Identical Strategy: Tooth Whitening and Stock Market
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I have nothing against whitening teeth that need whitening or can stand
improvement. But putting the idea (DTC ~ Direct To Consumer) into people's
heads often causes trouble. Let's take the example of the 90-year old guy
who wants to chase more women around the nursing home. Does he really need
super-white teeth?

The strategy listed below is quite stupid and will result in people losing
tons of money. It encourages young minds to believe that the stock market
movements are based upon interest in companies or the need for products (see
Comcast reference below).

That last happened in 1898 quite literally.

Back then, stock shares were investments and higher dividends were highly
sought after. Today, stock market profits are based upon VOLATILITY only.
Money is made while the stock share price goes up and while it goes down
...... that is, by those who know what is going on.

By the time a new product hits the newspapers the movement has already
occurred! What this "education" is about is creating a new generation of
spokespersons for political ends.

Joel

Posted on Thu, Apr. 28, 2005

R E L A T E D L I N K S
. Information on Financial Literacy

Street game

Philadelphia students use virtual cash online to study the stock market.

By Sarah Watson

Inquirer Staff Writer

When Tarell Smith decided to invest in the stock market, his mother and mail
carrier had plenty of advice.

Taking their suggestions, he bought 1,000 shares of Pathmark Stores Inc.,
the regional supermarket chain, in early March. Then, inspired by its
rapidly rising price, he purchased an additional 14,500 shares.

His total profit on Pathmark: $7,300, for a return of 7 percent in seven
weeks.

If only the money were real.

Smith, 19, an Olney High School senior, "bought" stock in Pathmark, May
Department Stores Co. and Qualcomm Inc. with $200,000 of virtual cash and
credit as part of a class assignment.

He was one of about 2,000 Philadelphia public high school upperclassmen who
this semester played the Stock Market Game, an online investing simulation
program designed to teach students how Wall Street works.

While the game has been played in Philadelphia classrooms for years, this is
the first time it is a curriculum requirement for those students, said Donna
Sharer, the Philadelphia School District's academic coach for social
sciences.

The new requirement reflects a growing concern across the country about the
state of financial knowledge for students and adults.

"Kids can't wait until they are adults to start learning about this," said
Laura Levine, executive director for Jump$tart Coalition for Personal
Financial Literacy, a nonprofit group in Washington. For example, she said,
young adults get credit-card offers as soon as they graduate from high
school.

Among the signs of interest in the topic:

The U.S. House and Senate each designated April as Financial Literacy Month.
In their resolutions, they said only about one-quarter of 13- to
21-year-olds reported that their parents actively taught them how to manage
money.

President Bush established a financial literacy commission in December 2003
to teach consumers about finances and properly using credit.

Gov. Rendell created an Office of Financial Education in April 2004 to give
Pennsylvania residents access to financial education.

In Philadelphia, the Stock Market Game was played over the last 10 weeks by
juniors and seniors in 24 high schools, divided into nine districts. The
students worked in small teams or on their own, as Smith did.

The game, which ended last Thursday, was funded with a $90,000 grant from
the Merrill Lynch Foundation. The foundation, a charitable arm of the
brokerage firm, worked with Economics Pennsylvania, a statewide nonprofit
financial-literacy group.

The game is to be integrated in high schools citywide within a year, said
Joe Lyons, the district's spokesman.

Once students graduate from high school, there is no guarantee they will be
exposed to financial education on their own, said Anita Kane, Economics
Pennsylvania's programming vice president.

"When it comes to the stock market, a lot of young people see it like,
'that's for rich people, that doesn't have anything to do with me,' " said
Jayne Johnson, Smith's social sciences teacher at Olney.

Johnson is teaching her students that the stock market is a "good way to
save money" and that learning investing skills will be important if Social
Security becomes privatized, as Bush has proposed.

Although Smith's investments through the game brought him no real cash, they
earned him a second-place finish in his district and placed him 11th
citywide. A team from W.B. Saul High School in Roxborough placed first
overall in Philadelphia with a profit of more than $18,000, Economics
Pennsylvania said this week.

Smith, with a paper profit of $5,341 on his three stocks, said he planned to
use what he learned to invest his own money in stocks.

"Once I gain a little bit of money, yeah, I most definitely will," he said.
"It is a way to gamble, but I don't see it as a real bad way of gambling. I
see it as trying to make a little bit of money, that's all."

In September, he plans to attend Community College of Philadelphia to study
computers.

The students had varying systems for picking stocks. Some invested in
companies they thought provided essential services, while others bought
shares of companies they knew, such as Apple Computer Inc. and Nike Inc.

They chose Apple because of the popularity of its iPod - but when sales did
not meet expectations, the stock price fell.

"They learned that, just because a company is popular, it doesn't mean
that's the best stock," Johnson, their teacher, said.

A lot of students invested in department and grocery stores because they
were considered a "necessity store," said Danielle Sullivan, 18, an Olney
senior.

Sullivan and her team considered buying Comcast Corp. stock at the beginning
of the game because they thought the Philadelphia cable company provided an
essential service.

"Everybody has cable," Sullivan said in February. "It's going to be around
for a long time, until they find a different technology."

But the team switched strategy when the stock fell a bit early that month.
Instead, they invested in other familiar companies, such as Apple, Staples
Inc. and Urban Outfitters Inc.

The stock market "is kind of important because that's where Social Security
is going," said Aliesha King, 18, an Olney senior. "I'll remember I know
what to do."

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Contact staff writer Sarah Watson at 215-854-2625 or swatson@phillynews.com.

**

Posted on Thu, Apr. 28, 2005

Information on Financial Literacy

Economics Pennsylvania: http://www.economicspa.org/

Jumpstart Coaltion for Personal Financial Literacy:
http://www.jumpstart.org/

National Center on Education and the Economy: http://www.ncee.org/

House resolution (.pdf):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi...hr148eh.txt.pdf

Senate resolution (.pdf):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi...sr88ats.txt.pdf