The Stock Market Game is a simulation in which students of a group of three or four use $100,000 in an online portfolio to buy stocks and learn how the stock Market works.

“Students get real-time prices and quotes in the stock market game, they can place trades 24/7 online or using the SMG app, and the SMG also teaches them financial literacy skills along with how to build wealth in a capitalistic economy…” says John Celum. This game is part of his personal finance class.

Mr. Celum has been using the Stock Market Game with his students since he first started teaching 32 years ago. But back then, the Fresno Bee newspaper and Fresno State’s Economics Department had their own version of the Stock Market Game. After that, SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association), a non-profit organization, launched its nationwide program 25 years ago.

“We have been playing the regional game for Northern California since then,” Celum says. But DHS has also participated in the Capitol Hill Challenge, another nationwide stock market competition for some time.  In 2017, the team placed 10th nationally and earned a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., where they met with Congressman Devin Nunes.  They got to tour the nation’s capital.

But the Stock Market Game isn’t just a game; it’s also a competition. The DHS students compete against students from other high schools in Northern California. They compete over a 10-week period and make the most profit from the stocks they buy. Dinuba High School has a history of  “placing very well in competition by winning multiple times…” Celum says. In the fall semester, DHS students placed 2nd place. But this semester, another group of students came in 1st place. Congratulations to Diego Ledezma, Jeremiah Salazar, Tadeo Mendoza, and Andrik Gomez for winning this spring semester out of 489 teams.