Haub School of Business High School Investment Challenge

The Investment Challenge offers students the chance to grasp the workings of the stock market and comprehend how it responds to specific firms, political occurrences, and the prevailing economic environment in the Uni ted States. The contest format eases the burden on your faculty advisors, as students engage in remote learning guided by SJU's top finance scholars. Participating teams and advisors will vie for honors, prizes, and a coveted team trophy.

Background
The contest aims to enhance students' comprehension of how businesses and worldwide events influence the stock market. Its main objective is to enable them to address the fundamental question, "Why?"

• Why did we buy this stock?
• Why did we sell this stock?
• Why do we own this portfolio of stocks?
• Why did the stock market increase or decrease?
• Why did our portfolio perform better or worse than the market?

Students will endeavor to devise strategies with long-term profitability in mind. It's important to note that these strategies might not yield short-term gains during the contest period. Therefore, the final presentation judges will not focus on the students' monetary gains or losses within the contest timeframe. Instead, the assessment will revolve around the prudence of investment strategies, the students' ability to articulate these strategies, and their grasp of the economic influences on the stock market (and their portfolio) during the contest period.

School can enroll any number of teams in the contest, running it within classes, clubs, or both. Each school will select a "winning" team to present their strategies to a panel of industry judges on Saint Joseph's campus. 

https://www.sju.edu/haub-school-business/wstr/investment-challenge

2022-2023 Participants
Bishop Eustace (1st place)
Saint Joseph's Preparatory School (2nd place)
Mount St. Josephs Academy (3rd place)
Gwynedd Mercy Academy
Lansdale Catholic High School
LaSalle College High School
Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Predergast
Villa Joseph Maria

2021-2022 Champions: Gwynedd Mercy Academy

Sponsored by AlphaOne Capital Partners

The SJU Investment Challenge is designed to provide students in high schools the opportunity to learn about the stock market, and how the market’s value is affected by individual company events, political events, and the overall economic environment in the United States.

Sponsored by:

Event Champion: AlphaOne Capital Partners

School Champion: Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Second Place: Paul Martino

Pacer Investment Scholars: Pacer Advisors Inc.

Learn More

Over the course of three months, 159 student teams consisting of over 500 students worked within a portfolio on the EquitySim platform. Students at the high-schools were instructed by Student Investment Scholars from Saint Joseph's University on topics ranging from introduction to a stock through investment strategies. Each team had the opportunity to invest on the portfolio they chose. The purpose of the contest was for the student to connect news, research and the world around them to the U.S. Stock Market.

During the competition students were evaluated on the prudence of their investment strategies, how well were they able to explain those strategies and the economic factors that influenced the stock market during the period.