Canterbury Students “Buy” and “Sell” in Stock Market Game

These Saints are ready for Wall Street! More than 150 students, faculty, and staff participated in the Stock Market Game, a simulator organized by the Canterbury Business Association (CBA) student club.

Using the marketwatch.com platform, participants bought and sold “stocks” to see who could earn the most over a three-month period, which concluded on April 20. Congratulations to Richard Gosman ’23, who was the overall top earner with total returns of $265,931.54 on 238 trades, and to second and third place finishers Seth Schullery ’25 and Alexander Olcese ’23, whose total returns each topped well over $100,000.

Richie was happy to share some of his strategy for the game. “I would check a website with a listing of top gainers in the morning, get into one of those stocks, and throughout the day watch it jump 20 to 150 percent. Then toward the end of the event, there was a stock called Boyle, an energy company, that I rode out for about three weeks. In that time, it was up about 50 percent, so that one helped a lot too.”

Director of Library Services and Research Ryan Rebstock had the best showing among faculty and staff, finishing 10th overall with $40,016.25 in total returns. Director of Health Services Colleen Cook, R.N. ’02 and Nurse Beverly Palo, R.N. P ’07 rounded out the top three among employees.

The top three students and faculty each received gift cards for their efforts, but all participants gained great experience in seeing how stock market trading and trends work. “I am not a numbers guy, but also not afraid to try something new,” Ryan shared. “The students were really getting into it, which piqued my interest even more. You can teach an old dog new tricks! The game has emboldened me to perhaps try a few things with my own money and make it grow over time.”

CBA Faculty Advisor Zachary Lord was pleased with student enthusiasm for the game and praised the overall learning experience. “There was a focused educational component to the game, including a stock market information session,” he said. “It was interesting to see the different approaches students took. Some, like Richie, did a lot of day trading while others built a portfolio and then did not  touch it after that.”

Richie was indeed very enthusiastic about the opportunity—for both himself and his classmates. “I think it is great for young people to introduce themselves to the stock market,” he said. “They can see the real value of money and how you can either make it grow really fast or lose it really fast. It felt good to win it!” Richie is one of 12 Club Leaders for the Canterbury Business Association, which currently has 58 members.

Kudos to all the student participants who raised their stock for future business careers!