By Tom Devine ‘20

The stress, the risks, the chances! One move, and you can be sitting pretty; but one bad decision and you will be caught begging for a second chance. Welcome to the Brother Rice Investment Club!

The Brother Rice Investment Club participates in the Chicago High School Stock and Options Contest through the website MarketWatch and competes against various high schools such as De La Salle Institute, Jones College Prep, Whitney Young College Prep, and Trinity High School. Brother Rice alumni, Tom Wegisin, coordinates the program. Mr. Wegesin is a proud 1998 alumni.

Each participant in the club has $100,000.00 of virtual money to start out with. It is then their decision on what company to invest in through the real stock exchange.

Each player has his own method on how to invest. However, the team, “The 5 Skins” is a notorious team of five students who only know one style of trading – go big or go home.

“Our team has come a long way since the beginning of the last season. We have learned a lot about how things are done on Wall Street, and how we can use that to our advantage. Our team figured that since it is fake money, we might as well take big risks, ” said 5 Skins member TJ Murphy.

Senior Vincent Przybylski was awarded a top finalist in last semester’s rankings. Vince’s method was to keep it simple and only focus on a few stocks. Luckily, it paid off for him.

Vince said, “I was actually impressed by what I accomplished. I originally joined the Investment Club to see how the stock market works. At first, I was confused, but once I learned the ropes, I knew what to do.”

The Investment Club is moderated by Mr. Peters. Mr. Peters also teaches various business classes at Brother Rice.

Connor Leibforth was really excited to join the club. Connor has gone with the method of buying early and letting the stock play out over time.

“I have always been curious about how the market plays out. Since the market is doing good, I trust over time I will gain money,” said Connor.

The Investment Club is good to help students be prepared for real life. Students often complain that school teaches them unnecessary material that they will never need out of school and does not include lessons on real life scenarios in each course.  The Investment Club is a great way to “get your feet wet” in what life after school includes.