Once again, Collier High School has beat out the competition in the Stock Market Game competition in the state of New Jersey. Since 1996, our alternative high school in Monmouth County has racked up 7 High School Division Championships, 2 Southern Region Championships, and 2 State Championships. This year, thanks to the skill and daring of Christian and Patrick, Collier High School captured both the Southern Division and High school Division Championships. The two stars were on hand to accept their prize at the awards ceremony at Kean University on January 31st, 2011.

Collier students Christian and Patrick have added another Southern Division and High school Division Championship to the Collier history book. Below is the acceptance speech that was read at the awards ceremony at Kean University on January 31st, 2011.

Good afternoon. First of all I would like to thank Kean University and the New Jersey Council on Economic Education for hosting this event.

When we started school in September we knew little to nothing about the financial markets. We were introduced to a specific set of tools that would allow us to understand the stock market and how to analyze specific stocks. Three of my favorite tools were Investors’ Business Daily, candlestick charting and technical analysis.

One of the things we learned about the market was that it is an emotional place. Investors react emotionally to good and bad news in the economy. Because of these emotions, it is almost impossible to predict future events. This is why we used technical analysis to increase our chances of success. We took each potential investment opportunity and ran it through a screening process that ended with technical analysis.

Our trading strategy was not limited to one market direction. If the market was in an uptrend, and we saw a company that we felt was going to go down, we shorted the company. For example, we shorted Rino Incorporated because of unfavorable news. We matched the news with the technical analysis and shorted the stock for a gain of over $8,000 dollars.

Our teacher was constantly telling us to monitor the current political & economic conditions. At the time, the uncertainty of the Bush tax cuts being extended weighed heavily on the markets. He reminded us to consider the impact of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing, and its effects on inflation. Mr. Buchanan also noted the importance of the unemployment rate because it was abnormally high.

We discussed inflation in class and realized that high inflation rates have historically led to higher commodity prices, especially copper, gold and silver. Because of this realization we decided to investigate and invest in the basic materials sector and specifically in the gold, silver and mining companies. 37% of our total investments came from this sector.

In the last week of the game our portfolio was worth around $120,000 dollars but I noticed other teams were catching up. We became emotional and irrational and invested in Camelot Industries and lost $2,000 dollars. We began to understand what Mr. Buchanan was talking about when he said the stock market is an emotional place.

In the end, we won by a few hundred dollars to take the Southern division crown. It was by far one of the most exciting games we have ever been involved with.

Again, I would like to thank Kean and the New Jersey Council on Economic Education for hosting this event and would like to wish everyone well in future competitions.