Whitewater Investment Group’s junior Brian Geurts placed second in a national online stock exchange competition.

The U.S. College Stock Trading Championship is an online simulation that allows college students from a variety of colleges and universities to trade and invest in stock for cash prizes.

Geurts qualified for the final national tournament, after acquiring bronze, silver and gold medals in a month of trading.   Geurts received $2,000 for placing second in the competition.

Geurts said students picked stocks from the NASDAQ 100, and students traded stocks throughout the competition in accordance with the market environment.

Geurts said some stocks fluctuated more than others, which influenced the outcome of the competition.

“I ended up having a good week, and that put me in second place,” Geurts said.

Geurts chose to invest in Amazon his final week, which helped him to win second place.

Geurts said he got the group involved in the competition to spark an interest in investing.

“It was a great success with our group a lot of our members did very well,” Geurts said.

Whitewater Investment Group

WIG began this year.  President of WIG sophomore Matthew Verstegen said WIG meets bimonthly, brings in speakers and invests virtual money into the market with the overall goal to educate students on investment.

“WIG’s goal is to provide students with a basic understanding of the stock market to be able to comfortably make future investment and financial decisions, as well as provide opportunities to learn more about potential careers in the investment industry,” Verstegen said.

“Mainly, we are trying to get a focus on investing, and trying to get people interested in investing as many opportunities to learn about investing as possible,” Geurts said.  “We are trying to spark in interest in people.”

Geurts said acceptance to the group is not limited any student is welcome to join and learn about investing.

In the future, WIG wants to expand its prescence through speakers, tours and events related to investing, Geurts said.

“We will continue to use the online stock trading games and other simulations,” Geurts said.