Photo (left to right): Dean O’Mara, Britton Burley (1st Place, 17.30% return), Ellia Bain (4th Place, 6.67% return), and Dr. Mostashari. Not Pictured: Adam Cloninger (2nd Place, 13.89% return) and Mason Wickman (3rd Place, 10.01% return).
Lundy-Fetterman School of Business students Britton Burley, Adam Cloninger, Mason Wickman, and Ellia Bain were named finalists in the Fall 2022 Stock Market Game (SMG) after spending their semester developing investment portfolios for the competition.
Campbell Business partnered with How the Market Works, a 100% free virtual stock market simulator that allows students to practice investing before using real money. The platform is currently used by over 400,000 individuals and students each year.
Students competed against their peers, across two Fall semester classes — ECON 202 Principles of Macroeconomics and ECON 420 Money & Banking— under the direction of Dr. Shahriar Mostashari, associate dean for external relations and professor of business, for a 10-week period.
Mostashari said he was proud to witness the outstanding results of these four students.
“Kudos to our Fall 2022 SMG competition participants. Despite extreme stock market volatility, most of the teams finished in green. Interestingly enough, the top three teams enjoyed double-digit gains.”
Britton Burley, a junior Trust & Wealth Management major from Harrells, North Carolina came in first place. He earned almost a 17% return with a strategy focused on short transactions.
This strategy was a common theme among the first through third place winners: Britton Burley, Adam Cloninger, and Mason Wickman.
Cloninger added, “I found this game to be very fun in helping me to understand how to look at investing and how to make wise choices with who to invest in based off charts and percentages.”
This cohort of students got hands-on experience, each receiving $100,000 of virtual cash, to use in developing a successful investment portfolio by investing in real world stocks, bonds, IPOs, and mutual funds traded on NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges.
Each team was required to trade (buy and sell including short sell and short cover transactions) in each of the four bi-weekly portfolio reporting periods.
Students used class lectures, textbook materials, and a broad range of print and online sources including the Education Center on How the Market Works website to prepare their personal portfolio reports listing their portfolio holdings and transaction history.
Ellia Bain, a junior Trust & Wealth Management major from Nassau, Bahamas placed fourth in the competition, finishing with a return rate of 6.67%.
Bain said, “I started off a little confused and hopeless, however, after meeting with my professor and watching the charts using technical strategy, I was able to make a 6.67% profit gain.”
In addition to playing the SMG, ECON 202 and ECON 420 classes took a 6-question Financial Literacy Quiz offered by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The comparison of these class averages with the national and the State of North Carolina’s showed that both pre and post test results in ECON 202 and ECON 420 were above the national (3.0 points) and State (2.9 points) averages.
Kevin O’Mara, Dean of the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business, said, “A major part of the student experience for our LFSB students is their involvement with simulations, projects, and competitions. We believe students learn best when actively engaged whether as individuals or in groups.”
“The SMG is a wonderful example of what we value in the LFSB. Dr. Mostashari should be applauded for his commitment to engaged learning, and we congratulate our students for their outstanding performance. I expect a few of them will join our Burt Family Student-Run Investment Fund in another course where students invest real money based on their analysis.”
The Burt Family Student-Run Investment Fund (SIF) was established in 2021 through a generous contribution by the Burt Family. The fund is currently overseen by Dr. Corrine Carr and allows students an opportunity to evaluate current stock trends and invest real money in the stocks of the group’s choosing.
If a student is interested in taking the next step in their investment journey, they can contact Dr. Corrine Carr (carr@campbell.edu) with their interest in joining the Burt Family Student-Run Investment Fund.