Finance Club Flourishes

Students learn trading strategies and make investments to track hypothetical gains and losses.

The Finance Club, guided by Thomas Hopper, was started in the 2020-2021 academic year. While many student conversations at that time focused on cryptocurrencies and NFTs, Mr. Hopper harnessed their enthusiasm for investments and seized the opportunity to educate them about the stock market. The club operates for twelve weeks and provides participants with $100,000 in virtual funds for trading, who then track their hypothetical gains or losses in the market.

At the end of the twelve-week period, Mr. Hopper presents awards to the students with the most successful portfolios and those who have made noteworthy trading decisions. Mr. Hopper fondly recalls an award bestowed upon a student who invested all their virtual funds into Tesla, dubbing it the “In Elon Musk we Trust Award.”

“The Finance Club is a fun space where people with little to no knowledge of the stock market can get their toes in the water and get real-life experience.”

Mr. Hopper and his wife, Kayla, took the lessons a step further and made a real investment with their own funds following the guidance of the students. Thanks to timely investments in bitcoin and chip-making companies, the investment turned a profit. Proceeds were benefitted to the PJM Scholarship, named after our former head of school, PJ McDonald. 

Mengistu E ’24, a participant in the Finance Club, shared his experience: “The Finance Club is a fun space where people with little to no knowledge of the stock market can get their toes in the water and get real-life experience. The club is great to learn new things. In the competition, you can invest, but not real money; you can try different tactics to use in your real accounts. The club gets people talking about stocks, and I’ve learned the importance of not rushing important financial decisions.”