There are three important differences between SMG and other stock market simulations.

First, is the level of support available to participants. The Economics Center’s Stock Market Game Coordinator, provides constant support before, during, and after the 10-week competition. Heis available to answer questions via phone, email or fax virtually anytime throughout the school year. He will even come out to your school to talk about the stock market, introduce the SMG program to students and teachers, or to train teachers individually if they are unable to attend one of the SMG workshops.

Second, is the wealth of online grade specific and subject specific curriculum guides, lesson plans, and newsletters the program provides to teachers. The online SMG resource materials can be accessed once teams are registered.

The Stock Market Game is an online educational program designed to teach students about investments and financial markets by using a “real time” stock and mutual fund trading system. Teachers and students begin with a simulated $100,000 portfolio and manage that portfolio over the course of a 10-week competition. The SMG program is used in thousands of classrooms nationwide and is an excellent learning tool for students in Grades 4-12.

The SMG program helps teach and reinforce state and national curriculum standards in areas such as math, social studies, economics, technology, business, and even language arts. SMG is extremely user-friendly and easy to teach, even for someone completely unfamiliar with the stock market or investments. This is due to the wealth of online grade specific and subject specific curriculum guides, lesson plans, and newsletters the program provides for educators. SMG is flexible enough to be integrated into the standard curriculum as a valuable enhancement to a student’s learning without taking much time away from an educator’s normal lesson plans.