Investing Classes for High School Students in NYC

About Investing Classes for High School Students in NYC

Learning solid money management is important for your long-term financial health, and it pays (literally) to start learning these skills early. High school students often comment that they don’t leave school with training in basic money management skills or knowledge of personal finances. One way to address this is to enroll in a summer investing and finance course to learn everything from keeping track of your finances and assets to smart investing strategies and the practical aspects of investment. In these classes, students will learn how to manage their personal finances and make long-term financial decisions that will pay dividends over a lifetime.

Why High School Students Should Learn Investing

Learning about investing can be useful for any student since managing finances and building savings and assets for retirement (even if it is a long way off) is a skill that will benefit all students. These classes will teach students how to record and manage personal finances, including tracking things like household budgets and spending. They will also learn practical computer skills like Excel, which, besides being a useful financial tool, can be used in various professional contexts.

In addition to the practical skills that will benefit virtually everyone, taking an investing course is a good way to become accustomed to the inner workings of the financial sector, a massive industry that employs over 7 million people in the US alone. Since it is home to Wall Street and some of the largest stock exchanges in the world, New York City has a wide range of opportunities for anyone looking to pursue a career in a field like investment banking, stock trading or financial analysis. Taking a course over the summer can give high school students an early start on their professional education since they will learn the fundamentals of stock market investing and analyzing publicly traded companies. These courses can help students understand if a career in investment management or finance is right for them, and these classes will help students lay the groundwork for their future training and education.

In-Person Investing Classes in NYC

NYC, as the home of the NYSE, is also home to a wide variety of different in-person investing classes for high school students. These courses offer students the chance to work with professional experts with years of experience in the investing field and can provide students with practical training in personal and professional financial strategies. These courses are offered by dedicated training providers, like NextGen Bootcamp or by colleges and universities offering summer pre-college programs.

Students interested in learning at Columbia University can apply to be a part of their Introduction to Finance and Investment Management course. In this program, students will spend a week learning about the intricacies and structure of the American financial system from expert instructors who are part of the Columbia University faculty. The course covers the basics of investment management, including learning about the different kinds of assets one can invest in, how to manage a portfolio (for yourself or a client) and how to judge the relative valuation of certain investments. Students will work with real-world case studies to understand why certain investments have been successful or unsuccessful at various points in time, and they will learn about different kinds of investment strategies such as how mutual funds differ from hedge funds.

Virtual Investing Classes

Students also have the option to learn investing and financial management skills through online courses. These live online summer classes offer students the chance to get practical financial skills training without leaving their homes (making it easier for them and more accessible for students who would have difficulty regularly attending a class at a university halfway across the city). With recent developments in online pedagogy, these classes let students learn from skilled instructors in real time, and they can receive personalized support and feedback directly from their instructors, which can significantly improve overall learning outcomes.

NextGen Bootcamp (which also teaches in-person investing classes in NYC) offers an Excel, Finance, & Investing Summer Program for students looking to learn practical and professional investing and financial management skills. In this course, students will learn how to create complex Excel spreadsheets that can be used to track and analyze their personal finances, set and record budgets and build long-term investment strategies. Then, students will learn the practical aspects of investing, including how to read publicly available financial statements to judge the value of a company, what different kinds of investment options exist and how they differ from one another (for example, stocks and bonds vs. Real estate and futures) and how to actually purchase and sell assets. Finally, students will learn how Excel can be used to analyze a company or asset and compare it against other options, giving students the tools they need to make more informed decisions about the investments they want.

Students can also enroll in a course like Teach Me Wall Street’s one-week Wall Street Bootcamp. This course aims to teach students the financial literacy skills they will need to feel confident in their investment and money management decisions. This program will teach students how the stock market functions, what kinds of assets and stocks they can invest in and how to read and analyze past, current and future market trends. In the second half of the course, students will learn how to perform fundamental analysis (what assets to buy) and technical analysis (when to buy and sell them). Finally, students will put these skills to the test in a simulated trading environment, giving them hands-on experience with the process of valuing, buying and selling assets.

How to Choose an Investing Class

Choosing the right investing class can be difficult, particularly if you want to learn during the summer and are trying to find a class offering in-person (or live online) training options. While many options are available, they will differ in terms of cost, location, curriculum and focus, all of which should be considered when enrolling in a course.

The practical issues to consider are cost, schedule and accessibility. While the cost of courses can vary, students should know that good training courses can cost upwards of a thousand dollars. While it may be tempting to look for less expensive courses, of which many are offered online, these classes tend to lack the beneficial presence of a live instructor, and they are less likely to contain dynamic, hands-on training options (since they tend to be recorded lessons). Plus, particularly in the field of finance, you want to be extremely wary of the reputability of your training provider. In addition to considering cost, students will want to consider the schedule of the course (most summer sessions only run for a week or two and therefore run for 6 to 8 hours a day) and the accessibility of the course, particularly if they are planning to commute somewhere in the city. While public transportation can get you to most universities around the city, the challenges involved in commuting might lead some students to prioritize finding an online class.

Regarding issues specific to a finance and investing course, students will want to consider the skills they hope to learn from the class. For many students, the goal of taking a class like this over the summer is to learn practical skills that they will use regardless of their professions, like managing a household budget and beginning saving for retirement or emergencies. These students won’t benefit as much from a class that is focused on teaching students how to invest in asset markets as a profession. Likewise, some students may be interested in learning how they can prepare for a career in stock market investing and are therefore less likely to need to learn how Excel can help them budget out their car payments. Both courses can be incredibly valuable, but students should set their expectations in advance to find a summer investing course that suits their needs.