Junior Achievement of North Florida is hosting the inaugural JA Stock Market Challenge, a live trading challenge that is part of its Take Stock in Your Future pilot program. The event is Thursday, March 30 at TIAA Bank Field’s Lower East Club.

The top 29 teams of students from Raines, Englewood, Fletcher, and Bartram Trail High Schools will be competing in a hands-on and highly immersive simulation of the real-world stock market.

Guests will arrive starting at 9 a.m. with the students getting to the “trade room floor” at approximately 10 a.m. to take their spots and set up for trading. At 10:30 a.m., event emcee Brian Sexton, the former voice of the Jacksonville Jaguars and senior correspondent for Jaguars.com, will kick off the event with an introduction and the official ringing of the bell.

The teams will be given a list of stocks to trade and will have $1 million to use in the stock market. They will buy and sell stocks for a period of 60 days with each trading day limited to one minute each. There will be a 15-minute break after they complete 30 days of trading. After the closing of the bell, the teams with the most money earned in the 60 days of trading get top honors at the awards ceremony.

Approximately 275 students from four high schools participated in JA of North Florida’s Take Stock in Your Future pilot program which is designed to stimulate young people’s interest in personal finance and managing their money before they move on to college or the workforce. The students first completed five classroom sessions and additional activities where they were introduced to the basic concepts of how the stock market works and how current events can impact trade. They were taught the benefits and challenges of investing in the stock market as part of a broader, long-term investment strategy. The students then competed in a classroom trading simulation where the top teams were chosen to compete in JA of North Florida’s inaugural live JA Stock Market Challenge.