Investing · MI Investing Simulator
MI Investing Simulator
A stock market simulator for students in grades 6–12: they open a virtual investment account, build a portfolio they choose themselves, and manage it through five simulated years of contributions, dividends, fees and market swings. The score rewards good investing decisions — not whoever ends with the most money.
What It Is
A virtual investment portfolio students build themselves
Most classroom investing activities hand students a finished portfolio, or turn the market into a race. This investment simulator for students does neither. Each student starts with a $1,000 practice wallet, decides how much of it to move into an investment account, and then chooses what to buy from a curated menu of index funds, individual companies, bonds and cash.
- Set a goal and a time horizon. The goal a student picks changes what a sensible portfolio looks like — and the simulator tells them the stock share it considers goal-appropriate.
- Move money in — and discover it is still not invested. Cash sitting in an investment account has not bought anything yet. Students see the wallet, the uninvested account cash and the invested total as three separate numbers, all the way through.
- Build the portfolio. Set a target mix across stocks, bonds and cash, then buy the positions to match it. A live donut shows the account mix against that target.
- Manage it for five market years. Growth, dividends (taken as cash or reinvested), annual fees, an optional recurring contribution, an authored decision event in three of the five years, and the chance to trade or rebalance between years.
- Live through a downturn. One of the five years falls. What a student does in that year is the part the report talks about most.
Inside the Simulator
What students see — and what you review
Real screens from the MI Investing Simulator. Every amount is fictional practice money — nothing here touches a real account, and nothing touches your class’s MI Bank balances. Tap any screenshot to open it full size.
For students — building the portfolio
Three pools, always visible: the wallet, the cash sitting in the account, and the money actually invested. The target mix is the student’s own plan — the market will push the portfolio away from it, and they decide whether to bring it back.
For students — the Investment Skills Score
Seven behaviors, adding up to 100. The ending balance is reported for context and is not one of them.
For teachers — the class results dashboard
The class summary averages each scored behavior, so the lowest bar is the lesson worth reteaching. You can open any student’s run to see their portfolio, every trade, each year’s decision and their written reflections. The roster is listed by name — there is no ranking.
The Difference
Why this investing simulator is not a stock-picking contest
A stock market game for students that ranks the class by ending balance teaches one lesson very efficiently: take the biggest swing you can, because the winner is whoever got lucky. Real investing rewards the opposite behavior, so this simulator scores the behavior instead.
The Investment Skills Score is made of seven parts — whether the portfolio fits the student’s stated goal, whether it stayed diversified, whether they kept contributing, what they did in the down year, fee awareness, avoiding an oversized bet on one company, and keeping the mix near target. Portfolio return is not one of the seven. A student who bets everything on one company and gets lucky can finish with more money and a markedly lower score, and the report says so in plain language.
Every balance is fictional practice money. There is no brokerage, no real account, no real money, and nothing on this page or in the simulator is investment advice.
Which One Do I Assign?
The three investing tools, and what each one adds
Money Instructor Classroom has three investing activities. They are a ladder, and each rung hands the student more of a real account — most classes will use more than one, shortest first.
Beginner Investing Challenge
Learn how good long-term investors make decisions.
- Choose from ready-made portfolios
- Ten years, five market rounds
- About 15–25 minutes
- Grows a pretend $500
- Finishes with a Challenge Score
- Best as the first investing activity
MI Investing Simulator
Build and manage your own virtual investment portfolio.
- You choose what to buy, and how much
- Five market years you actively manage
- About 25–40 minutes
- Starts with a $1,000 practice wallet
- Finishes with an Investment Skills Score
- Best after students have met the basics
MI Brokerage Simulator
Open and operate the account itself.
- An application, a profile, disclosures
- Six months, two quarterly statements
- Orders that preview before they confirm
- Transfers in from a $1,200 practice bank
- Finishes with an Investing Skills Score
- Grades 9–12 & adult ed
All three run on a simplified, authored market, all three use practice money only, and none of them is a stock-trading game. The Challenge hands the student a portfolio, this one has them build one, and the MI Brokerage Simulator is the account the buying happens inside.
Learning Objectives
What students practice
- Match an investment mix to a stated goal and time horizon.
- Tell the difference between money in an account and money that is invested.
- Build a diversified portfolio across stocks, bonds and cash — and explain why concentration is a risk.
- Read the effect of dividends, annual fees and regular contributions on a balance over time.
- Decide what to do when a portfolio drifts from its target, and when a market falls.
- Judge an investing outcome by the decisions behind it rather than by the final number.
Teacher Q&A
Common questions about this stock market simulator for students
What is the MI Investing Simulator?
It is a virtual investment portfolio students run inside Money Instructor Classroom. They open a practice investment account, choose what to buy from a curated menu, and manage the portfolio across five authored market years — contributions, dividends, fees, a decision event in three of those years and a downturn — then answer reflection questions and receive a behavior-based Investment Skills Score.
Is this real money, or a real brokerage?
Neither. Every amount is fictional practice money on the student’s own simulator record. There is no brokerage connection, no market data feed and no real account. It is also completely separate from MI Bank — nothing a student does here changes a class bank balance.
Does the student with the highest return win?
No, and that is deliberate. The Investment Skills Score is built from seven investing behaviors and portfolio return is not one of them. The teacher roster lists students by name with no ranking, and the class summary reports which behavior the class was weakest on rather than who finished highest.
Which should I assign first — this or the Beginner Investing Challenge?
The Beginner Investing Challenge first, if your students are new to investing: it is shorter, uses ready-made portfolios, and teaches how patient investors behave. The MI Investing Simulator then asks them to build and run a portfolio of their own.
What do I need to run it?
A Money Instructor full membership and a class in Money Instructor Classroom. Sign in as a teacher, open the MI Investing Simulator, and assign it to a class in a few clicks. Students join with a class code — no student email addresses are required. It works for any class, including a plain bank-only class with no classroom economy set up.
How long does it take, and what grades is it for?
About 25–40 minutes, which fits a single class period, and it is written for grades 6–12 and adult education. Students can leave and come back — the simulator resumes exactly where they stopped.
Ready to run it with your class?
The MI Investing Simulator is included with a Money Instructor full membership, along with lesson plans, worksheets, curriculum units and every other classroom simulation — investing, saving, budgeting, banking and credit.