards Luncheon in Atlanta at the Georgia Freight Depot, where more than 550 students, teachers and parents were lauded by State School Superintendent Kathy Cox and other civic and business leaders.

“The Georgia Stock Market Game is one of our state’s most successful and engaging educational programs. It is an all encompassing program that allows students to apply math, science, civics and American politics. I can’t think of a more robust program where students can learn and have fun,” Cox said.

“You can’t take the money you earned with you, but you can take what you’ve learned and apply it to the real world,” she said.
More than 35,000 students in public and independent schools participate in the Stock Market Game in Georgia each year in fall and spring competitions.

Bank of America, the CFA Society of Atlanta, the Citi Foundation, the Georgia Securities Association, INVESCO, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation for Investor Education, with funding from Morgan Stanley, and the SIFMA Southern/South Central District support the Stock Market Game in Georgia.  

To learn more, please visit the Georgia Council on Economic Education Web site at www.gcee.org.