Finish 2nd in state

Good Stock-Market Picks by Desoto Kids

Karyna Levall

Eleven-year-old Karyna Levall decided to buy Phasar Corp. stock because she liked the low price. That decision helped her Stock Market Game team to finish second in the Fall 2004 statewide Missouri kids investment game contest.

Karyna is a 5th grader at Vineland Elementary School in Desoto, Mo. She said she didn't know what the Phasar company made but "the per-share price was low."

Her reasoning: If she bought a lot of low-priced shares, she'd make money faster than if she had a smaller number of shares of higher-priced stock.

Karyna didn't worry about the reverse being true. That is, if the stock price drops, she loses money faster. After all, in the Stock Mark Game, kids invest imaginary money.

Phasar stock did go up quickly during the Stock Market Game's fall contest period, which ran 10 weeks from Oct. 4 through Dec. 10, 2004.

Brandon Ward

Her $22,088.50 net profits on her single stock purchase represented 80% of the total profit for her six-member investment team. That gave them a total valuation of $129,895.40 at the end of the game period.

Other members of her Team ZZ690 team were Brandon Ward, 11; Tyler Pashia, 11; Josh Owens, 11; Makayla Gardner, 10, and Mindy Ogle, 11.

Tyler Pashia

In the Stock Market Game competition, each team starts with an imaginary $100,000. The contest is run twice a year, in the fall and in the spring.

(For information on how your school could enter, visit the Missouri Council on Economic Education's website at www.umkc.edu/mcee.)

For Karyna's team, the final value was nearly 30% higher than the starting $100,000.

Josh Owens

That total was just short of the valuation of the overall state winner. A Smithton (Mo.) Middle School team nded with a valuation of $131,356.76.

If the game period was one day longer, the Vineland team might have won.

The next trading day, Phasar stock went up $3 per share. Since Karyna had 2,742 shares of Phasar stock, that one-day increase would have been over $8,000. Her team finished less than $1,500 behind the Smithton team.

Makayla Gardner

On the Vineland team, each member picked one stock.

Brandon Ward picked Microsoft, the computer company.

He said, "When I looked in the paper, it showed Microsoft going up. Bill Gates (the founder) is the world's richest man and I wanted to make a few bucks too."

But, during the Stock Market Game period, Microsoft went down slightly. But, Brandon did find out something. He said the game gave him the idea of being a banker when he grows up.

Mindy Ogle

Tyler Pashia was another member who decided to buy a stock that was on the way up when he checked in the paper. His Quidel Corp. stock was the team's lowest price stock. But, unlike Karyna's Phasar stock, Tyler's didn't go up.

Tyler said, "I learned it takes a lot of work to keep a business going."

Microsoft and Quidel were team investments that declined. They lost only slightly.

Josh Owens' investment was Dell Computer. "I picked that because a lot of people are buying their stuff," Josh said. His investment went up and contributed $2,330.96 to the team's overall profit.

Makayla Gardner's investment was in Ebay, the Internet auction company. "I heard about it in commercials and thought it was a good stock and made lots of money," she said.

The Ebay investment contributed $3,048.51 to the team's overall profit.

Mindy Ogle invested her share of the team's money in FileNet. The company makes information management software for business and government agencies. "I was interested in it because it was in computers," she said.

For the contest period, FileNet contributed $1,876.01.

Team advisor Jim Keeney said the team's second place ranking came because of a late surge in stock prices. Midway through the 10-weeks, the team lagged in the rankings.

None of the kids had any real-money investments of their own. But, all did save money.

Karyna said she'd spent all her piggy bank money in December. "I bought Christmas presents for the family," she said.

By the way, the Phasar Corp. makes communication antennas and towers for the government and business.