Congratulations to the 2025 Global Champions, BAM Investing from Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts! Read the Global Finale wrap-up HERE.
Registration for the 2025-2026 will open on June 30, 2025.
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 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 $250,000 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
| 2025-2026 Key Dates | We will continue to post additional dates throughout the summer. |
| Monday, June 30 | Registration opens |
| Friday, September 12 | Registration closes |
| Thursday, September 18 | Advisors must set up their student team accounts (11:59 p.m. ET) |
| Monday, September 29 | First day of trading |
| Friday, October 10 | 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 17 | Requirement: Official team rosters must be submitted via Reviewr (5:00 p.m. ET); no changes are permitted after this date. |
| Friday, October 31 | Requirement: Midterm report must be submitted via Reviewr (5:00 p.m. ET) |
| Friday, December 5 | Last day of trading; close of the U.S. markets (4:00 p.m. ET) |
| Monday, December 8 | Requirement: Final report and school documentation must be submitted (5:00 p.m. ET) |
| Tuesday, January 27 | Semifinalists (top 50 teams) announced |
| Week of March 9 | Virtual Semifinals |
| April 24 & 25 | Learning Day & Global Finale at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (NOTE: This date coincides with the DECA International Career Development Conference.) |
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!
