Elementary Student Places First in Beaver County Stock Market Competition

January 23, 2023

Fourth grader Annabel cracked the stock market in the Fall Semester 2022 Stock Market Competition. She took first place in Beaver County and fifth place in the state competition for elementary students.

“It was fun to do a bit of trading before I have to do it in real life,” said Annabel. She plans to join the spring semester challenge, which will begin in February.

The game starts every player with $100,000 to buy their stocks and then trade, sell, or buy additional stocks with the goal of maximizing their portfolio's revenue. At the close of the fall competition, Annabel grew her starting balance to $106,337.25 with a return percentage of 6.34%.

At the start of the game, Annabel went to her father Matt for guidance, and he taught her one main rule: buy and hold. She picked stocks that were doing well in the actual stock market, and she didn’t touch it again for the remaining ten weeks.

Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council on Financial Literacy, the cutting-edge, real-time stock game is used in over 80% of the top business schools in the United States. Last fall, 17 students from PA Cyber's gifted and STAR programs participated in the competitions. (STAR is a PA Cyber academic incentive program.) For every competition, Director of Gifted and Talented Mike Hissam ensures that each registrant has the proper resources and support to better understand how to buy, sell, and trade stock. "Trading stocks helps students understand why certain products are in demand due to economic growth or in less demand due to economic decline," said Hissam.

Annabel is in her fourth year with PA Cyber. “I really like it because I like working on the computer,” she said. “It’s really easy to do it independently, and I like being independent.” She is enjoying her science and social studies classes the most, and she wants to be an astronomer someday. As student in PA Cyber’s Gifted and Talented program, she joins weekly student discussions with other gifted students and participates in the Battle of the Books. Outside of school, Annabel loves to read and play sports.

Media Contact

Jennie Harris / jennie.harris@pacyber.org

About PA Cyber

Serving students in kindergarten through 12th grade, the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) is one of the largest, most experienced, and most successful online public schools in the nation. PA Cyber's online learning environments, personalized instruction methods, and choices of curricula connect Pennsylvania students and their families with state-certified and highly qualified teachers and rich academic content that is aligned with state standards. Founded in 2000, PA Cyber is headquartered in Midland (Beaver County) and maintains a network of support offices throughout the state. As a public school, PA Cyber is open for enrollment by any school-age child residing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and does not charge tuition to students or families.