Stock market games in schools do more harm than good

Posted by TEBI on January 4, 2020

Stock market games in schools do more harm than good

 

By ANDREW HALLAM

 

Whether you invest in indexes, mutual funds or individual stocks, there are a few sacred rules of money management:

Diversification reduces risk;

Rapid transactions increase costs;

Investment profits over a single quarter mean nothing; and

Patience is an investor’s best friend.

If you taught investing to a bunch of school-aged kids, you would emphasise these rules, while hammering home the importance of saving.

Sadly, that’s not how investing is taught in many schools. Online stock market games, which are used by many well-meaning school teachers, violate these tenets. The Sifma Foundation’s popular Stock Market Game, for example, has existed since 1977. It’s played by millions of kids. As suggested on the company’s homepage, “Now more than ever, schools are looking for ways to meet higher education standards … to support teachers in building lifelong learning skills.” I commend the effort. But it is completely wrong-headed. 

Diligently saving is one of the best lifelong learning skills we can acquire. But that’s not how the Stock Market Games work. Instead, each student or team starts with $100,000 in cash, with no indication of how such money could be realistically acquired. Students trade their way to virtual profits, and winners, who sometimes receive cash prizes, are declared as the best investors.

But they aren’t. “Winners” are usually those picking a concentrated hair-brain portfolio of penny stocks. I cringe at the painful aftermath that the schools can’t track.

Gambling bones are tickled. Foundations for silly habits are created.

The instructional material in the original stock market game sounds rational enough, but it doesn’t work. Kids are asked to think of stocks that may rise and why. The lessons go like this: If McDonald’s has a new item on their menu, and you think it’s a good one, you might want to buy McDonald’s stock. If you like the old iPhone and a new one is coming out, you may want to buy Apple. These rules are silly. Stocks, after all, don’t move (short term) based on earnings; they move based on earnings’ surprises. If a company has a new hot product, earns an extra 12 percent on its quarterly revenue, but fails to meet the analysts’ target of 15 percent, the stock won’t rise. It will probably fall instead. Sorry kids, your stock goes down.

In contests such as these, often held over the course of just a few weeks, the winners are never the kids who build responsible portfolios. Those investing properly never win. Strategies rewarding short-term game winners can make long-term investment losers. Stock market games reinforce bad behaviours while crushing the good ones.

Nothing else in education is so inherently backward. Yet stock market games — fuelled by well-meaning misguided teachers — continue to grow in popularity.

So I’d like to suggest a useful alternative. Have the children start with a real portfolio of low-cost index funds. Parents could open an account in trust for their children. Once kids start making money (from allowance or otherwise) they could contribute their own money and track their progress. Unlike the stock market game, the skills learned here are real. And so is the money. Portfolio turnover should be low, the money should be diversified and the investor will need to be patient.

Rather than starting with $100,000 in a pretend world, kids start from scratch. Real money, no matter how modest, will be more exciting than play. Kids can develop a habit of saving — perhaps splitting their cash in thirds: one part spending, one part for investing and the third part to charity. Regularly contributing to their portfolio can start a healthy, life-long habit. And learning to deal with the emotional swings of the market trains kids to think long term. Unlike what’s learned in the stock market game, falling markets are actually good for kids. In a bear market they will buy more shares at lower prices. Eventually, they will reap the benefits.

Stock market conversations about human behaviour could be dinner time conversations. And kids with skin in the game are likely to listen.

If your local school plays the stock market game, encourage an alternative for lifelong learning, not lifelong gambling. 

 

ANDREW HALLAM is a personal finance columnist and former school teacher who famously built a million-dollar investment portfolio on a teacher’s salary. He has also written two best-selling books, Millionaire Teacher and Millionaire Expat. You can catch up with all of Andrew’s latest content on his blog.

 

Take a look at Andrew’s previous articles here:

Plenty of people would fire this amazing money manager

Don’t leave your best investor on the subs’ bench

Why new investors have irrational fears

 

And for a more functional example of financial literacy education in schools, give this post a read:

Financial literacy education that actually works

 

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