At the end of a competitive 10-week period, first place honors in the high school division of the Washington Council for Economic and Financial Education’s statewide fall Stock Market Game were taken by the student team of Russell Hendrickson, Daniel Pettengill, Mitchell Grove, and Gino Peterson from Tahoma High coached by Debbie Wood.

More than 324 teams took part in the fall Stock Market Game program. The program, which kicked off in October, promotes and encourages an understanding of saving and investing, while also building students’ analytical thinking, research skills, and understanding of career options. Starting with a virtual cash balance of $100,000, teams try to build the most profitable portfolio based on their research of the global markets, business trends and economic principles.

Participating teams invested $100,000 of hypothetical money in companies on the three U.S. stock exchanges. They competed for the top portfolio value over a 10-week period. The team’s portfolio generated returns 16.89 percent above the return generated by the Standard and Poor 500 over this period. Their final portfolio value was $121,889.55.