Wall Street came to Magic City on Thursday as more than 250 Miami-Dade high school students from 14 high schools worked as day traders in a simulated stock market challenge in downtown Miami.
The simulation was hosted by Junior Achievement of Greater Miami — a nonprofit group that works with local businesses, schools and organizations to provide financial education programs to need-based students. It was the fourth annual countywide competition done at Akerman LLP.
“We really want to engage students in learning about finance to prepare them to be successful in the future,” said Catherine Haga, president of Junior Achievement of Greater Miami.
During the high-tech simulation, over 60 student teams are given “$500,000” to invest in over 50 fictitious stocks. The goal is to build the highest portfolio net worth during 60 “days” or two sessions.
“It’s just super chaotic. You have people shoulder to shoulder. These kids are yelling all the time. It’s hard to concentrate but also, you want to win,” said Elijah Mocombe, a junior at Thomas Edison Educational Center who participated in the challenge. “Everyone is dressed up and so it does feel a little bit like we are in a stock exchange.”
Elijah, 16, said that before the event, he didn’t know a lot about finance or investing. Now, he wants to continue learning and eventually own a business after college.
“I want to manufacture technology for bigger brands and bigger companies. And help out the city with my engineering tech,” he said.
Junior Achievement of Miami hosts various programs that reach over 33,000 students across Miami-Dade and Monroe County schools, Haga said. The group aims to create financially prepared students that stay in South Florida.
“We look at the schools that have a high percentage of free reduced lunch and then those are the schools that we will target with our programs,” she said.
Haga said that preparation for the competition relies heavily on the expertise and support of local volunteer business professionals.
“They visit and teach in these classrooms for multiple sessions to really excite students about finance and entrepreneurship,” Haga said. Topics include the definition of a stock, company valuation, portfolio management and the importance of early investing.
Peter Bransden works in crisis management at an insurance company and was one of the volunteers. He said that the program is a way for volunteers to give back.
“I think it helps that we, as business professionals, can be a new voice and bring a new energy to the classroom,” Bransden said. “We really try to make it fun and exciting and they, in turn, enjoy learning about it more.”
The local business volunteers help during the event as well. They walked through the “frenetic trading floor” working as financial traders and updating students about “news” updates that may impact the market.
“You can’t help but smile when you see a kid yelling and investing fake money when just a couple weeks ago, they may not have known what investing was,” Brandsen said.
The student stock market challenge was followed by an adult competition with local residents taking on the same challenge.
“Anyone can donate, partner or sponsor us,” Haga said. “We want to empower Miami students and adults to own their economic success.”
