High Life : A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Los Alamitos Is Blue Chip in State Stock Competition

A group of Los Alamitos High School seniors has put to rest the complaint that teen-agers don’t know how to manage money.

Ten economics students recently placed first and third against 574 teams in the statewide Stock Market Game, sponsored by the Securities Industry Assn. in New York and the Center for Economic Education at Cal State Hayward.

The teams were given 10 weeks to turn a theoretical $100,000 into as much as they could by buying and selling stocks. The first-place team ended up with $165,556. American High School in Fremont, Calif., took second place with $154,041, and the third-place finishers had $141,505 at closing.

The first-place team consisted of Los Alamitos students William Pak, Mike Chen, Kevin Burnett, Clark Huang and Bret Fruehan. The third-place finishers were Trevor Anthes, Lonnie Peck, Jeff Turner, Mike Rizzo and Kevin Garrett. The top three teams were awarded certificates, plaques and T-shirts. The two Los Alamitos teams were also given lunch and a tour of Kemper Securities in Seal Beach, which sponsored the 50 Southern California teams that entered.

The Stock Market Game is held twice yearly to foster an awareness of the world of business and finance, organizers say. It sharpens problem-solving and study skills by placing students in decision-making roles that require research, judgment, analysis, mathematical thinking and interpersonal communication.

Frank Petrick, adviser to the first-place team, said the program is “good experience; you can never learn as much (reading about it) as you can doing it. We call it ‘authentic assessment’--there’s no better way to learn than to participate and then judge the results.”

Both local teams were helped by a tip about Grand Casino stock, courtesy of Los Alamitos biology teacher Debbie White. The Minnesota-based company went public in May, 1992, at 15 1/4 and on June 1 was at 52, according to Mark Foster of Seidler Securities in Los Angeles. “Casino stocks in general have been strong, because of the possibility of Indian gaming on reservations, and states looking to add riverboat gambling,” Foster said.

Of his team’s win, Chen said that “a lot depends of luck. You just have to go for it.”

Petrick, however, disagreed. “Students will usually outperform the experts because they don’t rely on the technical stuff. They rely more on common sense, what products are good and what is popular.”

Pak acknowledged that the game teaches money management, but said, “More importantly, it makes economics class fun.”