…but it does expose the wastefulness and weakness of our public schools.

Tales of a Ninth-Grade Fund Manager

Brandon and his crew are hardly the first teenage market junkies to come along, but their story suggests that some child investors are now hitting a new level of sophistication, and, sometimes, obsession. Brandon has taken on many of the conventions of a professional investment fund. He and his staff are raising money from outside investors, developing relationships with companies, and even speaking up at shareholder meetings. He even shorted some stocks right before a February stock-market decline.

Brandon got the idea to start the fund in November when he took a financial-literacy course. As part of the program, he and other students had to develop their own business plans. One student wanted to open a skateboard shop. Brandon, who became interested in markets with a virtual-reality game called Neopets and was setting up mock stock portfolios by the age of 12, wanted to start his own investment fund. “It blew me away,” says Jay Ellis, a regional manager of Washington Mutual in Manhattan and the course instructor.

In six months, Brandon says he has increased the value of his fund — which consists of money he earned fixing neighbors’ computers and contributions from his uncles — by some 30%, to about $5,000.

Meanwhile, an army of metrosexualized fem-bots are making sure your child is afraid of a red magic marker on their paper.

[NOTE: The phenomenon of getting rid of red markers in schools is a litmus test issue. If you are a parent who agrees with the schools - or conversely - is agitating for the schools to abolish red markers for mistakes, then congratulations!! You are an idiot of the highest order! You are turning your child into a future narcissist who will likely end up shooting his/her family someday, out of the mere frustration that the world is no longer the protected little bubble you pushed their narrow little mind into.

GOD how I despise a parent of such low character and intellect. They are worthless and weak, and destroying my civilization.]

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.