Playing the Stock Market Game.

CASH KID

Today we're gonna be talking to someone that introduced me to the stock market. Also we're gonna be talking about the Stock Market Game from my former teacher Mrs. Abbott.Link to Stock Market Game Link to state specific resources and links to register. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the Cash Kid Podcast. Today, we’re going to talk about how to buy and sell stocks, but never lose a dime of your own money! That’s right. One of my former teachers is going to tell us how. That and more coming up. The Cash Kid Podcast is underway!

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Intro tease:

So you’ve got some cash. Maybe from an allowance, or that money your grandma gave you for your 7th birthday (Here you go sweetie.) Thanks grandma.

Whatever it is, what are you going to do with it? Spend it, hide it away… or maybe invest it? Let’s start learning how to make that money grow.

Time to learn how to be a cash kid. (cash register)

Kids today love to play online games. (Mario music sound effect). But in this episode, we’re going to talk about how you can use $100,000 to buy and trade stocks with no regrets. That’s right! It’s known as the stock market game. It’s how I first learned about my love of the stock market… and I never lost a penny of my own money.

So let me introduce our guest and my former teacher Mrs. Amy Abbott to the show, to explain how it works. Mrs. Abbott was one of my teachers and during the school year we did something called The Stock Market Game. We’ll provide links to the game and more on our website at cashkidpodcast.com. I’m excited to have her join us for this episode to talk about the stock market game. And, I guess you have her to thank for what led to this podcast.

Cash Kid - Mrs. Abbott, thank you for joining us today. First off, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Mrs. Abbott - Hey Cash Kid, thank you so much for having me on today. Like you said, I am a teacher. I teach 4th and 5th grade gifted students here in Birmingham, AL. I’m a wife and a mom. I have two girls who are ten and five.

Cash Kid - When did you learn about the stock market game and why did you feel it would be a good idea for students?

Mrs. Abbott - So, I actually learned about the stock market game when I was in fifth grade because I played the stock market game as a student. But back then it was not digital like it is today. So, I had to bring in my dad's Wall Street Journals , the actual physical newspaper, and I'd bring a big stack of them in for the week and we would spread them out around our classroom. And then we had to look through all of those ticker symbols. We couldn't just search for the one we wanted. We had to search through and find our company and see how it had done for the week. So we kind of just check that once a week. It wasn't like a daily thing and I loved it. I still remember that as an adult, and I thought it would be a great fit for my students because it's such a real world simulation. It teaches real life problem solving skills and just so many valuable life lessons for the future.

Cash Kid - That's great. So how long have you been presenting this as an option for students?

Mrs Abbott - So I think that I first started presenting this as an option probably the first year that I started teaching Gifted, which was in 2006. That was about 17 years ago. It's been around for a long time.

Cash Kid - How does the stock market game work?

Mrs. Abbott - Okay, so the stock market game is a ten week online trading experience. Students begin with a fictitious hundred thousand dollars that they can use to purchase stock bonds and mutual funds. They can make any number of trades with their funds. And then at the end of the ten weeks, the program sees whose portfolio is the most valuable and the most valuable portfolio at the end of ten weeks wins for their division. It's open for grades four through 12.

Cash Kid - What do you feel your students learn from participating in the stock market?

Mrs. Abbott - All right Cash Kid I could go on for a long time about this because I think the students learn so much. You know, they're learning a lot of economic and financial principles. They're learning to work with real world variables. So like actual changing prices, they're working with a changing market. They're learning how current events can impact the economy. They're also learning about how companies get started and how a company can go public and grow.

They are learning, you know, teamwork, computer skills, critical thinking, problem solving. And another thing that I think is great is they're learning some valuable lessons about how to handle adversity and how to adjust and adapt when things do not go as planned. Because Cash Kid did your stocks always do as well as you had hoped?

Cash Kid - Uhhh, No.

Mrs. Abbott - What did you learn from playing the stock market game?

Cash Kid - Well, I learned that the stock market like you doesn't have a 100% chance you’ll gain money every single day. It's up and down. There's always risk. And like it's a great way to actually tune your financial skills. Sure it helps you learn how to budget and stuff like that, but it's a great experience to learn how to invest and know what companies wouldn't be as risky and other stuff like that.

Mrs. Abbott - Yeah, I forgot to mention we're talking about how the game works, that even though the money is obviously not real, we are using real time pricing. So you're looking at the actual prices of companies making trades based on real time pricing. So that's an important thing. I forgot to mention.

Cash Kid - Do you know how schools get access to use it or how individuals can play the stock market game?

Mrs. Abbott - Yes. Okay. So all you have to do is go to stock market game.org. That's all one word stock market game.org. And then find your state. So, for example, we play the Alabama stock market game, but it's all run through the same website. It is open to anyone in grades four through 12. It is $15 per team and I think you can have anywhere from 1 to 5 people on your team.

They also offer scholarships. So if you can't pay the $15, they're very willing to help you with that. And schools get a discount. So the more teams you have, the cheaper it is. And you can play as an individual as you want to. I actually tested that out last night. I tried to sign up my daughter and it looks like anybody can sign up. You just need an adult to help you register. And it looks like now they're offering three sessions. So there's actually a summer session from July to August, and then they'll take a break and then do a ten week session, usually kind of like around mid-September through December, and then again kind of in the spring, maybe February to April or May, somewhere in there.

Cash Kid - Yes. Okay. So what have you learned from watching your students play this game?

Mrs. Abbott - So I love watching my students learn new things. I love seeing them find their passions like the Cash Kid. And I have also learned that kids make great investors.

Cash Kid - Do you feel more financial advice would be beneficial to students?

Mrs. Abbott - I do. What do you think of Cash Kid?

Cash Kid - I think it would be amazing. I recently saw this Instagram post my mom showed me and it was 35 years ago if you invested $100,000 in the S&P, it will now be worth $1,000,000. But if you waited just ten years, it would only be $300,000. And so in just ten years, you can make a $700,000 difference.

Mrs. Abbott - Yeah.

Cash Kid - Yeah, It's really important to start as kids.

Mrs. Abbott - I agree. And I think that kids just need to be learning personal finance skills in general. You know, when you grow up and graduate and go away to college, you might have a lot of booksmarts, but you might not know anything about how to manage your money or invest or grow your money. So I definitely think it's something that we should be teaching kids.

Cash Kid - Yes. And what advice can you give other educators about the stock market game?

Mrs. Abbott - My biggest advice to other educators is just give it a try. Don't be intimidated if you don't personally know how the stock market works and how to do all of that. Just get in there and try it. Set yourself an account. You can play the game alongside your students and learn with them. And I think that doing that is the best way to learn.

So just get in there and try it. It's not real money. So if you lose all your money, it's okay. It's a good learning experience. Cash Kid don't you think that you learned the most just by getting in there and playing the game?

Cash Kid - Definitely. I was able to see how real trading actually worked and how news affects the stock market. It was self-explanatory once you got on there and you could learn a lot from it.

Mrs. Abbott - Yeah, I agree. So I do a little prep work because my students are so young. The older kids might already know some of the stuff we do, but we talk about how companies get started, how they go public. But the most learning really happens once the game gets started and they just get in there and do it.

Cash Kid - Are there any other things you would like to share?

Mrs. Abbott - I mean, I really just am a big fan of the stock market game. I think it's a great program. They have so many tools for educators, so when I log in as a teacher, they have a wealth of resources for me. So they've got lesson plans, they've got articles, they have tips. So there's all kinds of things for adults as well as just how to guide your students into playing the game.

And I just think they can learn so much. Look at the Cash Kid. I mean, we can thank the stock market game for this awesome podcast. I'm so proud of you.

Cash Kid - Thank you.

I would say if you're thinking about it, do it. Just don't think like, o h, no, but what if it doesn't go so well? Well, it doesn't matter if it doesn't go so well. The money's fake and it's a great learning experience, So I would do it. No matter what.

Mrs. Abbott - What about teachers that are thinking about trying it, but maybe they think it's too hard.

Cash Kid - Oh, no. Just do it like I. I would love for other teachers to be able to learn because it would be very beneficial for other kids.

Mrs. Abbott -

Now, Cash Kid. I have a question for you.

Cash Kid - Yes.

Mrs. Abbott - Are you still investing with fictitious money or have you moved on to the real thing?

Cash Kid - I've moved on to the real thing.

Mrs. Abbott - That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Yeah.

Well, thanks for having me on today.

Cash Kid - Oh, thank-you Mrs. Abbott.

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Teachers. We truly have them to thank for so much.

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Well, there you have it! How to play the stock market and never lose a penny of your own money. Visit the cashkidpodcast.com website for a link to the stock market game and state specific rules for the stock market game and links to register.

We have so much more planned for this podcast so stay tuned. Thank you again for listening. Cash Kid Out!

Disclaimer:

The information presented represents the views and opinions of the guests. This show does not intend to provide personal investment advice through this podcast. This content has been made for informational and educational purposes only. To make a full and informed investment decision, we advise you to speak with a financial advisor and for kids, definitely your parents first before investing.

Link to Stock Market Game

Link to state specific resources and links to register.