A team of Florida Tech students and faculty achieved the highest return on investment among the dozens of teams participating in Junior Achievement of the Space Coast’s second annual Stock Market Challenge held Nov. 14 at the Hilton Rialto Melbourne.
The winning team was comprised of undergraduate students Nicholas Breen (chemical engineering major), Clara Canon (business administration/entrepreneur major) and Pablo Rivero (physics major) along with Ted Richardson, Bisk College of Business dean and professor, and assistant professor of finance Joy Yang, who is also faculty advisor to the student investment club.
The competition featured teams representing area financial firms along with the Florida Tech team and others. Each team had $1 million to buy stock in 30 fictitious companies; they then submitted their choices to JA ahead of the event. The event itself was akin to a busy day on the trading floor of a stock exchange. The “opening bell” rang, and then every 60-90 seconds was a new trading day. Teams tracked performances and portfolios on event screens, responded to world events, identified trends and made trading adjustments over 60 minutes.
Florida Tech’s team ended up boosting the value of its portolio nearly 124%, the highest return on investment among all the teams. The team from Peoples Financial Planning Group of Raymond James claimed the highest net worth.
“Every second counts on the trading floor. In such a fast-paced environment, timing and liquidity are everything,” Yang said. “That’s why this competition was so valuable. It demonstrated to participants that success in this unique arena comes down to maximizing the efficiency of every dollar spent and every second invested.”
Yang added, “At Florida Tech, our finance majors are equipped to excel on both Wall Street and Main Street, transforming ambition into success.”
Richardson said the Florida Tech team excelled amid stiff competition. “I personally want to thank Dr. Yang and all the students for an outstanding outcome in a very competitive environment with many investment firms present in the competition,” he said.
Winning teams were presented medals and a trophy plaque.
