A Look Into the Flourishing Investment Community at Newman
Photo: Sophomore Niall Powers-Özyurt examines a stock market graph. (Photo by Eric Lechpammer)
Since March of 2020, Covid-19 has ushered in a plethora of changes to everyday business. This is particularly demonstrated by the stock market fluctuations in the era of the pandemic, from the terrifying plunge into recession triggered by the onset of the virus, to a steady economic recovery building up towards recent stock market record highs.
Many Newman students have seen this excitement as an opportunity to hone in on improving financial literacy, understanding a variety of market spaces, and obtaining a better grasp on making investments. Of 32 surveyed students across grades seven to twelve, 78.1% indicated an interest in the stock market, while 28.1% actively trade.
Sophomore Niall Powers-Özyurt has traded in the stock market since December of 2020, though his intrigue in the market originated well before his first investment.
“My dad is an economist, so I am very interested in things like money, how far [percentages] can go up, and how the effects of the economy relate to a business.”
The bustling business atmosphere of the Back Bay neighborhood and fellow stock-savvy students were additional influences to Powers-Özyurt’s interest.
Powers-Özyurt primarily holds shares in NVIDIA, Apple, and Boeing. He is familiar with the technology and automotive industries, and because of that, he invests in companies that occupy those areas.
“Invest in what you know. If you know a lot about fashion, invest in fashion. If you know a lot about technology, invest in technology. Make sure you are very conscious of what’s going on with a company at a specific point in time, so you know an ideal time to invest in it,” he said.
Several significant changes initiated by the pandemic have shaped Powers-Özyurt’s decision of when to invest, including production halts influencing the price of tech shares, or the decrease in air traffic lowering the Boeing stock value. However, as pharmaceutical companies continue to produce vaccinations, these factors are subject to change.
“Since December, I’ve noticed that the [Boeing] stock has been going up because traveling has become a bit more common because of the prevalence of vaccines,” he commented.
Overall, Powers-Özyurt recommends that other young people study the stock market to begin investing as early as possible.
“The sooner you start investing in the stock market, the sooner you become familiar with the markets and how they can go up and down as a whole. The more comfortable you are, the more successful you’ll be in the long term.”
Sophomore Agnessa Lysenko agreed with the sentiment of learning to trade early. Lysenko is interested in Foreign Exchange, a market that regulates the exchange rate of international currencies.
“My dad has been trading since way before I was born; he started around 2003. He’s been doing it [for] all these years, and he got me interested last year,” she stated.
Lysenko currently practices trading foreign currency through a demo account on Forex.com, which allows learning investors to practice trading virtual currency with the same charts and rates as in the real market.
“You can practice from time to time, trying different strategies, and once you like a certain strategy and see that you’re doing well in a demo account, you can try that in a real trading account,” she said.
Lysenko views learning how to make investments as a “really good benefit” to young people, as investment portfolios can create an extra source of income with practical applications of paying off student debt or paving a path to a career in economics. Lysenko also believes that gathering early experience is essential to prospering in the future.
“It’s better to start early, because some people take years to fully learn [the right] strategies to succeed,” she said.
In addition to more traditional markets, 40.6% of students indicated an interest in cryptocurrency, a form of digital payment which can be used to purchase goods and services. Cryptocurrency, or “crypto,” functions through a technology called blockchain, a database responsible for managing transactions.
Senior Sam McMorrow’s interest in crypto emerged in his junior year while taking the IB Economics class.
“I started going to the blockchain club, which is run by [economics teacher] Mr. Wegzyn. I started learning a bunch about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and [I] gained a lot of knowledge about crypto through that club and my own research,” he said.
McMorrow recognized cryptocurrency’s potential to create a “paradigm shift” which will significantly change the way business is conducted.
“I think [crypto will change the world] as a currency and as an asset class, and that’s already started to happen, but even on a larger scale, one way crypto is gonna change the world is through smart contracts and the projects that are being developed through those,” he said.
Therefore, McMorrow said that “it makes a lot of sense for young investors to get into the crypto space, because we have a lot of years ahead of us investing.”
Sophomore Karim Mansour, who began trading cryptocurrency in December of 2020, believes that crypto has the potential to decrease economic inequality on an international scale.
“The value of [printed currency] can go up and down based on how much [the government] print[s]. With crypto, you take that power and give it to the people,” he said.
Mansour stated that a large appeal for cryptocurrency is the chance for a considerably higher potential gain than in the stock market. However, this corresponds with an equal amount of risk, which “is something [that] a lot of people aren’t quite prepared for a lot of the time,” he said.
McMorrow agreed.
“Crypto in the short term is definitely risky. Anyone can go on CoinMarketCap (a price-tracking website for cryptocurrency) and look at the historical graphs and see that it’s incredibly volatile,” McMorrow said.
However, both McMorrow and Mansour advised that research and proper financial responsibility are essential toward prospering in the crypto space.
“Read a lot of books, watch a lot of YouTube videos, understand what you are investing in,” Mansour stated, “When you’re ready to invest, don’t put in anything you are not willing to lose.”
“My advice for any investment is to never invest in something you don’t understand. I think a lot of people hear a lot of buzzwords about certain investments and they just put money down instinctively,” McMorrow said, “[but] I think there’s a humility aspect to it where you need to step back and do a lot of learning before you put money on it.”
Sources
“How Did the Pandemic Usher in One of the Stock Market's Greatest Runs?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Mar. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/stock-market-good-year/.
Detrow, Scott, and Megan Greene. “One Year Into The Pandemic, Here's What We Can Learn From The Stock Market.” NPR, NPR, 12 Mar. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/03/12/976342918/one-year-into-the-pandemic-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-the-stock-market.
Ganti, Akhilesh. “Foreign Exchange Market Definition.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 9 Mar. 2021, www.investopedia.com/terms/forex/f/foreign-exchange-markets.asp.
Royal, James, and Kevin Voigt. “What Is Cryptocurrency? Beginners Guide to Digital Cash.” NerdWallet, 14 Apr. 2021, www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/cryptocurrency-7-things-to-know#:~:text=A%20cryptocurrency%20.
