Stock Market Blog

Folsom students recently began their annual stock market game. The tradition began six years ago and has expanded each year to accommodate growing student interest. Consequently, we are no longer using the University of Georgia’s Stocksquest and we are now using the Virtual Stock Exchange, through the Wall Street Journal.

Eighth grade students play the game for credit in math class and are expected to research, analyze and manage their $1000, 000 portfolio with their reading, graphing, statistics, and algebra skills. 8^th grade students have using Yahoo Financial to collect one-year graphs, analyst’s opinions, historical data and recent news clips on at least 10 companies.

Among this year’s top picks are annual favorites, such as Ford, Gander Mountain, Green Mountain Coffee, Apple, Google and Amazon. However, our interest in solar energy companies, stemming from our new solar away, was well rewarded with growth in companies like LDK. Similarly, interest in Ebay as a result of our service-learning project to sell ornaments has led to some strong returns for students.

The students are making connections between their academic subjects and the larger world, which is always good. The fact that they are having fun at the same time is truly remarkable. We hope that parents and community members will join our game. Contact Paul Fitzgerald at (802) 324-8450 for more information.