PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (May 29, 2020) – Two Prairie View A&M University students have secured top places in the national HBCU Stock Market Challenge. Victoria Baldwin, a sophomore majoring in finance, won first place and a $2,000 prize, and Jonathan Lee, an MBA student, won third place and a $1,000 prize.
Victoria Baldwin
“The experience I gained from this challenge was amazing,” said Baldwin. “Being able to compete with other HBCU students and represent PVAMU in such a prestigious competition was an honor. This win has led to many open doors, and it has only been a couple of days [since the winners were announced].”
Lee said, “When it comes to investing, it is an emotional roller coaster for those who do not understand the market. This contest takes the emotions out of it and can really open the eyes of people to how investing works, and from there, they can apply it to their everyday life. Since entering this challenge, I am much more conscious about the stock market than I have ever been.”
The online trading competition, which ran from February 17 through May 15, featured more than 350 students from 30 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Each student began with $100,000 in virtual cash to invest in stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds. Participating students also completed financial literacy assignments throughout the challenge.
“I encouraged our students to participate in the challenge,” said Yi Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor of finance. “My Wall Street 101 class is required to participate in a trading challenge, and we also have an investment club where students exchange investment ideas and participate in multiple trading challenges.”
Challenge winners were determined based on overall portfolio return, following the rules, and timely completion of the built-in personal finance curriculum.
Jonathan Lee
“Stock trading contests are great experiential learning experiences,” said Munir Quddus, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business and professor of economics. “While the contestants use fake money, the competition exposes them to many elements of real-world stock investing where they are able to cultivate research and investment strategies. We hope our students who participate in these contests, whether they win or not, become mature investors and continue their life-long learning.”
The 31 PVAMU students who participated in this year’s competition had an advantage as the challenge uses StockTrak, the same trading platform used in PVAMU’s annual campus-wide stock trading challenge.
“I am very excited about this year’s results and proud of our students,” Zhang said. “Last year, a PVAMU student secured second place. Hopefully, we will be the university with the highest average student portfolio value next year.”
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By Kendall Hebert