Four High School Girls Win Stock Market Game in Philadelphia


Ted Durkin, left, with Heather Barrett, vice president of EconomicsPennsylvania, contest participants, their teacher Laurence Sherzer and Barry Nobel, the exchange's vice president of marketing.

Letitia Perez-Staten, Jocelyn Proctor, Denise Smiley and Corrin Baylis rang the opening bell one recent morning at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Major investors? No. Company executives? Wrong again. They're high school students who used the knowledge they gained from a curriculum sponsored by Merrill Lynch to win a stock market investment contest, turning a simulated $100,000 into $150,000.

The contest incorporated lessons from the company's award-winning Investing Pays Off® curriculum. Using traditional research methods mixed with a dose of common sense, the students at Martin Luther High School picked stocks that trounced the competition. On May 26, the girls, ages 16 to 18, were honored at a luncheon along with the winning teams from eight other regions.

IPO and the Stock Market Game™ program, sponsored by the Securities Industry Association's Foundation for Investor Education, are part of the curriculum in Philadelphia's 53 public high schools, following a partnership formed last year by Merrill Lynch and EconomicsPennsylvania. The nonprofit group works to promote and encourage understanding of economic and financial literacy concepts through education.

"Thank you to Merrill Lynch and EconomicsPennsylvania for their ongoing commitment to our students and their financial education," said Paul Vallas, chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District. "Our students' achievement is not only a reflection of their hard work and commitment but also a tribute to their teachers and advisors that inspired them to succeed."

At the luncheon, he and Ted Durkin, director of Global Private Client's Philadelphia office, distributed plaques and certificates to the winners. Each winner also received a $100 savings bond.

"I can't think of any greater cause than helping our young children with financial literacy," Mr. Durkin said. "Most children in the Philadelphia School District are not going to get an opportunity to have a real, practical experience like this. The Stock Market Game brings that to them and gives them options for what they want to do with their future lives."

Eddy Bayardelle, president of the Merrill Lynch Foundation, praised the students for their work in the contest from February 13 to April 21. "The real-time experience of doing their own research, selecting their own stocks and reaping the results of their actions, is invaluable to all of the students who participated," said Mr. Bayardelle, who attended the luncheon. "These are lessons they can apply immediately and carry with them through every stage of their lives."

Eddy Bayardelle, right, and Ted Durkin, left, with Paul Vallas, CEO of the Philadelphia School District; Heather Barrett, and William Dunkelberg, co-director of EconomicsPennsylvania's Center for Economic Education at Temple University.

In the game, students were given a hypothetical $100,000 to invest. The girls on the winning team researched their stocks using newspapers and other media, including CNBC, particularly the Mad Money television show hosted by former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer.

Area financial advisors volunteered to teach lessons from IPO. Mr. Durkin and other financial advisors, including Greg Michaels and Victor Altadonna, helped teachers prepare the lessons they shared with their students.

"This was a true educational experience for everyone," said Heather Barrett, vice president of EconomicsPennsylvania. "Our partnership with Merrill Lynch has opened the doors of financial literacy to Philadelphia students, and by extension, their families."

A total of 8,000 students from 45 schools in nine regions participated in the game. Results appeared weekly in the Philadelphia Inquirer's business section, in a feature called "Investing Pays Off." That inspired the eventual winners, said Laurence Sherzer, a social science teacher who coached the Martin Luther King team.

"They got competitive and said, we've got to get on that list," he said. "With research and a little luck, they got some companies that were moving during the 10-week period of the game." They weren't sentimental about their picks, Mr. Scherzer added. If a stock underperformed, out it went.

On June 16, the team visited the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, along with Mr. Durkin and their teacher to ring the opening bell, kicking off the day's trading session.

Ms. Smiley, after accepting the winners' plaque, summed up her experience this way: "Investing pays off!"