A team of three Murray High sophomores finished third in the state Stock Market Game this winter.

“These Introduction to Business Management students did real well, and it was a fun experience for them,” personal finance and business management teacher Keeko Georgelas said.

The Stock Market Game is a 10-week interactive and interdisciplinary educational program that stimulates learning about economics and finance. The game allows students to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in stocks of their choice.

Georgelas said that students learned how to invest, when to invest, how to perform calculations, how to understand the market, what pressures managers face, ethical concerns, how to research to learn more about the stocks and companies they wanted to invest in, as well as learning about dividends and profits in corporate America.

The top teams from the state were honored at a Jan. 16 banquet where students shared what they learned from doing the exercise. The event was sponsored by the Utah Division of Securities, Utah Council of Economic Education, Utah State Office of Education, and Utah Education Savings Plan.

Murray High sophomores Brayden Anderson, Wyatt Hoskings and Chris Keochaleune each received a plaque and a $50 savings bond for claiming third place.

“We haven’t done it before because the investment principals are different in a short-term game than in real life, but it did give them the learning experience about the stock market,” Georgelas said about the 120 Murray High students who participated.

The third-place team picked the areas where they wanted to invest. With the holiday season approaching at the beginning of their 10 weeks, they selected retail, travel and technology and added in health care as their fourth option because of the Affordable Care Act, Georgelas said.

“There was a lot of buying with airlines, Walmart and Apple that helped them out. Up until the last week when they made some trades, they were sitting in first place,” he said.

Georgelas said he wanted students to use critical thinking to learn how to read stocks and beta scores, find out current market strategy and understand the market so as they have careers they could understand and invest in the market, if they choose, as a way to help save for retirement.