MTSU will sponser the Stock Market Game, which teaches students vital investment skills for retirement by showing them how to manage stock portfolios and follow the stock market during the course of a single semester.
The Tennessee sect of the game, which incorporates real stocks with a simulated portfolio, is headed for the Center for Economic Education at MTSU.
Throughout the program, students learn to follow the Dow Jones and Nasdaq stock exchanges. Students and players are given artificial money to invest towards stocks in the actual stock market.
The goal of the program is to teach children and adults how to manage their money so they are able to invest in their future.
"One of the most important lessons I learned was to quit buying stuff and invest your money for the long term, so that at age 50, it is realistic that you can retire," said Maria Edlin, director of the Center for Economic Education at MTSU and state director of the Stock Market Game program. "I've had girls pick their boyfriends initials as a ticker symbol and win."
The program is commonly used in fourth through twelfth grades but is available to adults and college students as well.
"We have inmates playing at a prison in Jackson, Tenn. They are going to get out sometime, and they are going to be citizens and will need to do something with their money," Edlin said.
The names of all players, regardless of age, are kept confidential.
Several colleges have started teaching the Stock Market Game in economics and finance courses.
A professor at Tennessee State University plays the Stock Market Game with his class, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga uses it in the adult sections of their finance classes.
No courses at MTSU currently teach the Stock Market Game.
The Stock Market Game requires players to understand what stock prices mean and how to spend their artificial money wisely over a ten-week period.
The guidelines to the program give teachers information on how to teach students to read newspapers and how to understand the stock market and ticker symbols.
Stock Portfolios are managed online, and anyone can become a participant for a fee of $20. The enrollment fee in the Tennessee program is used to pay for newspaper distribution in high school and elementary level classes partaking in the program.
The Stock Market Game promotes newspaper use among high school and elementary students. The program is co-sponsored by First Tennessee Bank and The Tennessean and is partnered with seven other newspapers around the state.
"Good reading habits come with practice," Edlin said. "With this program, the teachers get newspapers. For every team you get, you get a certain number of newspapers. We hope it is encouraging students to read."
The aide from newspapers across Tennessee may be part of the reason the student program is ranked the tenth largest in the nation, Edlin explained.
The fee is also used to pay for a banquet and prizes for student programs at the end of each year, as well as materials for teachers to learn how to facilitate the Stock Market Game.
A new game starts Feb. 5 and runs through April 13.
For more information on the Stock Market Game contact Maria Edlin at medlin@mtsu.edu, or visit www.stockmarketgame.org.
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