South Windsor Student Wins National Essay Contest

South Windsor resident Karly Suppicich was recently named the national winner in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite® essay competition with McGraw Hill Financial.

Suppicich, a fifth grader at Orchard Hill Elementary School, won the elementary school division in the Spring 2013 competition, which challenges students in grades 4-12 to "analyze investments" and "make real world financial decisions," according to a news release.

Suppicich was awarded a notebook computer and digital camera for her work, while her teacher received a professional development scholarship.

Suppicich's classmates will celebrate with a pizza party and school trophy.

Her winning essay can be read below courtesy of SIFMA:

Our Best Buy

I have found one of the hardest things about playing The Stock Market Game is making decisions with my team. Even though we have agreed on a lot of the decisions, there have been times when we have disagreed. During these times of disagreement I have found my peer mediation skills very helpful. One of these times was when our team was deciding whether or not to buy more shares of Best Buy.

Through my peer mediation training this past school year, I have learned that the two most important skills to help resolve a conflict are communication and compromise. I have utilized both of these skills many times throughout the course of The Stock Market Game. Whenever there was a situation that all of us did not agree on we would talk about why we did not agree and try to come to a solution that would make us all happy. I believe this is one of the reasons our team has been so successful. I also feel that these skills will be helpful to me as I continue through school and life. I think that many of the conflicts in our world could be resolved if people were just willing to talk about the issues and make some compromises.

In The Stock Market Game, one stock that our team purchased early on was Best Buy. We purchased this stock on February 26, 2013. We bought 100 shares at $16.62. The price for this stock as of March 22, 2013 is now $22.78. It is one of the best performers in our portfolio. Shortly after our initial purchase of Best Buy, our team discussed buying an additional 200 shares. We didn’t know much about the electronics business and we all couldn’t agree so we decided against it. If we had decided to purchase those additional 200 shares, our profit for that stock would now be $1,848 instead of $616.

Looking back, I now believe that if we had done a little more research on Best Buy we would have been in a better position to understand why the stock is doing so well right now. Recent management changes of the CEO and CFO positions have made investors much more comfortable about the future of the company. A CNBC.com article dated March 20, 2013 discusses how analysts now think Best Buy is a very good opportunity with a target price of $ 26. They also feel that the new management team is  key to the company’s recent success. An earlier online article at MinnPost.com dated February 21, 2013 also upgraded the stock from a “hold” to a “buy”. It also referenced top management changes as a reason for optimism for the company’s future. The stock is up over 70% this year so far. If we had read these articles and others I think we would have come to an agreement to buy the additional 200 shares of Best Buy.

Before I participated in this game, I didn’t even know that the stock market existed. I now not only know what the stock market is but also know how it works and why it is such an important part of our economy. I learned it is important to research your stock before investing. Terms like mutual fund, bond, ticker symbol and share no longer sound like a foreign language to me. I also learned that communication and compromise are important skills not only in The Stock Market Game but in life as well.