Tick Tock. Tick Tock. $18.02, $19.87, $21.43, $26.06. Tick Tock. $21.34, $17.49. This was the stock Krispy Kreme (KKD) through the six months between September 2013 and February 2014. As the sporadic stock went up and down, junior Gevork Salmastyan became addicted to his virtual investment. Over the past couple of months, students of the E-Marketing class, began using an online program in which they invested $100,000 virtual dollars into six sectors in the stock market.

“I loved the thrill of it. I couldn’t stop looking at it,” he said. “There was a month where it shot up to $26, a whopping rise of 45%.” But as all young investors come to learn, they should never get greedy and always sell high.

Elaine Snodgress, the E-Marketing teacher, said she is very pleased with this new virtual stock market program that she introduced to her class last fall. “This is the first year we’re doing this virtual stock market, and the results are great,” Snodgress said. “It’s been an overall positive experience. It really teaches students to be responsible and prepares them for the future.” With five years as the lone E-Marketing teacher, Snodgress’s main goals of teaching students how companies work and how to be responsible with their money seem to be accomplished with this new stock market game.

Junior Aram Haratunyan said that he enjoyed the experience, in part because he and his partner, junior David Tiraturyan, made a net profit of $9000. “Just call us the Lions of Wall Street,” Haratunyan said. describing him and his fellow junior partner, David Tiraturyan.

Some of the Snodgress’s students even have purchased real stocks. “I know several students who have really invested their money in stocks,” Snodgress said. Such students include Gevork Salmastyan, who has invested in stocks like MGM and Apple with the help of his father. “I recently invested in Apple this year, with high hopes that the stock would double with my investment because of the new iPad and iPhone. And I bought MGM when I was younger because of my dad’s advice. The aspects of the stock market are really interesting to me, and I hope to pursue a future in which I really do deal with stocks.”

What is the stock market, though? The stock market in simple terms is where shares of companies, who need equity or money to grow, are sold to the public. There are many stock exchanges all over the world, ranging from Amsterdam to England to the Bombay. But the biggest and most powerful stock exchange in the world belongs to the United States of America on Wall Street in New York City, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

But why does this information matter to the average Clark student? Why should teenagers care about the stock market? Because, as of this June, according to a CNN Money study, there was about $12.5 trillion American dollars invested in companies that trade stocks in the NYSE. (This figure is represented by calculating the total market capitalizations of the 3,306 companies that trade on the NYSE.) Additionally, the stock market is an important indicator of the economy, because as the economy improves, stock prices improve and vice versa.

As a part of California History-Social Science Content Standards for Public Schools, students are required to be able to”describe the functions of the financial market.”

Still, this topic isn’t consistently discussed in some classes. “We don’t learn anything about the stock market in our economics class,” said senior Asbed Papisian. “We learn about taxes and other stuff, but not stocks.” Added junior Joseph Elmajian, “Our freshmen College/Career Prep classes never even mentioned stocks, which I found peculiar because a lot of careers are due to the stock market.” Snodgress’s business class is the only class at Clark Magnet High School that goes into depth about the stock market.

As well as a career choice, the stock market is also a resource to grow adults’ retirement portfolios. Actually, according to Nasdaq.com, over $2 trillion was invested in the stock market last year as a part of retirement portfolios.

There is no easy definition of the stock market nor easy method of investment. It takes years and years of studying and experience. “The stock market cannot be described, or explained,” said junior David Tiraturyan. “It’s beyond words and comprehension. I think it is ridiculous to have trillions of dollars invested in something you cannot control.Who knows when the next crash will be? But I still see why people pursue a career in the stock exchange. Just from the past couple of months of playing the virtual stock market game for our economics class, I cannot go one day without checking my virtual stocks. I just love it.”