If you’re teaching high school students lessons about investing or the stock market, I highly recommend you use a stock market simulator or stock market game with your students!
A stock market simulator is likely the closest your students will get to real investing experience before graduation. Not only is it a valuable educational experience for students, but they’ll also LOVE the competition.
Before introducing my students to the simulator, I make sure students are aware of the basic ins and outs of the stock market. They’ll need to understand things like ticker symbols, how to read a stock quote page, etc. If you need resources to teach these things, you can find no-prep investing lessons here.
Create a private stock market game for your classroom
Each of the stock market simulators below allows you to create a private game for your classroom where students will compete against each other. I usually start this as early in the semester as possible and have my students vote on a prize for the person who makes the most profit by the end of the semester.
The Stock Market Game is slightly different than the other two options as it also has your students compete against other students within your state.
Set a budget
You’ll need to create a limit for the amount of ‘money’ your students will be able to invest. The default values are usually $100,000, but I’ve found that this amount of money is so large that it seems unrealistic to students.
I recommend setting the budget to $1,000, $5,000, or possibly even $10,000. These numbers seem much more attainable and realistic for students to grasp.
Help students make an investment plan
Before setting students loose to invest their money, I recommend giving students some time to explore the stock market and create a basic plan. They likely have no idea how to use a stock quote website or how to research prices, and they’ll need to know these things to use a simulator.
If you need a few basic resources to help get your students started, you can use this lesson to help teach students the basics of the stock market, and this activity to help them create a basic plan for their investments.
One more thing to know
One thing you should know about all of these websites is that your students will need to create accounts. While this might not seem like a big deal, I learned quickly that when students use their school email address to create an account, they must verify their email address. My school had blocked incoming emails from all outside sources, so at first, my students were not able to verify or use their accounts. I was able to fix this through my IT department, but I recommend testing this out with one of your students first before setting up the entire class.
3 Free Stock Market Simulator Websites
Below I’ve listed three free stock market simulator websites that you can use with high school students.
MarketWatch
This one is my personal favorite and the one I have the most experience with. It’s easy to use, and you can easily create a private game for your students to compete against one another. Students can easily choose stocks and make changes to their portfolios whenever they’d like.
MarketWatch also provides some resources for teachers using their simulator in their classrooms.
You can learn more about MarketWatch’s simulator here.
Investopedia
This simulator operates similarly to the one by MarketWatch, but I think it’s slightly less user-friendly for students because it is more geared toward adults.
You can learn more about Investopedia’s simulator here.
The Stock Market Game
This option is the only one that is specifically geared toward high school students. Students can compete against each other, as well as other students in schools in their region.
Unlike the other two simulators, The Stock Market Game does have specific start and end dates for each competition, which makes it a little less flexible.
Overall, it is a great student-friendly option to consider. You can learn more about The Stock Market Game here.
Looking for more investing resources to use in your classroom?
Not sure how to teach your students about investing? You can check out all CKMath investing resources here for no prep lessons and activities you can use with your students tomorrow!
