HJHS students win big at stock market game
By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Hartselle Junior High School students out-performed 216 other teams to dominate the lower division in the Alabama Stock Market Game. They claimed nine of the top ten spots including all five cash awards totaling $900.
Awards were announced Friday by Whit King, acting chairman for the Alabama Council on Economic Education (ACEE) and presented by Barrett Shelton Jr., a member of the organization’s board of trustees.
Sixth graders Waid Miller, Trevor Murphy, Ian Cummings and Brock Hicks finished first in the 10-week competition. Starting with $100,000 in their portfolio, they finished with $131,664 for a 30 percent gain. The team received a $350 cash prize.
Finishing in second place and claiming a $250 cash award was a seventh grade team composed of Amber Hicks, Tori Miller, Kayla Faulk, Sidra McDonald and Maite' Gonzalez.
Winning third and claiming a $200 prize were Brecken Steenon, Haley Patterson, Alyssa Baugh and Julia Holladay.
Eighth graders Michael Brannon and Alex Pettey played as one -man teams and took fourth and fifth places and cash awards of $100 and $50, respectively.
In addition to cash awards, each team member received a T-shirt.
Four other Hartselle Junior High teams finished in the top 10 and each team member received a T-shirt. They are listed as follows: Sixth place (eighth grade team)—Olivia Ellis, Kaylon King, Carson Chapman, Elizabeth Russell and Kelly Ramey; (eighth place (seventh grade team)—Preston Adams, Nick Beach, Blair Sittason and Aaron Lamb; ninth place (sixth grade team)—Shelby Harris, Haley Jared, Kelsey Nuss, and Sarah Ellen Battles; 10th place (seventh grade tem) Max Driggers, Aaron Baker, Tanner Brown, Tillman Landers and Tyler Phillips.
More than 2,500 students at 70 schools from Huntsville to the Gulf Coast brought and sold stocks in the competition ending Nov. 30.
Students began with $100,000 and purchased stock and mutual funds and made any number of trades with their available funds for10 weeks. The teams competed in real time with real costs on the same computer system that operates the New York Stock Exchange.
The Stock Market Game provides lesson plans correlated to the Alabama course of study standards. It is presented by the Alabama Council on Economic Education and is sponsored by financial advisors Sterne Agee.
