Hawaii SMS Comes To Personal Finance Lab!
Thanks to changes in sponsorship, the HawaiiSMS Stock Market Game is hosted on PersonalFinanceLab.com this Spring – with some great new features for schools across the state.
The PersonalFinanceLab.com platform uses the same interface and trading engine as the previous version, so returning teachers will be familiar with how to manage their classes. However, the new version comes with streamlined trading rules, loads more educational resources for Economics and Personal Finance classes, the ability to build custom sessions for your class, and free access to our brand-new Budgeting Game!
Dates and Registration
- Registration is open now!
- Competition officially begins on January 18th, 2021, and ends on May 28th.
- Early registrations can begin trading immediately as practice, with all student accounts reset at the end of the day on January 15th, ahead of the official competition. During the practice round, students will be able to see each other’s trades and portfolios.
- The Budget Game will be available from January 18 through May 28th for all schools that are interested.
Competition Rules
Previous competitions divided students based on portfolio allocation. With this new session, all participants have the same simplified trading rules:
- $100,000 Starting Cash
- Students may short sell and day trade
- Students may only allocate up to 25% of their portfolio in any one position (single stock, bond, mutual fund, ect)
- Students may only allocate up to 75% of their portfolio in stocks. The remainder must be invested in mutual funds or bonds.
- Students may place up to a maximum of 300 trades over the duration of the competition.
All of these rules will be automatically enforced by the system, meaning students will not be able to place a trade which would violate any rules.
Prizes
We will award $100 Amazon Gift Cards for the top 5 students/teams in the stock market competition.
While there are no prizes for the Budget Game, students can earn badges and achievements through the Budget Game that they can show off on the Stock Game rankings page (click here for more information about or Badges). Students can earn additional badges as they build their portfolio and complete lessons in the curriculum library.
New Features
The new platform includes a host of great features teachers can use as part of their classes, including:
- New curriculum library, with hundreds of lessons integrated for Personal Finance and Economics lessons (see our Personal Finance lessons here, or our Economics lessons here)
- New library of pre-built Google Slides and PowerPoint presentations teachers can use in their classes (click here to view!)
The Budget Game
Our Budget Game puts your students in the role of a college student with a part-time job, managing their variable income, expenses, paying bills, using a credit card, and understanding how to build and manage a budget. The game lasts for a simulated 18, with each “month” of the game taking approximately 20 minutes to complete.
After the first 6 “months”, students graduate from school and start their full-time job – with new expenses, bills, and opportunities for professional development! You can learn more about how it works by clicking here.
The Budget Game is available free to all Hawaii schools for this Fall as part of the Hawaii SMS Challenge!
Teacher Resource Packs
Whether you’re using the stock game or the budget game, check out our teacher resource packets with lesson plans, videos, and more resources for your classes!
Contact Us
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