Sitting from left: Samantha Ramirez, Donovan Andradre-Licon and Angelie Reza. Standing: Dianica Jaquez, Junior Achievement education director, and Juan Miguel Bolanos, SBA Sparta Business Academy coordinator.

Hundreds of high school students across El Paso are preparing for their chance to hit it big on the stock market trading floor.

The third annual 2026 Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge, a fast-paced simulation of the New York Stock Exchange, will give the region’s students a chance to test their financial wits against dozens of competing teams in October.

“It’s having the students understand what it means to be on Wall Street, on the floor with the trading happening, with a stock portfolio that they choose. They have to research and understand, and then they’re given $500,000 of funny money to invest,” said Dianica Jaquez, education director for Junior Achievement of the Desert Southwest, the El Paso nonprofit that coordinates the competition.

Before competing, students go through a series of classroom lessons on financial literacy – a curriculum designed by Junior Achievement’s Take Stock in Your Future program. Then, they’ll gather at the Starlight Event Center Oct. 27 and wade into the trading chaos.

About 400 students from more than 90 teams across the El Paso region are expected to compete.

Working in groups and armed with their $500,000 in trading capital, students are expected to analyze market activity and make their trades and investments in real time.

Stock tickers on big screens will display shifting market conditions, while press release stations will inundate students with fictional news that could impact their trading decisions. Leaderboards will track every team’s progress.

“If there’s a news alert saying there’s an ice storm hovering over the Gulf, then that may affect oil prices,” Jaquez said. “The students themselves have to decide, ‘Do I keep the stock? Do I sell the stock? Do I invest in something else?’ So really it’s bringing to life investing and trading.”

The JA Stock Market Challenge is part of the JA Financial Literacy Pathway, a national initiative focused on student financial literacy. With about 95 Junior Achievement offices around the country, the El Paso branch is the only one in Texas.

The top two qualifiers of El Paso’s October stock market competition will advance to the national competition in June 2027. The location has not been announced.

Advancing to nationals

Last year’s El Paso qualifiers, Chapin High School, advanced to the national competition at Boston University. The team won the Enduring Excellence Award, which recognizes “outstanding results through holding onto their investments without selling frequently or making emotional decisions based on short-term market fluctuations.”

In 2024, the top two local qualifiers that advanced to nationals were Pebble Hills High School and Jefferson Silva High School.

J. Miguel Bolaños teaches securities and investments classes at Pebble Hills’ magnet program, the Sparta Business Academy. As the team coordinator for the past three years, he’s seen the positive impact on his students.

“We were looking for a way to build in some real-world experience for our students, and we started partnering with Junior Achievement,” he said.

The Junior Achievement curriculum does a good job of preparing students, Bolaños said, with one obvious exception: At the competition, teachers are sidelined and students must perform in the chaos of a live stock market floor.

“I try to prepare them as much as we can for what that day’s going to look like,” he said. “By that point, they’ll have done different assignments and projects related to stocks. But it’s one thing to hear me say it, and it’s another to see the simulation the day of.”

Three students from this year’s Sparta Business Academy shared their thoughts on the upcoming competition. All agreed that the financial literacy classes, combined with the energy of trading on a live floor, have them considering careers related to corporate America and Wall Street.

“I only had accounting my junior year, and I was leaning more towards a job in accounting. But now starting this class, I’m starting to enjoy how stocks and investments work, so I’m looking into maybe a job in finance,” said Angelie Rose Reza, a 17-year-old senior at Pebble Hills.

Samantha Ramirez, a 17-year-old senior, said the rush of outperforming other teams was a big draw for her to join the competition.

“I’m a very competitive person. I’m in sports, so being able to compete against people, it gets my adrenaline going,” Ramirez said.

She’s unsure if a job in finance is her priority.

“This would be a great learning opportunity to understand if I want to do it in the future or not,” said Ramirez, who is considering a career in the legal field.

For 17-year-old senior Donovan Andrade Leon, who is considering a career in business administration economics, the Stock Market Challenge will be helpful in developing relationships with others interested in joining the finance industry.

“It will be an experience of making connections, making those bonds, networking and seeing how nice it feels to be together for business,” he said. “Business doesn’t take one person; it takes the whole world.”

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El Paso students to hone skills in Junior Achievement stock market challenge