Wednesday, October 6, 2010

High school trading


PND Trading Project from charlie roy on Vimeo.

A former CBOT guy and current principal of a high school in Peoria was kind enough to share the above clip of a mock trading program his school developed to teach students the role of futures, hedging and the markets.  As Peoria is in the heart of the grain belt, it's a wonderful way for students to get practical experience in something so important.  As with all education, the most important thing is for the students to want to learn and he found a  way to do exactly that!

 From watching the video, I thought the kids did a great job and seemed a lot more comfortable doing mock trading compared to adults.  One funny thing I remember from watching some mock trading sessions at KCBT and CME is that they usually mix in professionals amongst the amateurs and often the amateurs will offer below or bid above the market so the pros do a quick arb to put things back in line.