Day Trading Masterclass

• Learn basic market vocabulary and how price charts show change over time

• Read and analyze charts in real time to identify trends and important price levels

• Use paper trading to practice new skills without risking real money

• Compare market scenarios and explain the evidence behind a decision

• Explore how planning, risk, and emotions can shape trading decisions

• Create a simple personal framework and journal template for reviewing choices

By the end of the academy, students will be able to:

• Explain basic chart terms and recognize simple market trends

• Read and analyze charts in real time and use paper trading to practice a rules-based decision

• Create clear rules for preparation, risk, and review

Students leave with a beginner-friendly framework for studying market decisions and a clearer sense of whether they want to explore finance, economics, or markets further.

Financial markets offer a useful setting for learning how to make decisions when outcomes are uncertain. Reading charts helps students notice patterns, but a pattern alone never guarantees what will happen next. Paper trading gives students a practical, low-risk way to test a choice, observe the result, and reflect on what they would do differently.

Students also examine how patience, fear, confidence, and overconfidence can shape decisions. Creating rules and reviewing past choices strengthens self-awareness, quantitative reasoning, and responsible judgment. These habits are valuable far beyond markets, from academic work and entrepreneurship to everyday problem-solving.

This academy is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are curious about financial markets, economics, finance, or the psychology of decision-making. No prior experience with trading or chart reading is required.

It is a good fit for students who enjoy asking why, looking for patterns, working through real examples, and reflecting on their choices. The academy is designed as an introduction, with an emphasis on responsible decision-making, risk awareness, and learning from outcomes.

Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 program at the University of Michigan.

Programs on the University of Michigan campus give high-school students the experience of exploring an academic interest in Ann Arbor, a college town where campus and community life blend together. Tree-lined streets, downtown bookstores and cafés, the Nichols Arboretum, and trails near the Huron River create different ways to experience the setting beyond class.

Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large and active campus, and gain independence through everyday choices in a new environment. The experience helps students understand what university life can feel like while giving them space to deepen an interest without having every next step decided. For families, the program offers a meaningful combination of academic depth, community, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study or pursue next.

Traders, market analysts, researchers, and risk professionals study price movement and make decisions within defined limits. Their work combines observation, basic quantitative thinking, planning, and the ability to stay disciplined when outcomes are uncertain.

Students get an introductory look at that process through real-time chart analysis, paper trading, risk-and-reward exercises, and decision journals. The focus is on how professionals organize, test, and review decisions, not on promises of easy profits. This experience can help students explore interests in finance, economics, business, data analysis, and risk management.