IEY Stock Market Winners

Isaac E. Young Middle School Sixth-Graders Best in NY State in Stock Market Game Competition

Lyda Martinelli

April 27, 2022

Seated: Nicholas Capossela (l.), Hans Ivambi (r.),
(standing l. - r.) Valeria Cabrera, Alexa Alvarez, and Meeya Davis.

For the third time, Isaac E. Young Middle School students captured top honors in the New York State Stock Market Game, in what was their most impressive showing to date.

The Stock Market Game, run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation, empowers students with basic financial-literacy skills. The project is part of a national program educating 600,000 students yearly about investment principles. Teams start with $100,000 in virtual funds to invest, using their own research and resources. After 10 weeks, a winning team is declared based on the group’s net profits vs. the growth of the Standard & Poor’s 500, an index used to monitor economic growth.

Isaac E. Young students’ 2022 achievements:

  • Sixth-graders Alexa Alvarez, Valeria Cabrera, Nicholas Capossela, Meeya Davis, and Hans Ivambi won top honors, finishing with a portfolio worth $132,578. Their profits were 35% higher than the S&P 500 in the same time period. The five students called themselves “The Business Crew” and finished in first place in the middle school division that included over 200 teams in Westchester and Rockland Counties. In addition, the team finished seventh out of over 6,500 middle and high school teams, and college teams, competing in New York State (99th percentile.)
  • Finishing behind “The Business Crew” in second place among middle schools was the Isaac E. Young Middle School quartet of Lessly Aguilar Hernandez, Mireya Auyon Canely, Marianela Calderon, and Chelsey Cardona Mesa. Their $121,357 portfolio (24% above the S&P 500) placed them in 18th place (99th percentile) among over 6,500 teams from across New York State.
  • Isaac E. Young Middle School had five teams in the top 10 in the Westchester and Lower Hudson Valley middle school division. This includes teams in sixth, seventh, and ninth place. The average worth of the top five Isaac Young team portfolios was $116,337 vs. $111,627 for the next five teams, representing two other schools.
  • Isaac E. Young Middle School also won titles in 2016 and 2017. The school did not participate from 2018 to 2021.

Each Isaac E. Young Middle School victory over that time was facilitated by math teacher Calvin Heyward. “My students’ ability to grasp and work through concepts is more a testament to their willingness to learn rather anything that I might do. I just tell them never to give up,” he said.

Sixth-graders shared these lessons: 

  • Sayra Lopez: “Working together is always a good thing. It does not matter how many people there are on your team. What matters is that you give your best and always try to improve more every day."
  • Daniel Flores: “I learned … how to look for stocks and how to be a good investor. I also learned how to identify a bear company (with a negative financial outlook) and a bull company (with a positive outlook).” 
  • Nicholas Capossela: "Read about how the company has been doing, and don't just say, Oh, look at this stock, it went up $2 today. Let me buy a couple shares. No, you must read about it and see if the stock is estimated to go up or down."