Stock Madness competition reaches Pepsi and Gap faceoff

Tyler McNeil

Managing Editor

Bracketology started early for the Investment Club in an effort to prevent membership elimination throughout the semester.

Stock Madness, a March Madness-inspired game, uses companies instead of teams played by four groups of students. The group with a higher stock wins. “To tie [finance] in with pop culture or with something fun, it gets people interested and they almost learn accidently,” said Investment Club president Josiah Dillon.

This year, Dillon pushed a March Madness-inspired Stock Madness competition early in the semester in an effort to keep members engaged. “You’ll see me for the next couple of weeks continuing to push this club incredibly hard to not keep members, but replace members the members that will drop off because it’s inevitable,” he said. Throughout the month, Dillon is looking to
After two weeks in the single-elimination tournament, two groups representing Gap and Pepsi will face off. The winner of the competition will receive two movie tickets and a $25 bookstore gift card. “It’s not really about [the gift card], it’s more about thinking about industry and the stock market,” said Darsheen Brown, CIS student.

After the competition, club members in good-standing will have a vote to invest in the winning company. Every year, the club gets $10,000 for investments provided to them by the Hudson Valley Community College Alumni Foundation.

The tournament was divided into four “regional” conferences (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest). Each group included club officers to help new members choose companies to invest in. “We try to have board members within each group so they can educate people and tell them what they look for in a company and how they make decisions,” said Brody O’Connor, Investment Club vice president.

The competition was put together last year by former club president Brandon Combs and vice president Nikolas Strom. This year, Investment club treasurer Alex Shannon believes the competition is better organized. “We’re getting a lot more input from all the members and the board of directors,” he said.

In the final four round of the tournament, the eastern and western companies merged, creating debate among both groups. “I just want to learn as much as I can, and I just felt as though if I embrace what is happening, I learn more and understand their arguments better,” said Tyler Betzwieser, business administration student, about debating over Pallo Allo and Pepsi.