Registration for the 2024-2025 competition is closed.
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a free, experiential investment challenge for high school students (9th to 12th grade) and teachers. Students work in teams of four to seven, guided by a teacher as their advisor, and have access to an online stock market simulator. Together, they learn about strategy-building, teamwork, communication, risk, diversification, company and industry analysis, and many other aspects of investing.
About the Competition
Teams examine a short case study featuring a potential client (a real Wharton graduate working in business) and are tasked with collaborating to meet that client’s long-term investment goals as they try to win his or her business. Equipped with approved stock, exchange-traded fund (ETF), and U.S. Treasury Bond lists as well as the Wharton Investment Simulator (WInS), which allows them to buy and sell stocks and ETFs, over the course of 10 weeks students develop an investment strategy, analyze industries and companies, and build a portfolio using $100,000 in virtual cash. Winners are selected on the strength and articulation of their team strategies, not on the growth of their portfolios, which is a key differentiator between this investment challenge and others. During the competition each team submits two deliverables.
Final reports are reviewed by a team of judges, who select 50 semifinalist teams. Those teams are invited to present their strategies to a panel of expert judges at the virtual Semifinals. The top 10 teams from the Semifinals move on to the Global Finale at Wharton in Philadelphia.
Important Dates
| 2024-2025 Key Dates | We will continue to post additional dates throughout the summer. |
| Monday, June 17 | Registration opens |
| Friday, September 13 | Registration closes; student team accounts must be set up by the Advisor (5:00 p.m. ET) |
| Monday, September 30 | First day of trading |
| Friday, October 18 | Requirement: All teams must fully execute one trade on WInS by close of the U.S. markets (4:00 p.m. ET) in order to be eligible to advance to the Semifinals or Global Finale. |
| Friday, October 25 | Requirement: Official team rosters must be submitted via Reviewr (5:00 p.m. ET); no changes are permitted after this date. |
| Friday, November 8 | Requirement: Midterm report must be submitted via Reviewr (5:00 p.m. ET) |
| Friday, December 6 | Last day of trading; close of the U.S. markets (4:00 p.m. ET) |
| Friday, December 13 | Requirement: Final report and school documentation must be submitted via Reviewr (5:00 p.m. ET) |
| January 2025 | Semifinalists (top 50 teams) announced |
| March 2025 | Virtual Semifinals |
| April 25 & 26, 2025 | Learning Day & Global Finale at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia |
Numbers from Last Year’s Investment Competition
Teams
Countries
Students
Advisors
* 2023-2024 Participation Numbers
Why Join the Competition?
- It’s run by the Wharton School, a world leader in business education
- You get to explore the exciting world of securities and strategies
- You learn about risk, diversification, company and industry analysis and more investing basics
- You develop teamwork, leadership and communication skills
- You enhance your college and scholarship applications by building your résumé
- You have a chance to compete against teams from around the world
- You learn finance skills that will last a lifetime
- It’s free and fun!
