Stage AE became the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange on Thursday.
There was buying, selling and trading and some tense moments.
A bell was rung just like is done to open the daily stock market in New York City on Wall Street.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were on the line. Fortunately, this wasn’t for real money.
Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania Stock Market Challenge presented by Citizens was held to empower students with real-world financial literacy skills.
The morning included an interactive competition, bringing the trading floor to life.
This was the first time for such an event in Pittsburgh.
“This is what Junior Achievement does across the country,” said Patrice Matamoros, president, Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania. “We help with real life skills. What we do here is an extension of what they are learning in the classroom.”
That includes learning how to manage money through stocks which was the lesson of the day.
There were 108 teams and 385 students from Allegheny, Beaver, Cambria, Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland counties and Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia.
Deer Lakes High School business and computer teacher Doug Clark said some of his students have already shown an interest in the stock market.
“This is part of their future,” said Clark, who brought 10 teams. “It is great for them to experience this kind of competition.”
Stage AE on Pittsburgh’s North Shore was set up like a stock market with a board showing the stock prices similar to the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest stock market on earth, where matches are made between buyers and sellers trading shares of public companies.
In this live trading simulation, students form teams to compete in maximizing their investments, strategizing in response to the ups and downs of a simulated market.
They learn about risk and reward.
Each team began with $500,000. They came prepared with a portfolio comprised of fake company stocks. They were presented with various scenarios. Their portfolio might include companies such as Donut House, a global donut and coffee chain; and Nichols Sporting Goods, an American manufacturer of sports equipment.
Al DiFranco, president and CEO at Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland, would announce information such as the price of coffee beans on the rise. If students owned Donut House stock they might want to make a decision what to do with the stock.
And they didn’t have a lot of time because, for this competition, one minute was equal to one day.
“This JA Stock Market Challenge is about the stock market but also about financial literacy and wellness and investing wisely,” said DiFranco. “When you work on Wall Street you have to constantly be paying attention because the stock market can change in a minute.”
It definitely can, agreed Sam Guthrie, a senior at Deer Lakes. He said his team was in first place with three minutes to go — before dropping to 98th place.
“The stock market is unpredictable,” Guthrie said.
It definitely can be unpredictable, said Andrew Tsangaris, financial literacy teacher at Springdale High School, who brought two teams. That’s why being able to get first-hand experience like this is of great value, Tsangaris said.
“Students get to see what the day-to-day trading is like,” Tsangaris said. “Some students have begun investing already.”
Springdale seniors Brooke Taliani and Tara Overly said the stock market challenge was fun. It taught Overly about problem solving, time management and the importance of making smart decisions, she said.
“It’s extremely high-paced,” Taliani said. “It’s about finding and investing in good stocks. It takes a lot of research.”
Doing her research was Greater Latrobe School District personal finance and AP statistics teacher Kelly Echard.
She was so excited for her students of two teams to experience it that they were the first school to arrive. The school recently started a finance club, which includes sophomores Domenic Racculia and Mateo Dorazio.
“We wanted to be dressed well to reflect and represent the New York Stock Exchange,” said Racculia, who was wearing a suit, white shirt and tie just like professionals on Wall Street. “This was fun. It was intense. It is teaching us about real life and how to handle our money.”
Latrobe classmate Henry Bradley said he had no idea how to trade stocks until attending this event.
“It is great to be surrounded by other students from other schools who have a shared interest in this,” said Dorazio. “This is an important life skill to have.”
The event was free and Junior Achievement helped with transportation for any school that needed it.
An award was handed out for the best dressed. Deer Lakes juniors Luca Mangieri, Alex Godinez, Colby Sutch, Garrett Waybright wore suits. They called themselves The Mariachis. It was Sutch’s idea to dress up.
“I said if we weren’t going to the best by winning, we would be the best dressed,” Sutch said.
Winners of the stock market challenge were Peters Township High Schools students Laci and Lexi Vance, both first year students, and their older brother Wyatt Vance, a junior.
The first-place team won $500 for the first-place team, $300 for the second, and $25 gift cards for each player on the third-place team.
They finished with $662,000 total.
Wyatt has been studying the stock market since he was 9 years old.
“It’s interesting,” Wyatt said. “I’ve read a lot of books about it. In real life, in the blink of an eye you can go from the top to the floor.”