RHS student wins stock market game

By Jesse Baalman, Re-2 Communication Specialist

In Kelly Lynn’s IB Business and Management class at Rifle High School, junior Marquis Rios has made quite the accomplishment. He is the winner of the year-long Colorado Stock Market Game, an achievement fitting for not only his studies but his interests.

Each game participant starts off with $100,000 and uses the actual stock market to decide how to spend their simulated money, which is somewhat similar to using an investing app. The Stock Market Game is a program of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which educates youth on the stock market and advocates for effective and efficient capital markets.

“I went all in on one stock of Tesla’s and it did really good,” says Rios. “Then, all of a sudden they did really bad.” From this, Rios says he learned not to put all of his money into one area. “I had money in technology, automobile, energy, oil and transportation industries,” says Rios. “I learned to spread my money out a little bit because if I were to lose money, it wouldn't be as bad as if I had put it all in one stock.”

Much of what students learn in Lynn’s IB Business and Management class can be applied to the game, which all students participated in. “The main modules of my class are business activity, human resources, finances, marketing and operations management,” says Lynn. “Every day we discuss businesses around these concepts, and it helps when the students have some companies they are literally invested in to apply to the concepts we are learning.”

Rios was interested in finance long before he participated in the CO Stock Market Game. “During my freshman year before I transferred to Rifle, I started getting into it through business class,” says Rios. “My dad also owns his own company, so business has always intrigued me. That pushed me to start my own business as well.” Rios is now working on launching his own clothing company: Rios Activewear.  

“Marquis has been taking business classes for four years and the first week he was familiar with a concept that is taught at the college level,” says Lynn. “I have known  from the beginning of the year that this young man is going to do some amazing things in the business sector.”

In terms of the future after he graduates from high school, the young entrepreneur plans to continue honing his TikTok account (which he has a huge following on) and saving money to get his clothing company up and running.