Local students experience the stock market through Junior Achievement

Photos courtesy of Junior Achievement. 

It looked a lot like the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange at Stage A-E on the North Side on Dec. 12, when about 400 students took part in a live trading simulation. Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania and Citizens Bank put on the first ever “Stock Market Challenge” in our area.

Students from 24 schools across nine counties got to put into practice the lessons they’re learning in school about finance and the economy. Together, they made up 114 teams all competing to make the most money by investing in and trading pretend stocks.

Patrice Matamoros, president of Junior Achievement of Western PA, says this has been done in other areas of the country with Junior Achievement. But it’s the first time for the Pittsburgh area.

“We recreated Wall Street at Stage AE, and all the kids here have gone through multiple classes on long-term saving, investing, the stock market,” says Matamoros, “and now they’re here to experience all they learned as traders for one day.”

The students see how different things impact stock prices like real world news events and the Federal Reserve.

One of those traders was Kasen Drooz, who is a student at Riverview Junior/Senior High School in Oakmont. “It’s a little stressful,” Drooz says. “There are so many different kinds of stock to invest in, so many shares you can buy and trade. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m doing it, and it seems to be doing well…. I’m just having a fun time. It’s really fun.”

The top performing teams won prizes, with the first place team getting $500.

Junior Achievement and Citizens Bank wanted students to learn about investing for their own future and about careers in the field of finance. Drooz said he is learning a great deal through this experience.

“Learning is the start of everything,” he said. “If you’re thinking of going to a school for investing, this would be an amazing opportunity for you to truly get more of an understanding of what’s going on in the world of investing and stocks. It’s a really fun experience. And if I do ever plan on investing in stocks in the near future, I will look back on the stock market and the class I’m taking, economics. It’s really helps out to know what you’re doing because you never know where life’s taking you in the future.”

For more on Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania, go to: https://westernpa.ja.org/