By: Drew Huddleston
A lot of things are different at QVHS. However, one thing hasn’t changed: many of the school’s clubs continue to press on and adapt to the new circumstances. Despite everything the coronavirus has taken from us, students are creating new clubs for their peers to get involved in. One of which is QVHS’s brand new investment club, run by junior, and my own brother, Grant Huddleston. Starting a new club from the ground up is quite the accomplishment, and according to Grant, the COVID situation didn’t make things easier.
“Starting the club itself was challenging, but it was certainly a rewarding experience seeing different kids join the club,” Grant told me in our interview.
When creating the investment club, Grant had to consider the challenge of running it remotely and engineering the experience around that. Resultingly, the investment club has no in-person meetings and essentially runs itself, with Grant monitoring the activity of the participants.
The entire experience occurs on an investment simulator that replicates the stock market. Members are each given a virtual $100,000 to use on the simulator and are then sent off to do whatever they please with it, whether that be buying stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc. “Members can just choose some stocks they’re interested in and stay updated with the times,” Grant told me. The simulator ranks the members, with Grant emailing participants monthly, updating them on the leaderboard, new stocks to keep their eyes on, and lessons on personal finance. The structure of the club allows members free reign in their approaches, with no meetings or requirements other than investing the virtual money.
Grant’s club couldn’t have come at a better time, as understanding the market has become vital in our time of economic uncertainty. “At the beginning of the pandemic, the stocks dipped, and I found myself getting more and more interested in learning about investing. I started investing with my personal money and found it to be a pretty rewarding experience. I learned a lot on my own just from investing and following current events. I thought it would be beneficial to share what I’ve learned and enable other kids to learn about stocks and business.”
The Investment club has not only proven to be a success, with a plethora of members investing on the simulator but also is a testament to the tenacity of our students. While founding a new club in the middle of the pandemic certainly wasn’t easy, Grant had these words of encouragement, “If you’re really passionate about something, and are willing to do anything to make it work, it’ll be successful.”
Students interested in joining the QVHS Investment club should email Grant Huddleston at qv22huddlestong@qvmail.org.
