Learning to Invest in the Stock Market Section LP

VHS Catalog 12-13

Course Title:	Learning to Invest in the Stock Market Section LP
Course Code:	invests
MA NCES Code:	12107
Discipline:	Business
Grade Level:	09, 10, 11, 12
Level:	Standard
Offering:	Repeated Semester (Fall: 25 Seats; Spring: 25 Seats; )
Duration:	15 weeks
Prerequisites:	None
Additional Requirements:
Accredited by:	Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools; Northwest Accreditation Commission
Course Requires a Media Kit to be Shipped to Students: Yes
Course Requires a Media Kit to be Purchased by Course Sponsor (see additional details below): Yes
Description: Learn how to invest - in the stock market and in your future! Learn about the history of stocks, how the stock market works today and trends as we head into the next millennium. Learn investment and economic vocabulary. Buy low, sell high! What is a portfolio? What is a mutual fund? What is a bond? What is a CD? ( not the musical type) Are you a risk taker or are you more conservative? Learn how to set goals for yourself, plan a budget and choose the right investment strategy to meet those goals. Pay yourself first. Be an owner, not a loaner. Experience the power of compounding! Students will work in small groups to play the Stock Market Game Worldwide, an online investing simulation. Each team will be given $100,000 to invest for ten weeks. They will choose, research and track companies. They will compete with other high school teams to see how much profit they can make. Students will track and graph their investments. Students will learn basic economics and investment strategies and apply them. Students will discuss and analyze current events to predict how they may or may not effect their investments. Students will share their investment experiences with other class members via an online presentation at the end of the course. Grading will be on a monetary basis. Students will be given weekly learning activities, current events readings, discussion topics and quizzes, along with participating in their Stock Market Game teams. They will earn fictional dollars as wages for their efforts. "Paychecks" will be deposited into a bank account and compounding interest will be earned. This system will enhance the concepts of annuities, time value of money, and compounding. At the end of the semester, students will "purchase" a final grade with their net earnings (after taxes). **Students who have already taken the Virtual High School course "Investing in the Stock Market" should not take this course.

MediaKit Contents:
The Wealthy Barber

Syllabus:
Week One - Introductions
Learn to navigate in LearningSpace.
Introduction to the power of compounding.*
Calculating interest using a future values table.

Week Two - Wall Street
The history of the stock market and trading vocabulary.*
How to read stock quotes and calculate stock market fractions.*

Week Three - Diversify Your Portfolio
Research and track the progress of a stock online.*
The basic economic concept of opportunity cost.
Why diversify their portfolios.*
Students will be placed into Stock Market Game 2000 teams which will run the length of the course. *

Week Four - Basic Economics
The business cycle.*
The basic economic concept of supply and demand.*
Learn to use a graph and calculate percentage change.

Week Five - Catch Up Week !
Students will meet in Stock Market Game 2000 teams and discuss strategies.*
Calculating long value on their Stock Market Game 2000 portfolios.*

Week Six - Buying on Margin and Short Selling
Buying on margin and short selling.*
How to calculate broker's fees.
How to calculate long value, percentage change, profits or losses and current standings.

Week Seven - The Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve.*
Students will calculate long value, percentage change, profits or losses and current standings and post to a class bulletin board.*

Week Eight - Stock Splits
How to research and evaluate a company.*
How to read and understand a PE Ratio.*
Why a stock splits and what that means to an investor.*

Week Nine - Dow Jones Average
The Dow Jones Average as a measure of stock market activity.*

Week Ten - Mutual Funds
Demonstrate an understanding and can calculate the long value of a portfolio.*
Mutual funds and research a prospectus.*

Week Eleven - Be an Owner, Not a Loaner
Learn about investments such as bonds, bank CDs and real estate.*
Owner vs loaner investments and about leveraging.*

Week Twelve - Set Some Goals
Distinguish between long and short term goals.*

Week Thirteen - Pay Yourself First
Evaluate personal tolerance for risk.*
Financial strategies of annuities, dollar cost averaging, and pay yourself first .*
Students will match appropriate investments to their goals and tolerance for risk.*

Week Fourteen - Time to Reflect
Stock Market Game 2000 teams will share profits, losses, and investment strategies with the class.*

Week Fifteen - Final Presentations
Students will present their final presentation to the class.
Students will get their final paycheck and close out their bank account.

Course Objectives:
1. Read and understand stock market quotes from an online source, newspaper or
television news program and apply to an investment portfolio.
2. Utilize the Internet as a research tool to investigate companies and investment
opportunities.
3.Utilize a spreadsheet to track and graph the ongoing performance of an investment
portfolio.
4.Read and understand current events and relate their importance to investments and the
economy.
5.Be able to match appropriate investments to tolerance for risk and to short or long term
investment strategies.

Investing in the Stock Market will satisfy the following learning objectives as outlined in the Massachusetts State Social Studies Frameworks :
*Shows in the syllabus where a weekly learning objective satisfies Fundamental Economic Concepts.

This catalog description was last modified on 02/27/2013