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A customizable real-time stock market game with embedded lessons and quizzes.

Stock Market Game Features

Real-time pricing and portfolio updates

Weekly Deposits to mimic real-life retirement investing

Team Portfolios with per-student reporting

Live chat support for both teachers and students

Integrated tutorial videos and walkthroughs

Students Learn

Building a portfolio for stocks, bonds and mutual funds

Additional securities can be added or removed at any time, including cryptocurrencies, futures, options, and forex.

Conducting thorough investing research

Quoting tools dive into both fundamental and technical analysis, including SEC filings and latest news per company. Students don’t have to leave the platform to get the information they need to make informed investment decisions.

The importance of portfolio diversification

The experience of investing in a virtual portfolio will show students, the easy or the hard way, of what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket. They also learn from each other as they discover who in their class is “beating the market” with all securities in the US trading with real-time prices.

Build stronger skills in personal finance, economics, math and business

Add any of the 300+ lessons to provide deeper insights to the business and economic cycles. Whether or not you add the Budget Game, you can still incorporate any of the personal finance topics to round out your students’ understanding of financial literacy.

What’s Included?

Easy & Fully Customizable Class Set-up

Choose from any of the following trading parameters to bring your business or finance class to life:

• 50 Global Exchanges
• Security Options: Stocks, Options, Bonds, Mutual Funds and Cryptos
• 30+ Major Global Currencies

Real-Time Prices

Your students will get experience trading and investing in US securities with real-time prices. They will experience all the ups and downs of the business and economic cycles and how changes in the market affect their portfolios.

Tutorial Videos

Students are provided introductory videos to learn the basics of how to research companies and stocks, how to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds and how to build a diversified portfolio.

Live Rankings

Students registered in the same class are able to see how well their portfolios are measuring up against their peers. You can also choose to have their portfolios public, which will allow them to see what they purchased.

Teaching Materials

Included with the Stock Game are additional investing projects, educational videos, lesson plans, and grading rubrics to integrate the game into your class. Click here to view all the teaching resources available.

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7 Free Stock Market Games for Students (Kids to Learn How to Invest)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: January 9, 2024

Free stock market games for students and kids, stock market board games, and high school investment competitions to teach your child how to invest.

One of the biggest requests I get from parents and teachers is for free stock market games for students and kids.

Wellllllll …they don’t exactly start the conversation out like that – it’s more like they ask me “how do you explain the stock market to a child?”

And then the conversation turns to me talking about one of the best ways to explain the stock market to a kid: finding a free stock market simulator game lasting 6 to 10 weeks, and leading them through it.

Heck, even a few rounds on a good stock market board game will give your child and students exposure to the stock market.

This might sound scary to you – maybe you’re not too on the up-and-up with your OWN investments, and the idea of trying to teach it to impressionable kids leaves you a bit queasy.

That’s the beauty of these stock market simulation games. There are lessons, stock market worksheet PDFs , videos, and guidance along the way so that you can sort of learn alongside your child – it’s not all centered around the knowledge you have on the market ( whew , right?).

That, and, your kids get to practice stock trading with fake money. Can’t beat that!

Psst: You'll want to give your kids/students an edge by making these investing books for kids and teens available to them. Also, here's an article all about investing for kids , and teaching kids about stocks .

Free Stock Market Games for Students and Kids

These free stock market games for students and kids are a great way to not only introduce many stock investment concepts, but to go through the trail-and-error process (without risking any real money) so that they self-discover the lessons they’ll need to successfully invest in stocks one day.

1. The Stock Market Game

Ages : Elementary+

Students get to manage $100,000 in virtual money through The Stock Market Game , an educational investing game for kids supported by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation.

They can compete as individuals, or as teams of between 2 and 5 people. There are also a series of lessons provided for teachers and parents to help with teaching and guiding your child along the journey.

Bonus: You'll want to access the free Teacher's Support Center, which has a searchable library of curriculum resources, lesson plans, assessments, and correlations to national Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

2. How the Market Works

Ages : Middle School + High School

Here’s an awesome platform for either an individual student/kid or a group of students to do some fantasy stock trading. You get $100,000 in virtual cash to build a portfolio.

Teachers? You’ll want to check out their classroom area .

Something else that I like? You can create your own custom contest for either your classroom, or with a group of students/kids.

And by custom, they mean you can create your own dates, commission structures, security types, and more. You get to set your own rules!

Bonus: They’ve also got an impressive collection of free investment lesson plans .

3. Fantasy Stock Exchange

Ages : Middle School and Up

Are you British? This stock market game is in pounds (which is why I asked). It’s got a cute interface that is geared towards younger kids, and also starts at a lower cash amount – £100 – which also is better for a younger crowd.

Your child gets access to 10 shares with their £100 in PIGGYBANK®Cash, and can track them on the “My Portfolio” page.

This stock market game also gives you the ability to compete against others by creating a game.

Another classroom stock market game? This person has a free excel spreadsheet you can download to create your own off-line stock market game.

Psst: want your child to start buying stocks? Here are 7 stock apps for kids .

4. TD Virtual Stock Simulation

Ages : Not given

Find lots of resources here for both teachers, and students to learn about the stock market and try their hand at making trades.

All for free!

You can trade real companies, and get real-time ranking updates against classmates as the game unfolds. Also, the platform is mobile-optimized.

5. Real-Time Stash101 Stock Market Simulator

Age: Not given.

These guys offer free lesson plans to accompany a stock market simulation your students get to do. Students are given between $100 and $10,000 dollars to invest in the stock market (you can edit the amount, as the educator), which mirrors prices in the actual stock market.

There are over 10,000 stocks to pick from, including FOREX and cryptocurrencies.

And teachers? You can download each of the student's portfolios to keep tabs on things.

6. Build Your Stax

Ages : Not given.

Your child is given the mission to grow their wealth as much as they can in 20 years.

Then, they go through various decision-making points throughout those 20 years in this game — both savings opportunities, investing opportunities, and major life transition costs (such as getting married).

Crashing stocks, a computer that plays against you using index funds, and many other characteristics of this stock market game make it a memorable one.

You can play this investing and savings game either in groups, or individually.

Now, let’s move onto high school investment competitions.

7. Personal Finance Lab's Stock Market Game

Ages : Middle School+

Right now for April's Financial Literacy Month, you can sign your classroom or own kids/teens up for the PersonalFinanceLab Stock Game!

Actually, it's a Financial Literacy Challenge, so on top of your students and kids building their own virtual stock portfolios, they'll also:

• Learn about checking and savings accounts
• Learn about credit cards
• Build a monthly budget

And they'll be help with building portfolios.

“During the challenge, the participants won't only be trading stocks but they will also be doing assignments to learn more about it.”

There's a prize, too! Winning classrooms can get a $100 gift card.

Here's a video for teachers, but parents? You can get some info from this, too.

High School Investment Competitions

Now we get into a really fun portion of this article – because not only can you take a group of kids or students through a stock market simulation…but you can also lead them through an investment competition (with prizes)!

High school investment competitions to keep your eye on:

1. KWHS Investment Competition

Ages : 9-12 Grade

This 10-week competition comes with an approved stock list (see, that’s helpful!), and your team of 4-7 students – bigger classes can be broken down into teams, and you can enter with a homeschool-led or investment-led team as well – gets to manage a virtual portfolio of $100,000. You’ll use Wharton’s Online Trading and Investment Simulator (OTIS).

Here’s the cool thing: the team with the highest portfolio value doesn’t necessarily win this stock market competition! Nope. They will select winners based on “team investment strategies and overall competition experience”.

No previous investment experience necessary. Here’s a link to bonus learning resources anyone can check out for investment lesson plans.

2. The Capitol Hill Challenge

Ages : Middle school or High School

There’s a national, 14-week-long investment competition each year that uses The Stock Market Game (from above). It’s called The Capital Hill Challenge , and Members of Congress get matched with students, teachers and schools from their district who are competing.

There’s no cost to participate, and it’s by invitation-only (you can make a request). Up to 10 teams per school, and 3-5 kids per team. Each team begins with $100,000.

Winners get a trip to Washington D.C.!

Let’s move onto some cool stock market board games.

Stock Market Board Games

Perhaps you don’t want to get involved with an 8-week stock market simulation game, or a 10-week investment competition with your students.

Another option is to simulate the stock market for them in short bursts through stock market board games.

Investment board games for kids and investment games for students include:

1. Big Money

Age Range : 8+ years Players : 2-5 players

I like how kids start off with an asset in this game, and how kid-friendly the investing opportunities are as they choose how to build their portfolio.

Like being able to invest in a grocery store, or a candy factory.

Students are also thrown situations as the game progresses, such as bubble bursts. The player with the most cash at the end, wins.

2. Bulls and Bears: The Game of Booms and Busts

Age Range : 13+ years Players : 2-6

This game takes stock market investing to a whole other level.

It’s so robust – think the complexity of Monopoly, but with the goal of teaching investing – that you might want to help your child review the free online guidebook provided to get their investing sea-legs.

Some really interesting + priceless lessons built into this game:

• Importance of Diversification : Player’s portfolios are assessed periodically by banks to make sure they’re diversified.
• Current Events’ Influence on the Market : Stock purchase decisions are based on how they think the market will react to different news flashes (talk about great prep for investing in the real world!).
• How to Calculate Net Worth : Having the players calculate their net worth (need a refresher? That's the sum of all cash and investments minus any mortgage or other debts owed).
• Importance of 3 Key Investments for Long-Term Financial Security : Goal of the game is to acquire a net worth of $200,000 while owning these three key assets – a retirement plan, a home, and health/property insurance.

I'll be adding to this list as I find additional free stock market games for students and other fun resources to make learning (and teaching) how to invest a fun process. And if you're looking for the real deal? Well, here are stock apps for under 18-year-olds to actually start investing (with built-in parental controls).

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Core Stock Market Project

This project is the “Core”, which most teachers use as the basis for their HTMW class stock game. The other recommendations in this library usually follow this format (with some variation). This makes it very flexible to work with your classes.

This project usually runs between 4 and 16 weeks. Longer contests tend to work better. This is because students are exposed to more “market news” for a longer time, and is a better introduction to “real” investing outside of the classroom.

Project Overview

The goal of this project is to introduce students to basic investing concepts, and get exposure to the real-world financial markets. Each student will build their own portfolio of stocks and mutual funds, with a set of initial investing goals, and regular investing journal entries. At the end of the session, students will create and present a 5-10 minute presentation to the class. The presentation should discuss the goals they set, and how they worked with the changing markets over the course of the contest. Students will also need to submit a report detailing their trading activities.

Project Set-Up

Contest rules.

Use these settings to set up your class contest:

• Initial Cash: $100,000
• Registration/Trading Dates: as long as your class allows (we recommend starting this project early – likely before your discuss investing in detail in the class itself)
• Minimum Prices: $3
• Short Selling: OFF
• Day Trading: ON
• Margin Trading: OFF
• Public Portfolios: OFF
• Allow US Stocks and Mutual Funds
• Commission: $10/trade
• Position Limits: 20% (students can’t invest more than 20% of their portfolio in any single stock)
• Create an assignment
• Keep the teacher in the rankings
• Require Trading Notes

You will get a unique registration link to share with your students – this will let them create their login and join you into your class.

You should also add an “Assignment” to your class. Your first “Assignment” should last the first week of the trading period, and include the 10 items in the “Stock Market Basics” section. These are designed to provide students with a basic introduction to what a portfolio is and how to make trades, with short articles, videos, and tutorials.

Assignments keep the experience educational – it provides a clear structure for what your students are expected to learn, while introducing them to the game and how it works!

You can create more assignments for each week, including other tasks that align with what you are discussing in class. Most classes assign the next 10 items, under “Intermediate Investing Tips”, as the second week’s assignment.

Project Kick-Off

Kick off the project using our Cornerstone Lesson Plan – this is a short introduction to glossary terms and the concepts of stocks of investing. At the end of the lesson, have students create their logins for your HTMW class contest, and work through the first 10 “Stock Market Basics” lesson. This should usually take about 1 hour.

Next, introduce your students to a few “Scenarios”. These will determine the kinds of portfolios they will build. They can choose between:

• A retirement portfolio – the goal will be constant, slow growth, with an emphasis on avoiding losses (a portfolio for someone who wants to retire in 15 years)
• A growth portfolio – the goal will be high growth with some risk (a portfolio of someone in their 20’s or 30’s looking for high returns)

Now put students into groups of 3-5, based on which scenario they chose. Have each group prepare a list of 10 ticker symbols (ideally from at least 3 different sectors) of companies that they are familiar with, and that they think will perform well for their scenario. Students can find the ticker symbols, sectors, and performance charts for all US and Canadian stocks in the “Quotes” tool on HTMW. This should take between 30 and 45 minutes.

Then break up the groups, and have each student individually should pick 5 of these companies, and add them to their HTMW portfolio. Each student should also write a 1 page summary about why they chose the companies they did, and why they DIDN’T choose the other 5 companies the group identified (this can be homework). This ensures each student will have a unique portfolio, but based on some group thinking.

Weekly Check-In

Ensure all students are checking their HTMW portfolio at least once a week (with the class rankings, most students will be checking a lot more often!). You can post the class rankings at the front of class to make sure students are staying engaged.

Keep using Assignments! You can easily track which students are participating, and remind students who start falling behind. Plus, the lessons are a great supplement to what you are already covering in class!

You will also want to encourage students to continue trading for the duration of the contest. Require students to make at least 3 trades in their portfolio each week (you can require this with an Assignment), and they should both be keeping Trade Notes with each trade, and a 1 paragraph Trade Summary that gives a short summary of what happened in their portfolio each week. This summary should include things like what stocks did well, which did poorly, how did market news impact their holdings, and how it relates back to other class topics under discussion.

Final Report

At the end of the trading period, student’s portfolios will automatically freeze, so they can continue to log in and see how they did at the end of the last day, but not place any new trades.

This gives the opportunity for students to prepare a final “Investment Report”. The Investment Report should be between 3-5 pages, divided into sections.

• A summary of their investing scenario, and how well they achieved their investing objectives
• A graph showing their portfolio performance for the duration of the contest
• A list of significant events during the contest that had a big impact on their portfolio (news reports impacting stock prices, ect)
• A pie chart showing their final holdings
• A profit/loss summary, showing where exactly they made and lost money
• An appendix with all of their weekly investing journals

Happy trading and let us know if you have any questions! If you have your own awesome class stock project that your students really loved, please share so other teachers can give it a try!

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Playing an investment game

Students work in groups to explore real-world scenarios that can affect stock investments.

Understanding the basic concept of the stock market and the risks involved can help you become better informed about investing.

Essential questions

• What can make a stock price rise or fall?
• What risks are involved when investing in the stock market?
• Learn how various factors or events can affect stock prices
• Understand the importance of considering risk when making investment decisions

What students will do

• Work in groups to review scenarios that may affect an imaginary company’s stock price.
• Brainstorm on why they think the stock price rose or fell.
• Reflect on the risks and rewards of stock investing.

Download activity

Teacher guide.

cfpb_building_block_activities_playing-investment-game_guide.pdf

Student materials

cfpb_building_block_activities_playing-investment-game_worksheet.pdf

Note: Please remember to consider your students’ accommodations and special needs to ensure that all students are able to participate in a meaningful way.

Explore related resources

• Search for related CFPB activities
• Find financial education lessons from FDIC
• View financial education resources from the Federal Reserve

Stock Market Project

May 25, 2018 rethinkmathteacher.com Math Teaching Resources 0

One of my favorite activities to do is a Stock Market Project. What follows will give you some helpful advice for setting up this class project, getting it started, and extending it.

During this activity, students will learn about stocks, investing, and real world application of mathematics. Plus there are tons of math concepts and skills that can be implemented.

Here’s what I do to have an engaging, and successful stock market project.

To help students begin to understand the concept of owning part of a business, I show them portions of Shark Tank – the show on ABC where billionaire investors compete for part ownership of an entrepreneur’s company.`

The students enjoy watching the episodes, especially when the product is very interesting or if there is drama in the negotiations.

Watching the show also gives us a great opportunity to talk about proportions and percents – one shark wants 10% of the company for $100,000, so what is the evaluation of the company’s worth?

YouTube used to have episodes of Shark Tank available, so I had made worksheets for individual episodes. But they have all been scrubbed. So I recommend getting the episodes for free at ABC’s website, and using a generic questions worksheet like the one I use in the image below.

This worksheet is available at the bottom of this post as an editable word document.

I also recommend previewing the episode or section of the episode that you wish to show. Besides that doing so will allow you to show it in class without the commercials, there are also some products that deal with alcoholic beverages, swimsuits, or other topics that you may not want to show to your students.

I Own Disney

After talking about ownership of a stock, we then discuss that most companies are publically owned, meaning that they sell stock in their company to the public, so you and I can purchase it at a public stock exchange (like the New York Stock Exchange).

After a short discussion on companies that are publically owned, I then explain to the class that I actually own one stock in Disney. We start discussing all the ways that Disney makes money; the Marvel movies, Disney World and Disney Land, ESPN and ABC, all the Disney Princess merchandise, the Disney channel, etc.

Invariably, the students realize that Disney makes a lot of money, and assume that I must be a millionaire (since I own the company).

I then explain that there are millions of shares of Disney, and I own one of them. Each of those millions of shares must split the revenue, and the students soon come to their second epiphany: that I am not a millionaire.

We then go on to ETrade and see how much a Disney stock is worth and how much it has made this year. I guide the conversation towards the thought that if 1 stock of Disney makes a few dollars each year, how much would 1,000 Disney stocks make in a year? Which begins a conversation on wise investing and passive income.

Here’s a funny clip to show your class on the stock market’s fluctuation, from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

I Choose the Stocks

Prior to these discussions, I will preselect 15 – 20 different stocks that I am going to allow my students to purchase. I try to choose companies that they will know of, and be interested in.

So I choose stocks like: Snapchat, Twitter, Disney, Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, etc.

You can scroll down for a full list of the stocks and their stock symbols that I usually use with my classes.

The Watch List

I create a Watch List online of these 15-20 stocks so that I can quickly pull them up and show the students all the relevant information each day.

ETrade has a very cool website that allows you to build a watchlist. So I signup for an account at https://www.marketwatch.com/watchlist and enter the 20ish stocks into the watch list. Edward Jones has a similar feature at https://www.edwardjones.com/your-watch-list/index.html

I will also create a one page handout that has a list of the stocks for the students that has 4 columns and includes the following information:

• Current trading price
• 52 week high
• 52 week low

Which I will handout to the students when it’s time for them to decide what stocks they are going to invest in, and how to spend their money.

This worksheet, as seen above, is included in the download at the end of this post, as an editable form if you are interested in having it.

Purchasing Stocks

After giving some time to look at the list of stocks and ask questions, we then practice purchasing stocks.

I let the students know the rules:

• They must purchase 3 different stocks (no more, no less)
• They are given $100,000 to invest, and they must spend at least $99,000

Next, we practice purchasing stock.

I project the “Day 1 Stock Purchasing Table” on the board, and we fill it out together:

This worksheet is also included in the download at the end of this post.

Students’ Turn

Finally, the students are then tasked with investing their money and completing the same table on their worksheet.

Reminder, they must purchase 3 different stocks and they must invest at least $99,000 of their $100,000. The remaining cash that they don’t spend, they must keep track of.

You may want to give the students a day between introducing the project and beginning it – where they actually purchase the stocks – so that they can do some research.

Continuing the Activity

After the introduction, where we learn about stocks, stock prices, the stock exchange, and then actually purchase stock, the students must update their portfolios daily. This is why building the stock market watch list helps. You simply project the watch list on the board, and students can see the new price of their stock, and then do the calculations to determine whether or not they made money.

So we complete the table below to help students keep track of how much money they now have.

Again, I recommend first modeling this, as it is a lot of new information and they will struggle with the many steps.

It is very important to make sure that they do this correctly on day 2, as this will dictate how well they do on the remaining days, so spend some extra time checking everyone’s work and making sure that they know how to complete the table and do the calculations to find out how much money they now have.

Two Options

There are two ways to do the activity.

The first option is to NOT allow the students to alter their stock selections after the first day. So however many stocks they purchased on day 1 of each stock, remains their total for the entirety of the project. The rest of the time is spent calculating how much those stocks have grown.

The second option is to allow the students to change their selections daily. So they can purchase more of a stock, or sell some of a stock, or both. Or, students can even completely sell out of one stock and purchase a new stock all together. Students may even wish to invest some of the cash that they had remaining.

Option 2 is obviously much more involved, and more difficult to complete, but it also is more like the real world.

When choosing option 2, I have my students complete a second table each day.

Again, all these worksheets are available at the bottom of this post.

Extension Activity

A great extension activity is to have students create line graphs.

They can do one of an individual’s stock day by day, or one of their portfolio’s value day by day.

Get the Student Worksheets

Of course, I have shown you all that is on the worksheets that I use when my class does the stock market project, so feel free to reproduce them.

However, if you would like to save yourself the time of remaking them, and support this website, you can purchase all 4 worksheets.

Click Here to Purchase all 4 Stock Market Worksheets

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LESSONS LEARNED:

DIRECTIONS:

This lesson plan may be used by anyone, without any prior stock market or investing knowledge.  In addition, we are available to answer any questions you may have either when beginning this lesson, or questions you may have during this exercise.

The time involved will vary greatly depending on how much time you wish to spend on this material, as well as the age level of your students.  This may vary from 1 week to an entire school year.  We recommend continuing this exercise throughout an entire school year, since this will continue to make students interested in current events while they learn important skills.

Typical stock market simulations try to make the simulation a "contest" with the winner the one who has the largest portfolio and the end of the exercise.  This is unfortunate since it encourages poor investment decisions such as rapid trading and taking large risks.  Unlike typical stock market simulations, the goal here is to learn and understand basic investing principles, current events, the basics of how the economy works, money management skills, basic math and reading comprehension, writing skills, etc.

Here are the steps for your own stock market simulation:

LESSON 1:  Introductory Information

Students will learn what is a stock, and be able to look up basic stock market information.

WHAT IS THE STOCK MARKET VIDEO LESSON

Have students watch the video lesson "What is the Stock Market?" Discuss with them what the stock market is and why it is important to the economy, companies, and investors.

What is the Stock Market?

A video lesson introducing students to the Stock market. The stock market and Wall Street are two terms used in the United States to refer to all aspects of securities trading including stock exchanges that list shares of public companies, or stocks, and other markets that trade securities.

WHAT ARE STOCKS VIDEO LESSON

Have students watch the video lesson "What are Stocks?" Discuss with them why companies issue stock and why people buy stocks. What are the benefits of owning stock?

What are Stocks?

A video lesson introducing students to the basics of stocks. How do they work, and why do investors purchase stock shares? Learn about why companies issue stocks, stock certificates, the benefits and risks of being a stock shareholder, and the stock market. Investment, capital appreciation, dividends, voting rights, and limited liability of stocks.

Stocks and the Stock Market

Reading a Stock Market Table

LESSON 2:  Introducing the simulation:

Here is our suggested guidelines.  This simulation may either be done in groups or individually. Feel free to adjust and improvise as you may feel appropriate:

Each group (or individual) begins with $10,000.  For younger students, use $1000.  With this money, the group (or individual) must spend at least $9,500 ($900 for younger students) on stocks (including commissions).  The remainder may be kept in the individuals checking account.

Each group must invest in 5 stocks.  Or you may set a minimum of 3 stocks, and a maximum of 6 stocks.  If you are working with a younger group, you may want to set the number to 3 stocks for each group.

A 3% commission is to be paid for every stock transaction (buying or selling a stock).  For younger students, either use a 1% commission, or no commission.

Each group should keep a journal of their activities and thoughts, and a transaction history of all buys and sells.  In addition, the group is responsible for keeping track of the current portfolio's market value (plus the cash in the checking account).

The time line for this activity may be from 1 week, to multiple weeks depending on how much time you wish to spend on this subject.  We suggest continuing this activity throughout the ENTIRE school year, since it will help reinforce longer-term investment skills.  In addition, this will keep students interested in current economic events while reinforcing fundamental skills.

On the last day (as determined by the instructor) students will sell their stocks and report on their portfolio's value and what they learned during the activity.

LESSON 3: LESSON CHOOSING COMPANIES TO INVEST IN

If this is a group activity, the students should get together in their groups.

For choosing stocks, we recommend that students choose companies with products or services they are familiar with.  This may include companies that their families or friends work for, or are familiar with.  This will help make the learning process more interesting and understandable.  In addition, some basic "Fundamental analysis" may be performed.  You may start this lesson by asking students the question what companies are they familiar with, and writing the answers on the board.  Then students may choose from those companies or other companies they think of. 

For younger students, you may want to suggest companies and let the students choose.  For older students, you may require additional fundamental analysis, such as PE analysis, or making sure they create a diversified portfolio.  In addition, students should write their reasoning and analysis in their journal.

Pick some of the stocks chosen by the students to create an example "portfolio".  Choose 3-5 stocks and list their name and stock ticker on the board (use a newspaper or computer to get the stock information).  List the closing price as well.  Then ask the students how much of each stock they should purchase.  Total the amounts and see how close it comes to the $10000 budgeted.  Then ask what should be done to get over $9500 but under $10000.   Then either have them complete this exercise individually, or do it as a group.

The following links will be of assistance.  Note that simply choosing companies that they are familiar with is most appropriate for younger students.  Older students may also work on some of the following activities.  Optionally, you may also include some of these lessons later so students can analyze their investments.

Choosing which company's stock to invest in.

LESSON 4: PURCHASING STOCKS

Students should fill in their own stock portfolio transaction form, including calculating the transactions.

Buying shares of stock.

LESSON 5: MONITORING THE PORTFOLIO

Weekly, students should track their investments.

Monitoring and reporting stock portfolio

worksheet to track prices.

Do weekly reporting.  Stock price and portfolio performance.  News items related to the stock.  Economic items related to the portfolio and the stock market.  Any correlation between the news and the stock or portfolio?  Record this in the journal and create weekly performance sheets.

LESSON 6: SELLING STOCKS

Selling shares of stock

CONTINUATION OF LESSONS

Lessons 3-6 continue till the end of the simulation.  Once the simulation is complete, students should sell all stocks in their portfolio.  A class presentation should be made at this time regarding what each group learned, and the results of their investments.

OTHER OPTIONAL LESSONS:

Basic Finance and Economics

Once you have learned about stocks, now go on to learn basic finance and economics.

Basic finance and economics provide the foundation for understanding stocks, business, and the economy.  Use these lessons to teach basic finance and economic principles.

ASK A QUESTION

Are you new to stocks and investing?  We are here to help you with any question you may have.  If you are just learning about stocks, we are happy to help you along the way to teaching and learning about stocks.

OTHER SUGGESTED IDEAS:

Have a investment advisor visit the class for question and answers.

Take a trip to an investment advisor office, brokerage firm, or stock market.

Have students do a research report on some aspect of the stock market.  For example, on the stock market crash of the 1920s, history of the New York Stock exchange, etc.

Have you used this lesson in your classroom?  Then we would appreciate your feedback and any suggestions you may have.  Simply click on the suggestions link on the top of the page. Your input helps us to continue to build new lessons, lesson plans, and worksheets.  Thank you.

Stock Market

Stock Market teaches students all about the stock exchange, the bull and bear markets, and what shares are. Students will discover how the stock market started in May of 1792. They will learn about the Buttonwood Agreement and about commissions. The Buttonwood Agreement led to what is now called the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify and define many of the terms associated with stocks. They will a basic understanding of how the market works and how to make money with investing. There are several suggestions in the “Options for Lesson” section that may aid in your instruction. For instance, you may invite a stock broker to speak with the class and provide additional information.

Description

Additional information, what our stock market lesson plan includes.

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Stock Market is a great lesson for 5th and 6th grade students. Your students will learn all about the stock exchange and related terms. They have likely heard of the stock market, but they may not fully understand it. Students will learn about buying, investing, selling, and trading. And they will even have the chance to simulate the stock exchange and purchase and trade stock.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.

Options for Lesson

You can check out the “Options for Lesson” section of the classroom procedure page for additional suggestions for ideas and activities to incorporate into the lesson. Students may work alone or in groups for the activity. You could also increase or decrease the length of time for the activity. Have students create an imaginary company and give other students a set amount of money to invest in the imaginary companies. Then discuss how students decided on the investments. Invite a stock broker or another financial expert to speak with the class about the stock market, investing, etc. Assign each student a company of which they can research the stock value from the company’s founding up to the present day.

Teacher Notes

The teacher notes page provides an extra paragraph of information to help guide the lesson and remind you what to focus on. While students may have heard about the stock market, they may not really understand what it involves. This lesson is meant to provide a foundational understanding. You might also benefit from teaching this lesson in conjunction with others about money or the economy. The blank lines on this page are available for you to write out thoughts and ideas you have as you prepare the lesson.

STOCK MARKET LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

Introduction to the stock market.

The Stock Market lesson plan contains four pages of content. The word stock simply refers to the supply of a product or maybe a service. And the market is usually a public place where people can buy, sell, or trade those products or services. However, in a financial market, the stock refers to the supply of money that a company has raised. The money comes from people who gave the company money in the hopes that the company will make a profit. In return, the people who gave the money will earn more money.

Stock market , then, is the business of buying and selling stock. It is not a place like a grocery store or a food market. Wall Street is the name of a street in New York City’s financial district, and sometimes we say “Wall Street” to refer to the United States stock market. The financial district is the place where many people (or computers) buy and sell stock for themselves and other people.

The first stock market began on May 17, 1792, when 24 stockbrokers (people who buy and sell stock) and merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement. This agreement had two provisions. First, the brokers were only to deal with each when buying or selling stock. And second, commissions (the money brokers made on each sale) were to be 0.25%. The agreement was signed underneath a buttonwood tree.

Later, the agreement led to the formation of the New York Stock and Exchange Board. This is now the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is a company on Wall Street. It is also the world’s largest stock exchange. It provides a means for buyers and sellers to trade shares of stock in companies registered for public trading. There are other stock exchanges throughout the world as well, such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and another American exchange called the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) Stock Market.

Using the stock exchanges brokers, people and businesses can invest their money in public companies throughout the world. The public companies often want to grow their business, build more factories, or develop new products. So they turn to the selling of stocks to raise money for the company.

How Stocks Work

The next page outlines how the stock market functions. A company could borrow money from a bank to grow their business, but they would have to pay the money back to the bank. However, instead of borrowing money, a company can issue stock and raise money without going into debt. The people who buy the stock give money to the company to help the business grow.

In some way, you can think of it as opening a lemonade stand. After you open, you realize you don’t have enough money for all the supplies. You ask your parents for some money to help pay for lemons, cups, signage and other supplies. They give you the money, and you start selling. Once you begin making a profit, you pay them back and give them some of your profits. However, if you lose money, your parents will lose their money too. It is a risk they took to help you build your lemonade business.

Only business corporations can issue stock. A business owned by one person (sole-proprietorship) or a few people (partnership) cannot. A corporation has a special legal status and does not depend on the people who run it. And it has legal rights and responsibilities to the people who buy the company’s stock.

Shareholders and Stockholders

People who buy stock in a company own part of the company. Each part they own is called a share. For example, let’s go back to the lemonade stand. If you sold 100 shares of stock in your company at $1.00 per share, a person who purchased one share would own 1% of the company. A person who had 25 shares would own 25% of the company. The people who own the stock are called stockholders or shareholders.

The shareholders usually have voting rights in a company too. They could vote in people for the board of directors, for instance. The board will run the company and make major decisions for the company’s success. Stockholders usually have one vote for each share of stock they own. That means that the more stock a person owns, the greater influence they may have on the company. Quarterly or yearly reports are also sent to stockholders to inform them how the company is doing.

Every stockholder wants the company to grow and earn a profit. If the company earns money, the stockholders share the profits after the expenses are paid. Usually, when people invest money in companies by purchasing stock, they will earn more than they would if they left the money in the bank or made other investments.

For example, if the lemonade stand made a profit of $100, the people who purchased shares of the stock would double their money and earn a 100% profit. Banks and other investments usually yield much less. Of course, not all stocks earn such a high rate of return. But over time, investing in and buying shares of stock in a company usually leads to a greater profit.

On the other hand, if a company does poorly, goes out of business, and loses money, a stockholder can lose the money they invested in the company. The prices of stock for a company, though, will usually rise and fall over time. For example, a share of stock in a company today might cost $23, but tomorrow it could be worth $25 and the next day drop to $22. The rise and fall of stock prices drive people to “play” the stock market for a living.

Playing the Stock Market

There are people who play the stock market by buying and selling stock at the right time to earn money. For example, if the price of a stock goes down, a broker may purchase the stock at the lower price. They hold it for a while until the value of the stock rises or goes up and then sell it. If they can do this, they earn a profit simply by buying and selling stock at the right time.

For example, your lemonade stand stock may be worth $1 a share in the beginning but go up to $1.25 per share. The people who originally invested can now sell their shares for 25 cents profit per share to someone who is willing to buy the stock. The value of the stock could go down, however, and shareholders could lose money.

Students will learn that stock prices fluctuate daily and weekly. People will often hold onto a stock for a much longer period of time. The price of the share will change often, but over a long period of time, the value of stocks often rises. In summary, if a company does well, the value of shares rises. If a company struggles, the value of shares will go down.

Investors and brokers are often the people who follow the stock market very closely and invest another person’s or company’s money. They follow the overall rise and fall of the stock market and watch closely for companies that may increase in value and those that may decrease in value. At the end of each day, the market determines the overall value of  stock shares that companies, brokers, and investors bought or sold, or traded. The stock market value is then reported as going “up” or “down.”

There are stock markets throughout the world, and investors will carefully watch what happens to the value of stocks in other countries too. Sometimes this helps them make choices as to whether they should buy or sell shares of stock throughout the day.

Bears and Bulls

There are two groups of investors—bears and bulls. A bear is an investor who believes the stock market will go down and will be cautious when buying stock. A bull is an investor who believes the stock market will go up and put more money into buying shares of stock. Investors can also be bearish or bullish about a single kind of stock. The term bear market describes a time when stock prices are falling. Naturally, then, a bull market is a period of rising stock prices. Bear markets are usually bad; bull markets are good.

Without stocks (the shares of value in a company), many businesses would not have the money to grow and develop their products or services. The idea of a stock market has been around for a long time. In fact, people purchased stocks to finance the Pilgrim’s voyage to America. They hoped the travelers would find something valuable in the New World, ensuring the investors made a profit.

For example, imagine that friends you know want to search for gold reportedly buried in the side of a mountain. Your friends might need money to purchase equipment and tools. You give them the money hoping the gold will be found. If it is, they have agreed to give you a certain percentage of the profit.

STOCK MARKET LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Stock Market lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. Each one will reinforce students’ comprehension of lesson material in different ways and help them demonstrate when they learned. Use the guidelines on the classroom procedure page to determine when to distribute each worksheet to the class.

PURCHASE SHARES ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

After dividing into pairs, students will purchase shares of five different stocks. They will have an imaginary $5000 to allocate among the stocks. They will track the rising and falling prices of the stocks over a period of time. The lesson states two weeks. However, you could provide real companies for the students to monitor and adjust the amount of time they will track the prices.

At the beginning of the activity, students will answer a set of questions. After the two weeks pass, they will answer another set of questions based on their experience.

DEFINITION MATCH PRACTICE WORKSHEET

The practice worksheet lists 15 statements. Students will match the definition to the correct term. Afterward, they will answer five other questions, most of which are based on the lesson material.

STOCK MARKET HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students must first fill in the blanks to 10 questions using the words in the word bank. Afterward, there is another set of statements. Students will determine whether the statement is true or false and mark it appropriately.

Worksheet Answer Keys

There are answer keys for both the practice and homework worksheets at the end of the lesson plan document. Correct answers are in red to make it easy for you to compare them to students’ work. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.

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We've collected a number of useful high school-level economics lessons for you to use with your students.  

Click the button to either download a PDF file of the lesson or view resources.

Lesson: Barbie in the Labor Force

GRADES: 6-12

CONCEPTS: Labor Force, Labor Trends

SOURCE:  Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

DOWNLOAD PDF

Lesson: The Case of the Gigantic 100,000 Bill

GRADES:  9-12

CONCEPTS: Money Supply, Excess Reserves, Money Multiplier, Reserve Requirements

Crossing Borders: The Globalization Debate

CONCEPTS: Benefits, Costs, Globalization

SOURCE:  Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis

SEE RESOURCES

Lesson: Currency and the Fed

GRADES:  8-12

CONCEPTS: Currency features and history, Federal Reserve System, Functions of Money

Lesson: The Economic Way of Thinking

CONCEPTS: Consumers, Cost-benefit analysis, Incentives, Producers, Saving, Scarcity

SOURCE: Foundation for Teaching Economics

Lesson: How Can Big Business Make Money From Tariffs?

CONCEPTS: Incentives, Tariffs, Special Interest Groups

SOURCE: Focus on Economics: U. S. History

Lesson: How Can Entrepreneurs Control Costs?

CONCEPTS: Entrepreneurship, Fixed Costs, Variable Costs

SOURCE: Entrepreneurship in the U.S. Economy

Lesson: Introducing the Credit Card

CONCEPTS: Credit, Decision-making

SOURCE: CompareCards.com

Lesson: It’s a Not So Wonderful Life

CONCEPTS: Banking, Central Banking System, Money, Savers

SOURCE: EconEdLink.org

Lesson: Privatizing Schools: Schools For Sale

CONCEPTS: Public Goods, Incentives, Private Goods, Economic Efficiency, Costs

SOURCE:   Nebraska Council on Economic Education

Lesson: The Ultimatum Game

CONCEPTS: Self Interest, Markets

Lesson: What Are the Economic Functions Of Government?

GRADES:  6-12

CONCEPTS: Role of Government

SOURCE: Focus on Economics: Civics and Government

Lesson: What Is a Stock? or Who Owns McDonalds?

CONCEPTS: Incentives, Choice, Profit, Risk

SOURCE: Learning for the Market: Integrating the Stock Market Game Across the Curriculum

Lesson: Who Desegregated Major League Baseball: Adam Smith or Jackie Robinson?

CONCEPTS: Competition, Cartel, “Invisible Hand”, Labor Market, Monopoly, Monopsony, Profit, Market

SOURCE: Economic Episodes in American History

A Group of "Bell-Ringer" Activities

SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

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Stock Market Worksheets

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Students will monitor stocks for a couple weeks and calculate the math that is used in monitoring their own portfolio. At the end of the lesson, students should have an understanding of the volatility of the stock market and can see their investments grow and decline.

Included in this product:

• 1 Stock Market worksheet
• 1 excel file (with formulas) of 5 different stock market game rounds for students

Check out some of my other listings:

• Stock Market Reflection Questions and Word Problems
• Stock Market Simulation Worksheets
• Personal Finance 101 - Money Terms for Teens
• 2020 Stock Market Crash Simulation
• Stock Market: Fact or Fiction? Game

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Stock market today: Wall Street rallies to records after inflation slows

NEW YORK (AP) — Hopes that  inflation is finally heading back  in the right direction swept through Wall Street Wednesday and ignited a record-setting rally for U.S. stocks.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.2% to top its prior high set a month and a half ago. The Nasdaq composite added 1.4% to its own record set a day earlier, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 349 points, or 0.9%, to beat its all-time high set in March.

Relief came from the bond market, where Treasury yields eased to release some of the pressure on the stock market. The moves resulted from strengthening expectations among traders that the Federal Reserve may indeed cut its main interest rate this year.

Stocks that tend to benefit the most from lower interest rates helped lead the market. Homebuilders were strong on hopes that cuts by the Fed could lead to easier mortgage rates, with Lennar, D.R. Horton and PulteGroup all rallying more than 5%. Big Tech and other high-growth stocks also rode the wave of expectations for lower rates, and Nvidia’s gain of 3.6% was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward.

Real-estate stocks in the S&P 500 climbed 1.7%, while stocks of electricity companies and other utilities rose 1.4%. The dividends they pay look better to investors when bonds are paying less in interest.

The optimism came from a report showing U.S. consumers had to pay prices for gasoline, car insurance and everything else in April that were 3.4% higher overall than a year earlier. While that’s painful, it’s not as bad as March’s inflation rate of 3.5%.

Perhaps more importantly, the slowdown was a relief after reports for the consumer price index, or CPI, earlier this year had consistently come in worse than expected. That string of disappointing data had washed out forecasts for the Federal Reserve to lower its main interest rate soon.

The federal funds rate is sitting at its highest level in more than two decades, and a cut would goose investment prices and remove some of the downward pressure on the economy.

“There was a lot lying on today’s CPI print to prove that disinflation was simply delayed these last three months and not derailed,” according to Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, co-chief investment officer of the multi-asset solutions business in Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

A separate report showed  no growth in spending  at U.S. retailers in April from March. It was a weaker showing than the 0.4% growth economists expected.

Slowing growth in retail sales could be seen as a positive for markets, because it could reduce the upward pressure on inflation. But a stalling out also raises worries about cracks forming in U.S. consumer spending, which has been one of the main pillars keeping the economy out of a recession. Pressure has grown  particularly high on lower-income households .

“Hopefully the consumer isn’t running out of steam, but with pandemic savings spent, rising delinquencies, slower wage growth, and now flat retail sales, a more abrupt slowing of the economy can’t be ruled out,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

That could threaten one of the main hopes that’s rallied the U.S. stock market toward its records: The Federal Reserve can pull off the balancing act of slowing the economy enough through high interest rates to stamp out high inflation but not so much that it causes a bad recession.

A separate discouraging report released in the morning, meanwhile, said manufacturing in New York state is contracting more than expected.

On Wall Street, Petco Health + Wellness helped lead the market after soaring 27.9%. It named Glenn Murphy, who is CEO of investment firm FIS Holdings, as its executive chairman.

On the losing end were GameStop and AMC Entertainment, as momentum reversed following their  jaw-dropping starts to the week . GameStop fell 18.9%, though it’s still up 126.5% for the week so far.

AMC Entertainment sank 20% after it said it will issue nearly 23.3 million shares of its stock to wipe out $163.9 million in debt.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 61.47 points to 5,308.15. The Dow added 349.89 to 39,908.00, and the Nasdaq jumped 231.21 to 16,742.39.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.34% from 4.45% late Tuesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectation for Fed action, sank to 4.72% to from 4.82%.

Traders are now forecasting a nearly 95% probability that the Fed cuts its main interest rate at least once this year, according to data from CME Group. That’s up from just below 90% a day before.

In stock markets abroad, Shanghai’s fell 0.8% after China’s central bank left a key lending rate unchanged. Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and modestly higher in Europe.

AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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About InvestWrite

The SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite® program is an innovative national writing competition offered to teachers and students participating in The Stock Market Game™ .

Your students have entered the world of business and finance by participating in The Stock Market Game™ . The perfect companion, our teacher-designed writing component and competition, reinforces their newfound knowledge and hones critical thinking skills.

Utilizing feedback from teachers nationwide, InvestWrite® builds a bridge between classroom learning and the real world. InvestWrite complements The Stock Market Game™ learning experience and easily integrates across subjects throughout your curriculum.

Whether you and your students win laptops, gift cards, pizza parties -- or not, you'll all benefit by enhancing your Stock Market Game experience through writing.

Essays written by students in the classroom

Teachers offered classroom experiences

Essays submitted by teachers in the National Competition

Volunteer judges read & scored essays

Offered at NO COST For Qualifying Stock Market Game Participants*

What's required to participate*.

• Teachers currently registered and participating in The Stock Market Game with actively trading student teams are eligible.
• Students currently registered in The Stock Market Game with a valid team login ID and password are eligible.
• Students participate by writing essays in their grade division: Elementary (4-5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12).
• Teachers/advisors can choose to assign the InvestWrite writing assignment as an in-class or homework assignment.
• Both teachers and students will have a chance to win gift certificates, laptop computers, and other great awards.

Each participating student submission has a chance to be reviewed by the competition's first round judge...you, the teacher/advisor.

Then, as the first round judge, you select the top responses from each class or group of participants (based on the guidelines and directions).

Then you submit them electronically on this website for the next round of evaluation at the national level.

Testimonials

May Quan - Elementary School Teacher

Through InvestWrite, my students were able to recognize the importance of diversification in their individual portfolios and learn about different charity organizations in the community. With the past InvestWrite topic, my students were glad to have the opportunity to combine their personal experience with their favorite charity and money management. It really made them think and research hard on how to make the existing charity’s money grow at the same time as how to protect its principal as much as possible. They learned that the way to do this is through diversification and managing calculated risks.

Morrisville, North Carolina

Judith Kraus - Middle School Teacher

The InvestWrite essay serves as an authentic assessment of my students' ability to research, analyze, and concisely communicate key financial concepts and metrics to an authentic audience of industry experts. The relevant and comprehensive scenarios challenge my students to demonstrate an applied understanding of personal finance. InvestWrite is a key measure of their progress from financial literacy toward true financial capability.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Roderick Moore - High School Teacher

InvestWrite allows students to reflect on the learning process by writing about their experience playing The Stock Market Game. Students who participate in The Stock Market Game and the InvestWrite competition are able to explain their investment strategies and explain their recommendations based on what they have learned about saving and investing. This competition allowed students to understand opportunity cost.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi