Daniel Rollins and Tristan Benton of Lake Region High School, winners in the high school category for Maine’s yearlong Stock Market Game. Photo courtesy of John Mayo

Daniel Rollins and Tristan Benton, who won Maine’s statewide Stock Market Game this year after making $12,489.45 and $11,100.60, respectively, sat down with their teacher, John Mayo, to talk about their experiences playing the game and what lessons they would apply in the real world.

According to a press release from the SIFMA Foundation, which runs the game, the Stock Market Game allows students to engage in the complexities of stock trading by managing a simulated portfolio with a virtual $100,000. Through the hands-on learning experience, participants gain insights into economics, finance and market dynamics.

In teams of up to five, students simulate real-world investing, trading stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. They research market trends, monitor global news and make strategic trades in real time using the Stock Market Game’s online tools or smartphone app. Additionally, students can prioritize socially responsible investments aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Rollins, a senior, told Lakes Region Now that he was surprised at his victory, initially not thinking that he would have gotten anything out of the game. Both he and Benton, a sophomore, credited the class with helping them learn more about money management and investing.

“I learned that investing in a short-term is different from investing in a long-term,” said Rollins. “From the get-go, I could make so much money from one, but in the long term, which is kind of how I was focused on this game, I ended up making so much more because I invested early and at a low start.”

Mayo said the Stock Market Game has been a requirement of his class for 25 years. However, before Rollins and Benton, his class only produced one winner, Kate Rose in the 2019-20 school year. While the game has the option of grouping students into teams of up to five, Mayo said that his students play individually. He said that this was so that students could all take ownership in their own stocks, joking that if the stocks went up, they could claim the credit, and if they went down, they wouldn’t have anyone else to blame.

“Ultimately,” said Mayo, “we’re all gonna make our own decisions to buy stocks or invest in mutual funds or whatever it is, so I kind of took a twist from their simulation and (did) it that way”

This year’s game began at the start of the school year in September, Mayo said, and continued long past the end of his economics class. Following the class, students still had access to the digital platform on which the game was played, and could check in on how their portfolios were doing.

Benton recalled how he began the game by buying several dozen shares in Microsoft, which got him off to a good start. He mentioned that, although at one point his Home Depot stocks started going down, he stayed with it and those stocks ended up bringing his portfolio up in the end.

“Long-term investment definitely is a lot better than short-term,” said Benton of the lessons he learned while playing the game. “Just stick with it even if the company that you’re with is going down.”