Bree Soule and Logan Reeves take first place in Finance stock market game
May 14, 2021
The annual stock market competition is held with Finance students statewide.This competition was one of few things normal about the year.
“The competition had no change due to the COVID pandemic, as it has always been online,” Finance teacher Bruce Burwitz said. “There were over 600 teams from various high schools around the state, most of which are from Economic and Finance type classes.”
“Students are given $100,000 to invest into stocks of their choice and the market is live throughout the rest of the year,” senior Logan Reeves said. “We invested in stocks shortly into the school year and got to watch it play out the rest of the year.”
Senior Logan Reeves and junior Bree Soule were the first ever from Fenton High to receive first place in this competition.
“Logan and I needed to choose at least five stocks to invest in,” junior Bree Soule said. “When I got home from school, I went and talked to my dad about what types of stocks he thought we should invest in. Mr. Burwitz told us we need to do research into stocks and what types of stocks we should get, so I used my dad and he gave me some advice on some types of stocks he thought might go up. Using those categories he gave us, we researched stocks and with the guidance that put us in the right direction, we were able to really thrive in the stock market game.”
Soule and Reeves faced some drops and at one point, were even losing money in multiple stocks.
“We were actually losing a few thousand dollars at one point,” Soule said. “When we realized we were losing money, Logan and I talked and decided not to sell immediately and wait it out to see if it goes up. We kept a close eye on these stocks and slowly, they increased in price and we stopped losing money.”
Their most profitable stock ended up making roughly $36,000, the others trailing not far behind.
“I was pretty confident in our stocks, even if we did start losing money at first,” Soule said. “My confidence in them influenced our decision to not sell them immediately when we were losing money. I felt very strongly about one of our stocks, Blink Charging Co. (BLNK). We always made a profit on that stock and at one point, it was almost a 200 percent increase. BLNK ended up being our number one stock.”
The competition had almost 950 other kids across the state of Mich. participating, and Soule and Reeves were able to win the entire competition and will be sent prizes from the company, which have not yet arrived. They will continue their investing career in their adult lives even as they leave the class.