In June-July of 1999, the Youth Credit Union Program had a three day workshop by Dave Dunn, Gabriel Dattatreyan and Rich Boden on the stock market, the economy, and basic economic principles like supply and demand.
After we knew how the stock market ran on an introductory level, the YCUP gave us $12,000 of fake money to invest in the stock market. For four months, the people who were interested took that money and invested and tracked what ever stock they wanted. We also created a FileMaker program that would track our growth. At the end of the four months we gained a lot of experience by reasearching our stocks, tracking its growth and understanding the deeper meaning behind the charts.
After the stock market game, the Investment Committee was formed in January 2000. With the help of Dave - a stockbroker from First Union Securities- we formed a six-person committee. We also have twenty five hundred dollars to invest in the stock market thanks to a grant from Citigroup Foundation.
Every third or fourth Saturday of each month, Dave meets with our committee. There, we discuss small parts of the stock market such as price to earning ratio, dividends, earnings per share etc… We are currently in the process of researching two different stocks. By June, the committee will decide on which stocks to invest in.
Our future goals are to:
-Of course to make money off of the market, by making educated decisions with the help and supervision of Dave Dunn.
-To give dividends to our members from the profits that we will make on the stock market.
-To educate ourselves about the stock market and how it works, by holding workshops for our members.
-And to become a step closer to becoming a self-sustaining, fully functioning Credit Union by being able to support ourselves for our financial needs.
