The fall session of the South Dakota Stock Market Game (SDSMG) concluded its 10-week trading session on Dec. 4. Black Hills State University professor Don Altmyer overseas the SDSMG program each session.
The winner of the college division was BHSU student Baker Diede, professional accountancy major from Spearfish, with a final portfolio of $124,683. Baker participated in the program as part of his survey of business course requirement. His portfolio's return on investment of 24.68 percent was impressive considering that the blue chip Standard & Poor's 500 stock market index was up 8.5 percent during this same period of time.
The winner of the high school division was Clark High School with a final portfolio value of $ 124,436. Jerome Nesheim used the program in his economics class. More than 130 teams participated in the high school division.
The winner of the middle school division was Edison Middle School in Sioux Falls, with a final portfolio of $115,403. Tracie Moon used the program in her sixth through eighth grade gifted program class.
For the fall session, 459 students from 20 South Dakota schools formed 204 teams of stock market investors and received a hypothetical $100,000 to perform online investing in real-time stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The program's carefully integrated curriculum lets students experience the financial markets in the classroom as they learn about business, math, economics, personal finance and the importance of saving and investing for the long term. Student teams compete for prizes in the high school, middle school and college divisions.
The South Dakota Stock Market Game is sponsored by the BHSU Center for Economic Education, along with the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the South Dakota Council on Economic Education.
The Black Hills State University Center for Economic Education has an exclusive license to operate the SMG program in South Dakota with (SIFMA). The SMG program is widely identified as the leader in youth financial education and the only program proven in rigorous, independent studies year-after-year to raise math and financial literacy test scores and to change financial behavior for the better for students and teachers. More than 600,000 students from all 50 states participate each year. The SMG program also includes InvestWrite, a national essay competition that is the culminating SMG activity.
The Spring 2016 SDSMG session starts on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Registration begins on Jan. 4. To register, go to http://www.stockmarketgame.org.
For more information, contact Professor Don Altmyer, BHSU Center for Economic Education Director and South Dakota Stock Market Game Coordinator at donaltmyer@BHSU.edu.