Although co-founders Felipe Lopez ’22 and Yonas Schneider ’22 started the Stock Options Trading Club as a small group of friends interested in trading, their club has quickly evolved into a larger student-led organization. 

“We’ve been interested in stocks and trading since seventh grade, and Stock Options Club is a great opportunity for Felipe and I to share our knowledge with others,” said Schneider.

The club’s leaders hope to encourage financial literacy, especially since they say there are few resources offered to high school students. 

“Knowledge about stocks is essential to building wealth in the long term, and trading can be a useful tool for making money in the short term,” said Schneider. 

Compared to stock trading (buying and selling shares of a company), Lopez and Schneider decided to focus on stock options trading (trading specialized contracts that derive their price from an underlying stock). 

“Stock options club is really the best of both worlds because we combine the versatility of options and the long term stability of American equities together in one strategy,” said Schneider. 

Club member Isaac Tetel ’22 joined to further his knowledge in trading, as well as to spend time with friends and meet people with similar interests. 

“I want to learn about strategies for stock options trading, so I will be able to trade myself. Yonas and Felipe are an oasis of knowledge and are always ready to thoroughly answer my questions,” said Tetel.

Stock Options Trading Club advisor Mr. William Horne, a math teacher, praised the club’s leaders for their extensive experience and the exploratory and collaborative environment they create. 

“The club is very educational, and the leaders are passionate about the subject and have more knowledge about stocks than most students their age,” said Horne. “They encourage questions and do their best to get feedback to make it more collaborative.”

Every week, Lopez and Schneider review a slideshow with essential trading information for the first half of the meeting and spend the rest of the time discussing investment topics as a full group. The leaders are planning to start a challenge where members will trade real stocks with fake money and compete against other club members. The club recently hosted guest speakers from Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, and they plan to invite finance professors from Boston University and Rochester Polytechnic Institute to talk about trading in the future.  

“When the school year is over, we hope that students will have the confidence to begin to build their own trading strategies and start thinking about their finances,” said Schneider.

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