“My success is based on strategy and a bit of luck,” explained Storm King senior Sofia B. ’22, on her recent second-place finish in the greater New York area High School Division of The Stock Market Game™. Sofia participated in the game as part of her fall Advanced Microeconomics class taught by Mrs. Laura Mowat. She won the ranking out of 786 teams during the game’s year-long 2021-22 competitive season. As a result of her win, Sofia has been invited to attend The National Stock Market Game™ Virtual Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, May 18, at 6 PM.

What is Sofia’s winning strategy? “My class started out with $100,000 to invest. The goal was to keep variety in my stocks portfolio and choose stocks with long-term growth. I invested mainly in storage units, waste management, real estate, railroads, and a tech company, plus the Walt Disney Company just for fun,” she explained. “I put an equally escalating volume into my top 5 picks. I used the S&P 500 to choose my stocks, and the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) to check which stocks had more profitable outcomes.”

“I also bought more shares of the cheaper stocks, whether I thought it would be successful or not. A little risk is okay because there’s a better chance of making more profit with risk versus playing it safe the whole time. Balance and variety are key,” Sofia continued.

Before taking Advanced Economics at Storm King, Sofia says she had a little bit of experience with stocks from her father. “Mrs. Mowat was a huge help when it came to learning the terminology and the technical skills of managing and investing in stocks. I never knew how to use the DJIA and S&P 500, but now I know how to search and analyze the growth/rate of company stocks. Learning important terminology such as ‘net equity gain,’ ‘realized gains/losses,’ ‘available equity,’ and ‘percent return,’ helped me make smarter decisions and calculate my gain and losses of each stock,” she explained.

About The Stock Market Game™

The SIFMA Foundation’s acclaimed The Stock Market Game™ program is an online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students in grades 4-12 in the world of economics, investing and personal finance, and prepares them for financially independent futures. The Stock Market Game™ has reached 20 million students since its inception in 1977 and more than 600,000 students take part every school year across all 50 states.