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1 Virginia State Winner – Elementary School Essay ID: 92336 Student: James B. Teacher: Brenda Mash Christiansburg Elementary 160 Wades Lane Christiansburg, VA Email: bmash@mcps.org Home Phone: 540-382-5172 School Phone: 540-382-5172 There I am, on my computer, drowsily watching a cat play Beethoven. ‘What the heck am I doing?’ I thought, I mean, this cat is impressive but I'm bored… I turn off the cat videos and check my stocks. “WOW”, I thought! “That went up!” I gaped in awe, $1,264 more than just a few days ago! Man, am I glad to have followed that team guide… Oh, you say you want to know what the guide is? Well, okay… but first you should at least know what it's about. It will teach you the qualities of a good team, and what makes a good team. Plus some Stock Market Game tips. Okay, that's the gist of it. So if you still want it, here you go! I think that some benefits of working with a team is that working with a team makes you feel a sort of…connection. It stimulates your senses and it gives you more of a peace of mind. Kind of like how it feels to chew Five Gum. Heh, yeah, I also have jokes. Well anyway, it’s like you get to be a leader and a teammate at the same time. Now enough being mystical, let's get into the basics. A good team is a group that works together fluently, without fighting, has similar ideas, and does well with engineering and thinking. For example, imagine my teacher groups me and three other students together. I’m working with one of the other guys, on some sort of project or something, and then the third guy is practically dozing off because he was playing on his computer until 12:00. Now that's what you DON’T want to happen. You want to get a team with synergy and ability. So, what makes a good team in The Stock Market Game. A good team consists of multiple different types of investments, now I’m not just talking about stocks and mutual funds. I’m talking about retail or fast food or entertainment. Imagine if I were handling a portfolio and all I have is Netflix, Nothing else, just Netflix. Because who doesn’t like Netflix? I think I'm doing well, (even though I’m sadly mistaken) and then suddenly I realize Netflix is crashing and burning. Now normally in this situation, you just get rid of Netflix, right? No big deal. But since all this guy has is Netflix, he’s PANICKING, because if he sells Netflix, He’ll have literally nothing left, beside the money he got from Netflix. That's just one of the many reasons you would never want to invest in just one company. The same goes for types of investments, such as bonds, stocks, or mutual funds. Even the type of thing you're investing in such as what I said earlier, entertainment or retail or something. But, if you had a team, your other investments would help keep you from going bankrupt and make it possible to get rid of Netflix without losing money.

2 Now, imagine you have $10,000 and you don’t know what to do with it. Well, have I got the tips for you! First, try to always make sure you keep some cash. Because if you don’t, and all you have is relying on investments, and if that's all you have, if your investments start going down, you will lose money RAPIDLY so you should try to keep at least some money, just to be safe. Second, as I said before, make sure your investments are diversified. Third, research about your investments, but don’t think too hard or you could OVER think it and make a bad choice. So, I recommend some investments in fast food because that tends to make money and almost never goes down much. Invest in entertainment and invest in retail. Those are the three musketeers of the Stock Market Game. The reason I chose those are because they normally get many uses and in the long-run they will almost always go up, with retail getting more and more packages delivered every day, fast-food getting over $500 million every year, and entertainment getting millions of people getting on every day to play games, watch T.V. and much more! So that's why I think those would make a good “team” in the long run. So there you go! That's my reasoning and solutions to problems, and the type of team that you want when playing the Stock Market Game and in real life! That concludes this guide. “So, how did you like it? It really helped me, so I think it will be fairly useful to you!” “Well, I have to go now, bye!” Virginia State Winner – Middle School Essay ID: 93570 Student: Lare R. Teacher: John Hostetter Skyline Middle School 470 Linda Lane Harrisonburg, VA 22802 Email: jhostetter@harrisonburg.k12.va.us Home Phone: 540-434-6862 School Phone: 540-383-4689 Good Teamwork and Stock Market Teamwork is when a group of people work together to achieve a goal. It helps us get our work done rapidly, create friendships, and see things from others' perspectives. A great example of teamwork, in action, is the Stock Market Game. It is important to have different people with different experiences in your group, because they can share exclusive and creative ideas from their own experience to complete a task. They can help a group discover more about the project, gain more knowledge, and create and invent innovative ideas.

3 The advantages of working in a team are learning to understand and communicate with others, getting assistance from the other team members, and completing work promptly. To build a good group of responsible and dependable members, we have to trust each other, communicate and discuss the project, have a plan, and choose a leader to inform us about what each member should do. Each member should do their assigned task. Making friends and cooperating with each other can lead to more enjoyment and better understanding. Having diverse people from different places and ethnicities in a team can help share more ideas and experiences to invent creative things. Members of each group should be able to rely on each other and work collaboratively. There are steps to decision making when it comes to good teamwork. First, we each come up with our own thoughts and ideas about the current sectors and companies we can invest in. Then, we explain and discuss our ideas with each other. After that, we would sort our favorite ideas and make a checklist of them. Then, everyone in the group would research to receive more information and to prove their ideas. Finally, we make an investment strategy by using the ideas that were most promising. Each member would work to finish their task and help their partners if they needed assistance. By participating and giving advice to other team members, we are able to lead and manage good teamwork while trying to accomplish our goal. When it comes to a portfolio of investments, having diverse people on your team can make a good team by helping develop creative and productive ideas, have various thoughts, perspectives, and knowledge. It can also provide good information to build an innovative final product and outcome for the team. While trading stocks, investing in multiple companies in one sector is essential and important to keep a balance between the risks and returns of the investment. Spending money on alternative companies can reduce the amount of risk of trade. After that, even if one of your trades did not go well and was a failure, the other trades may benefit. If I had $10,000 to invest in stocks and bonds, I would put $2,000 into each of these companies: Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola. I chose this selection because I want to invest in alternative companies in different sectors to keep a balance between risk and return and reduce the overall risk of trade. By investing in multiple companies, the chance of earnings will increase and improve the results of our team. In conclusion, working in a team is better than working alone because it involves communication, motivation, friendship, assistance, leadership, collaboration, creativity and innovation. Team members can help make better decisions, explain solutions and ideas, and assist each other to achieve a common goal.

4 Virginia State Winner – High School Essay ID: 91851 Student: Amani B. Teacher: Jeremiah Mitoko Potomac High School 3401 Panther Pride Drive Dumfries, VA 22026 Email: mitokojb@pwcs.edu Home Phone: 7039758582 School Phone: 7034414200 Before the Stock Market Game (SMG), I was a quiet girl who never spoke her mind. Being given the chance to lead the team, however, allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and blossom. This alone would have made the teamwork on SMG more benecial to me than working on my own. But there is more. In this essay, I will share a few of my experiences. It would be a slight exaggeraon to compare the way my team worked to the instruments in a grand symphony orchestra. Each member contributed to SMG the way notes combine to make music. We worked towards a common goal of winning SMG by taking turns on roles and responsibilies. Each member took turns explaining and choosing which Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds they thought we should buy. As a team we worked together by collaborang, communicang, and compromising, which allowed us to learn from each other. When it comes to making a porolio of investments a good team, the parallel is a group of people who keep each other in check and stay blunt. Allowing other members to waste tons of money on failing investments will cause the team to go down. This is why honesty is needed in a team. If we had $10,000 to invest in long-term investments, we would increase the number of shares in Vanguard and buy Nvidia (NVDA). We all trust Vanguard and have used it before. Plus, our Vanguard investments performed the best in our porolio. As a group, we selected our porolio by buying the same investments we owned in our personal porolios, and by using internet searches to nd the best investments. For example, I bought VOO because it was an investment I owned in my personal porolio. In addion, we would google Apple and Disney to see if they were good bonds to invest in. Even though we didn’t rank high in the SMG, my team really enjoyed the experience. In conclusion, working as a team provides numerous benets beyond accomplishing a task. It builds character by inslling qualies such as collaboraon, communicaon, and trust. When team members work together, they learn to listen to each other’s perspecves and ideas. This encourages them to be open-minded and respecul. I learned that I have to be honest with my emoons and feelings. Furthermore, working together in a team allows individuals to share their strengths and skills with others. Therefore, allowing for personal and professional growth. Through this process, individuals become more accountable, reliable, and responsible. In addion, teamwork creates

5 a sense of accomplishment and sasfacon that boosts morale and is benecial for mental and emoonal wellbeing. Our investments will make a good long-term investment because we have ETF's that are made for long-term growth. Although some of our investments have lost money, they will always grow back up again. Overall, the Stock Market Game strengthened life skills for my teammates and me. It improved our relaonship with each other and developed posive so skills.