Ready to take on the stock market?

Form a team and test your skills!

What could you do with $1,000,000? Find out by testing your investment skills in our annual High School Investment Competition

  • Form a team of three to six students (plus a teacher/advisor)
  • Your team will receive $1,000,000 (virtual U.S.) to invest. 
  • Portfolios with the best performance will win cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. 
  • You’ll learn the basic principles of the stock market as your team experiences its ups and downs in real time—and receive a fee waiver if you're a senior and apply to Ithaca College! 

Cash Prizes:

First Place: $3,000 ($1,500 for team members/$1,500 for their high school)
Second Place: $2,000 ($1,000 for team members/$1,000 for their high school)
Third Place: $1,000 ($500 for team members/$500 for their high school) 

Register by Sunday, November 10, 2024

Trading will begin Monday, November 11, 2024, and continue until Friday, March 28, 2025.
Learn more and register your team at https://edu.stocktrak.com/ithaca/.

2024–25 Ithaca College Virtual Investment Competition Rules

Participants 

• A team consists of 3-6 students ranging from 9th to 12th grades from high schools nationwide. A faculty advisor per high school is needed for teams to compete in the competition. Each student can only be on one team.

• All team members need to register as well as the faculty advisor at the same time. All required fields on the registration page must be submitted. Registrations will be accepted until November 10, 2024. Trading starts on Monday, November 11, 2024. The competition ends on Friday, March 28, 2025 at the closing bell.

 *Registration*

• All registrations and portfolio trades must be made at https://edu.stocktrak.com/Ithaca.

• All participants must register to be eligible for awards. Participants who do not register will not be awarded prizes if their team places in the competition.

• Any team registrations that do not fully complete all required fields of registration with accurate information will be disqualified from the competition. Any participant that registers for the competition with a fake email address will disqualify the entire team from the competition.

• All participating students and faculty advisors must register with their school e-mail address that ends in .edu. If this is an issue, reach out to mfox1@ithaca.edu.

• The ranking of teams is determined solely on the portfolio return measured by the change in value since the start of the competition.

• The three winning teams have until June 30, 2025, to claim the prize money. Any participants who do not claim their prize money by this date will forfeit the winnings and have no recourse to claim the prize money. 

Portfolio Parameters

• Trade Submissions – $1,000,000 in virtual dollars will be allocated to each team at that start of the competition. Each team will then submit trades for their portfolio online at https://edu.stocktrak.com/Ithaca. Trading will take place during normal market hours (9:30am – 4pm).

• Portfolio Composition – Investments must be in companies whose stock price is greater than $5.00 per share. Stocks on the NYSE or NASDAQ whose stock price is higher than $5 per share are allowed. Only individual stocks can be traded, no mutual funds or ETFs. The maximum any one position can make up a portfolio is 20% ($200K). No adjustment is needed if price limits, or position values are breached due to stock price fluctuation. Frequency of Trades – Teams must submit their first round of trades by January 24, 2025. 

• You will have a maximum of 500 trades throughout the entire competition. After a team has made 500 trades their portfolio is no longer able to be adjusted. 

• Restrictions – Investments in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Closed End Funds and derivatives are NOT allowed. This includes commodity and currency funds (including block chain currencies). Shorting stocks are also NOT permitted. No inside information can be used. If trades are executed that are outside the rules of the competition, those trades will be retroactively converted into cash (i.e., as if the stock trade never happened). The competition is governed by the honor system.

• Research Materials – Utilizing online materials (e.g., Google Finance, etc.) is encouraged to make investment selections. 

• Change of Rules – The Ithaca College School of Business reserves the right to make changes at any time. 

• Discrepancies – Participants should report any account discrepancy within one week of the transaction date. The Simulator Support Services Group will, at its sole discretion, investigate and adjust any legitimate discrepancy. Discrepancies reported after one week may or may not be adjusted. To contact the Support Services Group, click on “Contact Us or email help-desk@stocktrak.com ” at the bottom of the page and fill out the brief form. Replies are usually sent within 24 hours by return email. The Simulator Support Services group also may conduct routine audits of any portfolio during or after the trading session to ensure all portfolios are free of pricing or corporate action errors. The Simulation Support Services group may correct any such discrepancies at any time, including after the trading period has ended. The results of these audits and any portfolio adjustments are final and not subject to appeals.

Learn more about Finance at Ithaca College

Financial skills are in demand in virtually every business, from the bank to the boardroom. Students studying finance at Ithaca choose from three specialized tracks: Asset Management, Corporate Finance, and Wealth Management.

In our Trading Room, students are immersed in the capital markets and invest $800,000 with the same tools and up-to-the-minute data available to today's financial professionals. See for yourself!