Students from Gallaher Elementary School, Cab Calloway School of the Arts, and Newark Charter School were honored during the 2022 Stock Market Game (SMG) virtual reception held recently. Offered by the University of Delaware’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, the SMG is a 10-week educational finance simulation sponsored by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and funded by the Investor Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice with support from WSFS.

This past fall nearly 1,200 students on 380 teams virtually invested $100,000 in securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The competition challenged students to grow their portfolios as much as possible. On Jan. 19, the winning teams and their coaches were honored during the virtual awards reception.

Marion Jacobs, CEEE Stock Market Game coordinator, kicked off the reception

“These teams handily outperformed the S&P 500, something that sophisticated investors often can't do,” she said. “More importantly, they learned about the world of investing.”

Students Emmalyn Kober, Phoenix Ojofeitimi and Levi Trent from Gallaher Elementary School placed first in the elementary division. Guided by teacher Christel Skaug, the team earned a return of $11,293, which surpassed the growth of the S&P by more than 5.5%.

Kober described the team’s method by saying, “We checked the stocks to see what was good for us so that we wouldn’t downgrade. It took us a bit to find good options but once we did, we invested a lot.”

Led by teacher Sverrir Georgsson, Calloway School of the Arts students Chetan Kasukurthi and Sienna Rae Hooper earned first place in the middle school division. They earned a return of $19,310, which surpassed the growth of the S&P by nearly 13.5%.

“First, we invested in smaller companies which usually have bigger growth rates,” Kasukurthi said. “After we made money we moved on to bigger companies, like NVIDIA. We also made sure to look for patterns in similar companies.”

Newark Charter School students Alexander Barry and Tyler Alvarez placed first in the high school division by earning a return of $138,475. Led by teacher Justin Miller, the team surpassed the growth of the S&P by over 133% during the competition.

Barry said that during the process, “We started looking into different investment strategies, researching stocks and the best technical indicators. Then we started investing in those and figured that we needed to go for more short term stocks. After looking at a bunch of trends, I noticed that stocks like that skyrocketed, then tended to go back down and counterbalance themselves the next day. So we looked for stocks that had major changes, like going up 100%, and we then shorted it expecting it to rebound, which actually happened the majority of the time.” 

Alvarez provided more insight.

“We focused heavily on the medical stock because it had the best chance for success,” Alvarez said. “We also found and used the website TradingView. There's an AI section on the site that gives a prediction for different time frames in the future. We tested it for a short period of time first and realized it was strong. In the next couple of weeks, we just followed the AI predictions on stocks. We just got out, cut our losses, and moved on to the next thing so we would not lose too much.”

Carlos Asarta, CEEE’s James B. O'Neill Director, thanked Chief Special Investigator Craig Weldon and Director Jillian Lazar and congratulated the winning teams.

“I want to congratulate all of you for the work you've done,” Asarta said. “The strategies that you figured out, the research that you did, and the relationship that you have with your teachers. You are learning very important skills that you will have for the rest of your lives.”