On Sept. 16, junior Sam DeLisle started  an investment club, a club focused on learning about money and investing and the stock market. Meetings will take place every Wednesday at noon through Google Meet.

According to DeLisle, the club will be mainly focused on playing the Georgia Stock Market Game, which starts on Sept. 28 and ends in early December. In this game, each team of 4-5 people gets 100,000 in virtual dollars to spend on stocks, bonds or mutual funds. The winning team is the one with the most money at the end of the ten week period. During the interest meeting, DeLisle and teacher sponsor Melissa Frey oversaw the club members as they separated into four teams. 

DeLisle has been interested in the stock market for a long time. “In 7th or 8th grade, I got really interested in the hype sneaker and clothing market, buying shoes and limited clothing here and there, and reselling them to make money,” DeLisle said.

Even though he was making a profit, at a certain point it became difficult to compete with larger buyers. “About a year ago I stopped doing that because software developers made bots for buying these limited edition items, and that took over the whole market,” DeLisle said.

Instead, his focus turned to the stock market. “I wanted to learn more about that because it’s definitely something that will be useful now and in the future,” DeLisle said. “I thought it would be good to make a community where we’re all learning the same thing.”

DeLisle believes that the stock market is more sustainable, so it won’t be taken over by bots like the reselling market. “For the stock market, it’s more like evaluating and timing stocks, so other people can’t necessarily get in the way,” he said.

In addition to the stock market game, DeLisle has reached out to several family friends in the investment area to speak during meetings. “My brother’s godfather, who works for Edward Jones [Investing], is a really good financial advisor, and he’s down to help me and the club.”

Their long-term goal, however, has real-world implications: the club plans to invest money in the stock market to fundraise for the Decatur Education Foundation (DEF). 

During the meeting, Frey established guidelines for what the group would be allowed to invest in if their idea was approved by the administration. When representing DEF, the stakes would be higher and the whole club would participate as a team rather than as competitors.