Students Play Stock Market

For $50, you can feel like a Wall Street trader investing large sums of money, and you'll never have to worry about losing your shirt.

In its second year, the AT&T-sponsored Collegiate Investment Challenge will offer students a chance to lest their market prowess by trading stocks through a simulated brokerage firm. Given a fictional $500,000, the student with the most money after four months will win $25,000--in real cash.

"It's hands-on experience in the financial market. Students get to participate--they don't have to be on the sidelines," said Lisa A Nollett, director of marketing and sales at Wall Street Games, Inc.

"You feel the anxiety and the thrill [of the stock market] even though it's only a game," Nollett said.

Investment games are an effective educational tool, Nollett added, saying, "Whatever your career is, economics are going to affect your future."

And Lawrence I. Steyn '92, treasurer of the Harvard Investment Association, and one of 72 Harvard participants in last year's game, agreed. "Most people here will eventually need to invest their money," he said.

"The stock market is something you really can't learn about in class," said Steyn, who was in the top 10 percent of the 11,250 competitors in last year's contest.

Don A. Kidd '92, who said he plans to enter this year's competition, finished 92nd last year with $766,000--a 53.2 percent increase over his original investments. Kidd, an economics concentrator, said he put his money in five or six different stocks at a time, selecting companies by reading The Wall Street Journal and listening to "anything you'd hear from anybody's dad."

Although Kidd said there is some skill in learning how to play the market, he emphasized that luck is a major determining factor in the success of one's investments, especially over a short period of time.

"There's no way I'd ever invest in the market to gain any money," he said.

And several of the Harvard participants in last year's challenge said they felt the contest did not reproduce real-life investing situations as much as promoters claimed. "The game is really more speculative than anything else," said Tai Wong '92.

Last year's investment association president said he also thought the Wall Street contest was far from realistic.

"The only way you're going to make money is on a takeover," Jonathan L. Brisman '90 said. "You have to ask, 'How much is skill and how much is luck?'"

Brisman said he purchased mostly low-priced stocks in last year's contest, hoping a takeover offer for one of the companies would create a bidding war.

Still, several participants agreed that the contest is a valuable experience for anyone interested in gaining access to Wall Street.

"I put it on my resume for summer jobs," Steyn said.