One Way(Chicago, Illinois) Only a one way path?

I received an email notification about my participation in the Michigan Investment Challenge last semester. It’s a real life stock market investment simulation between the students of Michigan. I’ll let the email say the rest.

You ended up in the top six of the Investment Challenge 2008. Congratulations! With approximately 87 members competing, being in the top six is quite an accomplishment. It surely was a crazy time to be investing in the market, and the fact that so many of you had gains is quite an accomplishment.

Last year was a roller coaster ride on all the stock exchange board. My net gain was not a significant increase, but just the mere fact that there was gain already put me ahead of the index. I was actually lucky because I was involved in another analysis of the American economy before the whole panic started. All major indicators are strongly suggesting that the economy will take a huge dip so I put all my options into companies that tend to grow during recession. What I didn’t expect was Lehman Brothers and other financial big wigs suffered that badly as well.

While traditionally, each finalist is supposed to gain some financial reward, but due to the economic downturn and the sudden demise of some of the the loyal sponsors’ monetary coffer, let’s just say it is a bad time to invest in. Perhaps I should give this career field a thought.