Mountain Vista High School junior Nick Blasi stood glued to giant computer screens displaying stock prices Thursday, reporting the changes on his cellphone to teammates huddled on a balcony above the trading floor.
Blasi and his teammates were participating in the JA Stock Market Challenge, a mock version of Wall Street. Nearly 1,000 students are expected to participate in the two-day event, which continues today.
The event, organized by Junior Achievement, is at the Cable Center on the University of Denver campus. Now in its seventh year, the event is sponsored by the Allstate Foundation.
Participants from 38 local high schools were given two lessons in stock-market fundamentals in preparation for the challenge, featuring teams of five to eight students competing to grow $500,000 in fake money into the highest-valued stock portfolio.
“We are losing by $5,000. Are you kidding?” screamed an excited Mimi Le, a sophomore at Mountain Vista High School.
Each trading day lasts 80 seconds. Thus, 60 days of trading is condensed into 80 minutes. After five minutes when trading grew rapid, the giant screens tracking each team’s stock portfolio and the stock prices were more digestible to Mountain Vista senior Natasha Johnson.
“The more I do it, the more it makes sense,” she said.
Mock press releases and tip sheets from market analysts and news outlets were issued each day.
“We have no idea what we are doing,” Travis Peet admitted, even though his team, also from Mountain Vista, shouted new stock data like veterans.
But Isaac Archuleta, a senior, explained their trading strategy.
“We’re looking for any plateaus that are going to drop,” he said.
Robin Wise, president and chief executive of Junior Achievement, said there’s no hiding from mistakes you make financially.
“That keeps people poor,” she said.
The interactive learning style allows students to make those mistakes in a safe environment, while stimulating a desire to plan for financial stability.
“Wealth creation doesn’t happen by accident,” Wise said. “It doesn’t happen by someone doing it for you. You have to do it yourself.”
Rita Wold: 303-954-1488 or rwold@denverpost.com
