Our first official business meeting was held today. Students got to ask all of their questions about how the stock market works. There were plenty of terrific questions regarding things including benchmarks, sectors, and initial public offerings. We learned that our class is on the short list to be portfolio managers for part of Vanderbilt’s endowment. They want us to do some research on several companies and see if we would recommend buying or selling their stock.

The class market has continued and the pace is picking up speed. Currency has been introduced into the simulation and it seems like bartering is fading fast. (I also introduced new items available for trade in the form of a substitute, a complement, and a replacement. We will see if anyone notices before we talk about these ideas in economics tomorrow).

Our core concepts from economics today were supply/demand and risk/return. Students agreed with me that there should be a higher expected return for riskier investments. We also learned that the price of an item (in a market with perfect competition) will be drawn toward the point where the quantity supplied and demanded are the same.

Looking forward to working on stock proposals tomorrow and maybe even some discussion of market efficiency!

Blake

Photos From Our Open Market