Day 5 (July 20)
Investment Challenge Winner:
We have been trading for 5 days and the campers have all changed several stocks and enjoying their virtual portfolios. Each and every one of them has learnt so much this week. The markets have been up and down and they have seen their virtual portfolios also go up and down.
The winner of this week's Investment Challenge is James. He made $3218 profit in 5 days (32%). Congratulations and we wish him a lot of luck.
We spent the day talking about Bitcoin and the realities of trading it. We also spoke about drugs and how it is a useless and money consuming activity and how they would be much better off taking the money they have and investing it.
The kids liked their Tie-Dye shirts and wore them. They also made some pasta which they enjoyed.
Day 4 (July 19)
We had a great day today!
We started off by learning about Gold and other precious metals. Campers were shown gold and silver coins that they really enjoyed. They were also asked to feel the weight so that they understand how much 1 oz feels like. After this they calculated how much each investment would have been worth if their grandparents had invested $100 for them. They were quite surprised to find out that the stock market always out performs gold as an investment long term.
After sports which the kids requested to be more like free play, we did our tie-dye projects.
This was followed by learning how to keep their money safe.
After this there was a round of marbles which they thoroughly enjoyed. Some of the kids made South American Worry Dolls (they take away your worries) and the others did water play.
To bring tomorrow: .
1) Change of clothes as we will be making pasta.
2) Level 1: Should look up both their stocks and bring information on the companies they have invested in.
3) Level 2: Need to bring 1 stock in precious metals
4) Parents are requested to remind children that we have a no device policy. It disrupts the class and takes away from the experience for other campers.
5) Diploma Ceremony. We will be giving certificates to all campers at 3.15pm so please come here with your cameras!
Day 3 (July 18)
We covered NAFTA and Free Trade Agreements today. Now that the kids understood how dependent Canada is on USA, they were able.to get a better picture of the issues surrounding NAFTA.
We also covered Buying Local and supporting the local economy and got into a discussion of how to balance Buying Local and Free Trade.
Campers had to balance the need to buy local and support local economies with free trade. We spoke about Competitive Advantage and how canadian businesses need to keep improvising to stay competitive.
Campers had the option to do art and a few of them did. We made rafts today that floated in the water!
Add a bit of kick-boxing and some water play and it was a nice day.
To bring tomorrow:
1) T-Shirt for Tie-dyeing. We will spend the afternoon doing art so please send a t-shirt with your child.
2) Level 1: Should look up both their stocks and bring information on the companies they have invested in.
3) Level 2: Need to bring 2 stocks that have been impacted by NAFTA and explain how they have been impacted.
4) Please send more snacks as several campers were hungry today.
5) If your child would like to have water play at the end of the day, please send change of clothes / swimsuits for them to change into.
6) Parents are requested to remind children that we have a no device policy. It disrupts the class and takes away from the experience for other campers.
Day 2 (July 17)
Today we learnt all about the environment and the impact that global warming has on your investments. Since "Cap and Trade" is so much in the news we learnt about that. We also learnt about Carbon Tax and different methods other countries have implemented to address pollution issues. The example we discussed was London, UK and the Congestion Charge where cars need to pay about CAD 20 to enter Central London. The campers then brainstormed ways that they could implement to create less pollution.
This was followed by a good game of soccer where Team Alex scored enough points to get an additional $2400 added to their virtual portfolios (they subsequently lost $600) :-)
After that, a rather raucous time trading where Santiago almost traded one shoe and Caitlyn did not part with her heart pillow she had stitched herself. The winner of the trading market today was Maddy who walked away with way more than she gave.
After lunch we spoke about the ethics of investing and each camper thought about what kind of companies they would not like to invest in. They learnt that ethics is different for everyone and since it's their money, they need to figure out what they would consider ethical or not.
All Level 2 Investment Challenge sold their US Holdings and bought Canadian holdings. This exercise really showed them how big the US economy is and reiterated the need for them to follow not only local news but also US and world news.
We ended the day by learning about Gift Giving, they learnt about deadweight costs and If you don't have the money, don't spend it.
The team has been divided into 2 Investment Levels:
Level 1: Campers select 2 stocks and have approximately $10,000 to invest.
Caitlyn, Alejandro, Courtney, Jim, Tyler
Level 2: Campers select 5 stocks and have approximately $10,000 to invest.
Nikita, James, Ryder, Maddy, Emma, Alex, Ben, Santiago, Frank (moved to level 2 today)
Click here to see their recent stock holdings
To bring tomorrow:
1) Level 1: Should look up both their stocks and bring information on the companies they have invested in.
2) Level 2: Need to bring 5 Energy Stocks. Don't need to be Canadian and could be clean energy or not. Up to them.
3) Please send more snacks as several campers were hungry today.
4) If your child would like to have water play at the end of the day, please send change of clothes / swimsuits for them to change into.
5) Parents are requested to remind children that we have a no device policy. It disrupts the class and takes away from the experience for other campers.
Day 1 (July 16)
It's a full class today!
We started the day by talking about how kids could earn money and they were very innovative in their ideas. This was followed by them learning about how to save money and before spending any money to ask themselves 3 questions:
Do I need it?
Will I use it?
Will I enjoy it?
We then learnt how to budget and the kids created their own budget. They wrote down their "must haves", what they would invest in and how much they would spend on fun. When they saw their total budget almost all had to go back and remove things because they realized they could not afford it.
The stock market followed and we talked about shares, share prices, ticker, stock markets, brokers, commission and how to invest.
The team has been divided into 2 Investment Levels:
Level 1: Campers select 2 stocks and have approximately $10,000 to invest.
Caitlyn, Alejandro, Courtney, Jim, Tyler, Frank
Level 2: Campers select 5 stocks and have approximately $10,000 to invest.
Nikita, James, Ryder, Maddy, Emma, Alex, Ben, Santiago
You can follow their stock picks here.
To bring tomorrow:
1) Level 1: Should look up both their stocks and bring information on the companies they have invested in.
2) Level 2: All stocks in US Stock Exchanges need to be sold and they need to come tomorrow with 5 stocks that are traded in the Toronto Stock Exchange or any other Canadian Stock Exchange.
3) Please send more snacks as several campers were hungry today.
4) If your child would like to have water play at the end of the day, please send change of clothes / swimsuits for them to change into.
5) Parents are requested to remind children that we have a no device policy. It disrupts the class and takes away from the experience for other campers.
