Congratulations to Rocinante High School and Farmington High School students on winning first and second place, respectively, in the Stock Market Game, an online academic and life-skills educational program of the SIFMA Foundation. See our students’ names below.
Farmington Municipal Schools students learned first-hand about the value of long-term investing in the online program that is used by hundreds of New Mexico teachers to boost students’ math, economics, and personal finance knowledge, while also improving their test scores and instilling needed skills for financially independent futures.
“I’m very proud of my students. They have earned this win and now just need to keep striving towards more success. The sky is the limit,” said Rocinante High School Teacher James Russell.
Mr. Russell, who teaches financial literacy and entrepreneurship at Rocinante High School, instructed his students to focus on doing as much research as possible on successful companies, as well as keeping an eye on companies that were on the top 10 list of market earners.
In the market game, teams of one to five students begin the simulation with an imaginary investment of 100 thousand dollars to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds on the NYSE and NASDAQ. Students follow current events and global news impacting the financial markets and place trades in real-time online via computer or the SMG smartphone app.
“This is really exciting for our students and our school. Students compete with peers in their classrooms and with teams of other students in schools across New Mexico. Along the way, they learn about saving and investing, trends, inflation, and most importantly how to believe in themselves and the work they are doing,” Rocinante High School Principal Peter Deswood.
Farmington High School has been invited to compete in the Capitol Hills Challenge, an invite-only stock market game where the students will be competing against teams throughout the nation and paired with a sitting Senator from New Mexico, who will be their advisor, and should the students place in the top ten of the competition they will receive a paid trip to Washington D.C. this summer.
“I'm proud of the students and their accomplishments in the Fall Semester. I am looking forward to the Spring Semester, and helping the students become the best stock portfolio managers in the nation!” said Farmington High School Teacher Matthew Velasquez.
Team Rocinante High School: Adriana Alvarez, Linley Cockrell, Destinee Finley, Horacio Gutierrez, Margret Heath, Jaiden Johnson, Somer Jones, Sianna Kessay, Natavian Manuelito, Samira Stevens, Braden Catmull, Ab Combs (1st place), Alexis Gangone, Alexsis Gundlach, Lana Jones, Catherine Miller, Evany Morales, Colton Olin (4th place), Rachelle Pixler, Polina Rasmussen, Jaron Ross (7th place), Santiago Salazar, Carlyle Sanisya, Andrew Schofield (6th place), and Illyana Tsosie.
Team Farmington High School: Lorenzo Barrientos, Kara Ellison, Candelaria Maria, Alaric Mescal, Antonio Pinto, Sheila Tarango-Aguilera, Orion Thomas, Angelica Torres-Ellison, Josiah Vigil, Chikeeh Yazzie, and Amaya Young.
Mr. Russell has been with FMS for 3 years.
Mr. Deswood has been with FMS for 5.5 years.
Mr. Velasquez has been with FMS for 7 years.
About SIFMA: SIFMA is the leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks, and asset managers operating in the U.S. and global capital markets. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit www.sifma.org.