What’s a string trader? What are “paper” gains and losses? What’s the difference between fundamental and technical analyses?
You may not know all these terms, but anyone involved in the stock market, the system whereby shares, or stocks, in companies are bought and sold, will be quite familiar with them. There’s select group of Stuyvesant seniors who take part in stock-trading. These students, including Lionel Seidman, Benjamin Lerner, Mike Dubrovsky, and Max Livingston, have made the stock market a hobby. In some cases, the sideline has been a profitable one. Livingston said, “The stock market gives you experience with handling and managing money, with analyzing data and information, while at the same time giving you the rush that comes with any sort of gambling.”
Stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges where buyers and sellers are brought together. As for participants—ranging from individuals who dabble in the business to vast brokerage houses operating on behalf of thousands of investors—the common goal is to make money.
Many of the Stuyvesant students trace their involvement in the market to members of their families. Livingston said that his father and grandfather, both investors, have given him advice and even bought him stocks in the past. Lerner said his mother has “always invested,” and the summer before last the two of them signed up for a course on the market together. Dubrovsky, as a child, used to watch the PBS business news with his father, which sparked his curiosity about Wall Street.
Once hooked, though, the four students took their interest in the market and ran with it.
“I love the show Mad Money with Jim Cramer on CNBC,” said Seidman. “[Cramer] really makes stock trading feel exciting and he gave me a lot of confidence.” Dubrovsky got into a reputable Wall Street class and started researching IRAs last year.
The seniors have managed to make some good, and some not-so-good, money-making decisions. Dubrovsky confessed that in the beginning of his career, when he was interested in solar stocks (solar-energy based stocks) he naively bought the cheapest ones. He didn’t realize that while they wouldn’t cost him much, he wouldn’t make any money either.
Stock trading isn’t something people can enter into on a whim. Lerner said that it takes “discipline and education” to enter into the stock market. In fact, Dubrovsky often listens to earnings conference calls, researches business’ growth rate, and sometimes even calls companies pretending to be a big investor in order to get more information about the company’s stocks.
But clever research tactics aside, a sense of self is important when playing the stock market. Lerner said that in order to be successful, you need to know how much money you want to make before pulling out, and when to cut your losses.
However, entering into the market isn’t always as difficult as it may seem. Dubrovsky said that he once thought stocks were much more complex than they really are. “When I was little,” he said, “my dad…told me [stock trading] was too complicated and that I would find out what it all meant when I was much older. Now I realize that a lot of adults make really dumb decisions in the stock market, too.”
Livingston also commented on the relative ease of starting to trade. All you need to do, according to Livingston, is “open an account [with a company such as Charles Schwab or Bear Stearns], put money into it, and use that account to buy stocks.”
Social Studies teacher George Kenney, who teaches the elective Wall Street, believes this real-life experience is wonderful. “It can help people gain a better understanding of the business and economic world,” he said.
Stuyvesant’s resident stock traders aren’t going to keep their secrets to themselves. They are happy to give advice to anyone interested in entering the market. Dubrovsky’s advice is to “capitalize on the market being irrational. Be analytical and ready to get to the bottom of things.” Dubrovsky said not to be influenced by mass media and to instead believe in yourself. He believes that it is better to be open to all opportunities even if they don’t involve stocks promoted by mass media. “I don’t aim for big, well known stocks. [...] I prefer cheap stocks,” he said.
The Internet has been essential for the Stuyvesant stock traders’ success. Livingston said that the advent of “the Internet has made [the stock market] more accessible to the average person…It has opened up vast quantities of information to laypeople, as well as increase[d] the competition between brokers which has lowered broker fees and commissions.”
Lerner, Seidman, Livingston, and Dubrovsky have proven that the stock market isn’t as daunting an idea as many seem to think. Through experience, research, and a little bit of risk, they have tested the market, made mistakes, and become four stock savvy Stuyvesant seniors.
