A Bright Future for Rye Neck’s Young Economists

– By Janice Llanes Fabry –

Rye Neck High School seniors Daniel Cannon and Brian Santoro recently won the regional Stock Market Game. Placing first out of 441 teams, the students not only competed against classmates in their economics class but also against students throughout Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess and Orange Counties.
The Stock Market Game was developed by the Foundation for Investor Education to provide learning tools for investors of all ages. Participants are given a virtual $100,000 to invest in an on-line portfolio. In Ms. Karen Parisi’s economics class at Rye Neck, students researched companies and followed the news closely as they made their investments.

How did Cannon and Santoro make a whopping $114,000 in these tough times? “Citigroup was down to $3.60 and when we learned they were getting a bailout, we knew the additional boost would make a difference,” explained Cannon about their strategy. “We invested 7,000 shares and then the stock went up to $8.50!”

Aspiring to work in the real world of finance in the near future, both students agree they learned a great deal and enjoyed the experience. “It was very realistic and it definitely taught me about taking risks in real time,” said Santoro. “Too bad we couldn’t keep what we made.”