Money Matters: Build Your Investment Game Plan

What Will You Do?

• Compare stock-picking criteria against different investment goals

• Research companies and industries with free stock screeners

• Examine company profiles, financial ratios, and risk

• Build a hypothetical portfolio and choose your allocations

• Track prices and calculate return on investment

• Present your portfolio graphic and explain your strategy

Learning Outcomes

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

• Compare investments using goals, company information, financial ratios, and risk

• Calculate portfolio value and returns while accounting for common costs

• Defend an investment strategy with research and reasons for revising it

You’ll leave with your tracked hypothetical portfolio, an investment presentation and a certificate of completion.

Why Finance Skills Matter

Portfolio work makes percentages and ratios matter to a decision. Choosing an allocation means weighing a goal against risk, while tracking costs shows why an apparent gain may tell only part of the story.

Students also practice separating the quality of a decision from a short-term price change. Researching a company, checking a source, and explaining a revision give them concrete questions to ask whenever a financial claim sounds appealing: what supports it, what does it cost, and what could go wrong?

Who Should Attend?

For students who have completed 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.

Your student may follow a well-known company, enjoy working with numbers, or wonder why stock prices move. This course connects those interests with the choices behind an investment strategy. Students use basic arithmetic and percentages, research companies, and compare their reasoning with classmates. No investing experience is expected. All portfolio work uses hypothetical money.

Institute for the Gifted eligibility requirements apply; see the program FAQ.

Based on students surveyed in 2026 about Summer Discovery programs at Yale University campus.

The Institute for the Gifted program takes place on Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

The setting gives middle-school students a memorable place to learn, have fun, and experience campus life. New Haven’s connections to law, theater, science, and the arts, along with the campus’s courtyards and academic spaces, make exploring a subject feel different from an ordinary school day. The program combines active academics with friendships, campus activities, clear routines, and support as students grow comfortable in a new community. Students can try challenging ideas, meet peers who share their interests, and build age-appropriate independence.