A team of three students from E.P.I.C. Academy in the Sallis community is the winner of Region 4 (East Central Mississippi) in the high school division of the Mississippi Stock Market Game. There were 21 scholastic teams in the region competition.
Teams were given a hypothetical $100,000 to invest from January 1 until April 10. The portfolio chosen by team of senior Jakaine Tate, sophomore Toland Hudson and freshman Omari Williams exceeded the Standard and Poor's 500 index by 3.8 percent.
The team was coached by Kenneth Nelson, the school's assistant principal.
The S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the stock performances of 500 of the largest companies on U.S. stock exchanges.
Teams had to invest at least $10,000 each on stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Stocks chosen by the E.P.I.C. team included Apple and Nike. They invested in some Mississippi municipal bonds and the Franklin Growth Fund, a mutual fund.
The team was honored Wednesday at a banquet at Jackson State University.
The competition is under the auspices of the Mississippi Council for Economic Development. According to its website, “The mission of the Mississippi Council for Economic Development is to increase the economic and financial literacy in Mississippi by providing resources and training to K-12 educators, empowering students to create a more prosperous future for themselves and Mississippi.”
