JA investment program teaches youth about stock
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Trying to learn tips and tricks to investing can be tough. Knowing when to buy or sell stock can be challenging, and many people don’t want to take the risk with their hard earned money, or they will hire someone who can navigate the system for them.
Students at Crowther Memorial Junior High (CMJHS) will have a chance to learn about stocks and trade their own stock with the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange through the Investment Strategies Program.
The program will be coming to CMJHS in April through Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta. The students are all given $100,000 of fake money but real-time stock to trade. They will be on trial from April 22 to 28. On the 29 the simulation program will be reset and they will all start again with $100,000 until June 7.
“They do one trial week, so they’re going to trade on a trial basis so if they made a mistake in their trade it’s not going to cost them,” said Wendy Gerbrandt, program coordinator.
The students, all Grade 8 and 9, will have a chance to buy, sell and trade stock throughout the six to seven week period.
During that time there will be a volunteer that goes into the classroom to talk to the kids about how to pick your portfolio to establishing your portfolio and establishing what trends could affect the outcomes of stock prices.
The students will also learn about other investment options and about how to research different stocks and how to use the simulation program.
“They learn about what is a stock market and they learn throughout the hands on experience that it’s not always great but it can be. Because you’re only on a short term period they don’t get to see the long term positives effects of the stock market, or negative, but at least they get the idea that there’s fluctuation,” said Gerbrandt.
Gerbrandt said most of the time the students come out ahead, making above their initial investment; some will lose some money in the last few days if they don’t trade right away.
“I have been getting so much great feedback from the Chestermere schools that because it’s so much more hands on and it’s a longer duration, it’s not just going in for one day like we do Dollars (and Sense) so the students, because they are getting more exposure to it, they actually get it. They retain it, they get to apply it, so we’re getting really great feedback from it,” said Gerbrandt.
The students are initiating conversations at home parents about what they learned or how their stock did.
Gerbrandt said the simulation is simple to use. Tthe students are seeing what the stock is when they log on, they need to know their ticker signal, the amount of shares they want to purchase and what stock exchange they are on.
The students can win up to $500 for their time, and there are different weekly riddles and puzzles the students can earn extra prizes from by logging on to the Invest JA site.
Gerbrandt is looking for people from the financial advisor sector to volunteer to speak with the kids. The commitment is four hours, and all the training and the materials are provided.
Anyone interested in volunteering his or her time can contact Wendy Gerbrandt by email at wgerbrandt@jasouthalberta.org or at 403-875-4254. For more information on what Junior Achievement is all about go to www.investja.org.