Anyone looking to grow their financial portfolios might want to consult with two students from Inman Elementary who made over $4,000 in a 10-week period playing the Stock Market Game, the largest gain for any elementary team from Fayette County and Congressional District 3.
Fifth graders Laniija Thiravong and Janyce Hendrix took a hypothetical $100,000 and turned it into $104,251.16 during the fall trading session that began in September, making them and their school the top earners in the Congressional District.
With the help of investment mentor Phil Holcombe, and guidance from their teacher Jon Schoening, Laniija and Janyce successfully navigated the Stock Market by keeping their portfolio diverse, and investing heavily in Apple stock. They say they chose to invest in Apple because they noticed that the iPhone 8 and 10 were about to launch and thought that this would make the stock more attractive to investors.
The Stock Market Game, sponsored by the Georgia Council on Economic Education, is based on equity markets and is designed to give teachers a tool for showing students how scarcity, trade, opportunity cost, voluntary exchange, price incentive, specialization, productivity, and many other concepts play out in financial institutions they hear about in the news almost daily. Unlike real equity markets, the Stock Market Game offers students a safe and pain-free place to learn that lessons of market economics can sometimes be costly.
As the Congressional District 3 winners, the students will receive a trophy and will be recognized at the annual Stock Market Game Luncheon on May 7 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
