Looking at the screen, eighth-grader Owen Raffa was delighted as he watched his investment in Tesla slowly trend upwards. In only two weeks, the Tesla stock rose 28% from about $870 to its all-time high of $1114.
Many students like Raffa started investing during quarantine. Students depend on their parents to set up an account for them, which they can then use to spend their money to purchase or sell companies’ stocks. In addition to the appealing opportunity of being able to make money appear out of thin air, Raffa said that several other aspects of investing are also fun.
“For me, the best part of investing is checking every single night to see how much money I made that day,” Raffa said. “I guess what comes with making money is a sense of pride in yourself.”
There are many other middle schoolers who enjoy investing too. One is eighth-grader Nikhil Daniel, who goes as far as to develop investment strategies and to constantly research different stocks.
“I use many different strategies, including looking at multiple different sites such as Motley Fool, Market Watch and CNBC,” Daniel said. “I basically see what analysts are saying regarding the stock.”
Daniel, who also started seriously investing during quarantine, now shares his knowledge of the stock market with several students who joined his middle school investment club. Students in the club learn about the fundamentals of the stock market and the different factors that affect a certain stock.
“I started the investment club because I wanted to show other young teenagers how to invest and the basics of investing,” Daniel said.
Daniel gave his club members an interesting project. The students would research a stock of their choice, then use a pitch to try to convince Daniel to invest in their researched stock.
“We’re working on a project where they will pitch a stock to me,” he said. “Through pitching me a stock, they will learn the dividend yield and different factors within the stock.”
More and more students are getting involved with the stock market, as they can learn valuable skills and lessons from it. However, being a student does make investing a little bit harder.
For another eighth-grader, Peyton Keith, it is difficult to balance managing his money successfully and focusing on school activities. However, he still believes that it is good for teenagers to be investing.
“The cons are that it can be very difficult to manage your money, especially when you’re a student,” Keith said. “You have to look at the news, and you have to do homework from school.”
Upper school economics teacher Kelly Aull also believes that it is beneficial for students to start investing at a young age. She noted several benefits such as learning how to manage your money and learning how the economy works. However, she mentioned a common mistake made by investors of all ages, including younger investors.
“I think a lot of people tend to take on more risk than they ought to,” Aull said. “Especially as you get a little bit older, I think people tend to make more emotional decisions about what to invest in, rather than thinking about it mathematically. When you are young and making short-term investment strategies, sometimes it’s hard to transition to long-term investment strategies.”
