Even in a bear market, several Malvern teams managed to find a way to earn a profit and place highly in the state-wide Stock Market Game, which concluded in December.

At the fifth annual Awards Dinner on December 17 in Stewart Hall, five student teams and, for the first time, five adult teams were honored for their adeptness in investing and trading during the 10-week simulation. Each team began the competition with $100,000 virtual dollars.

In the student division, the top Malvern team was Chris Murphy and Tucker Koch, who finished with $118,895 and placed second in the region and 10th in the state. The team of Matt Cornell, M.P. Salinas and Jeff Teti finished with $117,180 and placed third in the region and 12th in the state. Kevin Cloetingh, Cole Gillan and Luke Tecci finished with $107,575 and placed eighth in the region and 59th in the state. Adam Pinos finished with $106,930 and placed 11th in the region and 72nd in the state. And, finishing fifth at Malvern with $105,483 was the team of John Gilmartin and Tom Mershon, who placed 20th in the region.

In the adult division, Matt and Holly McDevitt placed first for Malvern and the region and 11th in the state with $115,501. Karen Galczenski placed second in the region and 23rd in the state with $111,410. The Satterthwaite Family placed third in the region and 224th in the state with $104,676. The Magargee Family placed fifth in the region with $101,387, and Eeve Smith placed sixth in the region with $101,293.

The game was organized by economics teacher John Ostick, Bob Manning, senior vice president of investments at Smith Barney in Philadelphia, KYW Newsradio market reporter and Malvern Prep parent, and Robert Hinckle ’87, regional managing director of the Boston-based IXIS Corp. Manning and Hinkle teamed up with Ostick to try to help make the fundamentals of economics applicable to everyday life, and to also teach the students valuable skills that they can use throughout their careers. For some hands-on training, Ostick’s economics classes traveled to Manning’s alma mater, Villanova University, to do some real-time simulated stock trading at the School of Business’ state-of-the-art virtual trading floor.