Introducing students to the financial world, social studies teacher Joseph Juliano is in the midst of conducting his annual stock market challenge. Through the webite HowtheMarketWorks.com, participants are given an imaginary $100,000 to buy, sell and trade stocks. At the end of two weeks, the student who has made the most amount of money wins this annual challenge.

“Some of the things that we learn in economics include the stock market, mutual funds, and investing,” Juliano said. “So the stock market challenge is a way for students to actually apply those skills that they are learning in class and think about the different things that they can invest their starting $100,000 in. Making the stock market a competition to see who can make the most money creates a fun environment.” 

Although Juliano initially created the challenge for those in his class, all students and teachers are allowed to participate. 

“My students and I both check our stock accounts at the start of each class period,” social studies teacher Michael Woxland said. “We all have the opportunity this year to invest money in a crypto market place, and while I understand the basics, I feel like my students are even more well versed in these new currencies than I am. It’s funny to think about, but I fully expect them to do well and beat me in this challenge.”

Juliano has noticed a considerable increase in student proficiency in the stock market and growing popularity of newer investing apps. 

“I find it exciting because a lot of my students are actually very interested in things like cryptocurrency, investing, and with things like the Robin Hood app. Investing is becoming more involved in pop culture, even TikTok now has a bunch of stock tips,” Juliano said. “So with all of that knowledge, students end up knowing some really good stocks to buy. That’s one thing I like to see, there are always students who get some good information and end up making a lot of money off of stocks that no one else would have really thought of.” 

Having hosted this challenge for over five years, Juliano has seen patterns of mistakes that many students and teachers encounter. 

“One of the mistakes I regularly see is that students put all of their money into one stock.,” Juliano said. “I have seen people that are up by $100,000 at the beginning because they bought one big stock and it went right up, but then by the end of it, they are at the bottom because the stock value drops. It is all about the idea of not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Usually the people that win are the people that are not trying to get a lot really fast. They are watching the market a lot and not selling right away, just kind of letting it build over time.”

Juliano hopes that students will leave this challenge with new insight into investing and the economy as a whole. 

“Our current stock market is continuously growing and evolving everyday,” Juliano said. “Each year it feels like a new challenge, which I think makes it exciting for students. It’s really exciting for me too seeing so many students getting their first experiences with investing and learning new things about the market.”