Raising tomorrow's stock brokers in Regina
Regina students among thousands across Canada taking part in a stock market-related game in 1986
A year before Wall Street hit theatres, there were schoolkids in Regina getting a sense of how the world of trading stocks worked.
They were taking part in a game sponsored by an Ontario university, which saw them choosing a selection of stocks and then tracking how they fared on the market.
"These students at Marion McVeety School and 4,000 others across Canada started with $100,000," reporter Donna Cunnin told viewers watching the story, which Midday aired on Dec. 22, 1986.
"The way to win the game is to make money, buying and selling stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange."
'Just like the real thing'
Alas, as Cunnin explained, the students weren't being given any real money to invest — it was imaginary money, used as part of a simulation in the game.
"But for them, it's just like the real thing," Cunnin said.
Ten-year-old Dwight Newman was among the students keeping an eye on the market and seeing what its ups and downs meant for investors.
"Well, one day, the stock market [and] everything went down and because of that we sold all our stocks when they were way down low in price and then we sold short on everything," he told CBC News.
"And then the following day, the stock market started up again. And then we didn't get to make a transaction for several weeks."
Newman said the ill-timed transaction had meant a loss of $5,000 of those imaginary dollars.
Stock talk at school
Garth Findahl, the school's principal, said the students' high level of interest in the stock market had surprised him.
"What I have really been amazed at is how in the mornings, they will be bringing the Leader-Post [newspaper] into the classroom," he told CBC News.
"They'll be reading the Toronto Stock Exchange, which is quite unusual for students."
Stock broker Tom Mulligan had been coming into the classroom to help the students understand how the stock market worked.
"They're beginning to understand that when they buy a chocolate bar or buy a drink that there's a major corporation behind this," said Mulligan.
A lot to consider
He also believed it got them thinking about what they could do with their money.
"They can spend the money and buy that chocolate bar, or they can have a look and see if the company that makes that chocolate bar is a good investment."
Cunnin closed her report by letting viewers know that the Marion McVeety students didn't win the game they were taking part in.
"Even though they lost money, they want to try again when the competition starts over in the spring," she said.
