Publicly traded. Privately held. Bankrupt. Profit margins. Cash-to-debt ratios. These are just some of the factors eighth graders at Canton Middle School reviewed while determining how to invest their (virtual) $100,000 while playing The Stock Market Game.

The middle school’s Washington White Collars, the team that placed third in a statewide competition of 160 middle school teams, ultimately based their investment decision on knowledge of the company.

Two national programs, The Stock Market Game and News In Education, team up and offer competitions to students in grades 4 to 12. Eighth graders Conrad Montano and Andrew DelSanto came in third for the state’s middle school division, and another team from their school placed in the top 10.

Students have three weeks to learn about the game, research companies and decide how they want to invest their allotted virtual cash, knowing that winners are those who have maximized their investment the most during the duration of the game. Connecticut students participate at no charge through grants from the News In Education program.

Working in teams, students research and evaluate stocks, build a portfolio and make decisions based on researching common stocks and mutual funds from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and AMEX. In the process, they learn about how the economy works and how to calculate their returns. 

While some schools play the game through math class or as part of an enrichment program, middle school Reading and Language Arts Specialist Kris Cimini has been using the game in the classroom for five years to strengthen students’ analytical skills.

“We’re working to enhance reading, writing and critical thinking skills,” she said. “We’re not as heavily focused on the math as on the thinking skills, the evaluative skills. … We take a weekly article out of the Wall Street Journal targeted to money. We ask them to read and analyze it.”

Cimini asked students to think of products they use that they think appeal to many people. Using stock evaluation sheets, they evaluate debt on a company’s balance sheet, profit margin and comparisons with their competitors.

Conrad and Andrew initially considered Netflix and xfinity. “We found that Netflix had a 7-percent profit margin. We liked it because it had more cash than debt. We thought that was a good amount,” Conrad said. “When I was watching TV, I didn’t see a lot of commercials for xfinity versus Netflix. We went for the more popular one.”

They also knew that Netflix was teaming up with Nintendo Wii so that Wii owners could stream movies from Netflix to their televisions. They figured that would lead to new customers for Netflix, Andrew said.

Initially, they considered Blockbuster, Andrew said, but ditched that idea when the learned that the company had filed for bankruptcy.

Both boys said the skill they learned most was patience. “Waiting each day to see what went up took awhile,” Conrad said. “When something is going down, I learned to wait a little longer to see if it would go up or down.  It helped with math too.”

He’d go home and ask his mother to let him know how his stocks were doing so he wouldn’t have to wait until the following day at school to learn about the previous day’s activity. He talked with his mom about the game and she initially suggested a potential investment, but Conrad researched the company’s financials and “I found the profit margin was too low.”

Cimini, an avid newspaper reader who brings articles about financial dilemmas into class to get students discussing and debating, was glad to hear that Conrad talked about the game at home.     

“Especially starting at this age, anything you can have a conversation about that’s connected to school” is good for the kids and their families, said Cimini, who is also a mother.  “This is something they like to bring home and chat with their own families about.”

At one point, as one of their stocks was going up, the team decided to buy more shares. As the price began to dip, they discussed the wisdom of selling and locking in their profits.

“They have to talk to each other,” Cimini said. “Sometimes, kids couldn’t come to an agreement. Leadership comes though in these exercises. Initiative gets developed in these exercises.”

Whether they were ahead or behind, the students stayed engaged in the game throughout the several weeks’ duration, said Mike Hughes, the English tutor who works with the teams.

“Every time we would have a new class come in, they were asking me for their passwords” so they could check their stocks’ values. Even after the game ended, some students still wanted to check on their stocks. “I think it inspires a little bit of confidence to have success.”