PIRCTC students win $1,000,000 Stock Market Challenge

    PRESQUE ISLE – Friday the 13th was not unlucky for everyone. When the stock market closed April 13, two students from the Presque Isle Regional Career and Technology Center, Nic Gallant and Seth Swanson, found themselves the 2007 state champions in the $1,000,000 Stock Market Challenge. The team of Gallant and Swanson won the 2007 State Championship by earning $1,356,961 fantasy dollars. In addition, the twosome finished in eighth-place nationwide.
   Swanson, a senior, and Gallant, a junior, finished with over $150,000 more than the second-place team from Oak Hill High School in Lisbon. The $1,000,000 Challenge started in October and lasted seven months. Over that period, teams could make up to 50 trades at $25 per trade (real time prices) and were not allowed to invest more than $250,000 in any one stock. Dividends were received and teams were allowed to short sell. Gallant and Swanson netted a $356,961 profit for a 35.69 percent return on their money in just seven months. They held the lead in the state shortly after the contest began and were ranked as high as fifth nationally just a few days before the game ended.
    Whitney Jandreau finished seventh in the state competition and 73rd in the nation with an 11.74 percent return, and the team of Kyle Whittier and Brian Gilmer finished 19th in the state competition with a return of 4.6 percent in just seven months.
    The students are enrolled in either the Advanced Accounting or Small Business Management classes taught by Alan Curtis at PIRCTC.