If you’re interested in making money in the stock market but terms like upticks, downturns and PE ratios leave you in the dust, you might want to listen to Ben Levy, a 14-year-old freshman at Benjamin Franklin High School and a financial wunderkind.
A local computer store did, and now the Lakeview teenager is giving free workshops for investors 13 and up.
“In the summer between 7th and 8th grade, I played a game where I started with a million dollars — fake money, of course — which I invested in the stock market. By the end of the year, based on my stock picks, I had $1.4 million,” Ben said.
That 40 percent bump beat the market by a wide margin.
“Over the next year, I saved my money, and this past summer I started investing for real,” he said.
Ben started in July with $1,000, and as of Dec. 1 had grown his account to $1,550, averaging 10 percent a month.
“I use a free app called Robinhood,” said Ben. “It charges no commissions or fees, but you can’t make day trades.” (For the uninitiated, that means no buying and selling of the same stock in a 24-hour period.)
Day trading entails taking advantage of minute shifts in the market, and while it has extreme upsides, it also has enormous risks. Ben’s approach is more conservative: a slow and steady climb.
“I usually hang onto my positions for a week, and sometimes a month,” Ben said. “My stock picks are heavily researched based on past performance, earnings, and even news shifts. I use a website called Finviz, which is a stock screener, providing a whole host of metrics on each traded stock, including its dividends … and I’m a big fan of CNBC, which keeps me abreast of trends.”
For blue chips, Ben trades in and out of stocks like Amazon, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and McDonald’s, following news he hears on those companies. But the teenager never picks stocks based on their analysts. He believes in doing his own research.
“Ben now has a YouTube account, and we were recently in the Microsoft Store in the Lakeside Mall, as Ben wanted to take his stock market profits and buy a new laptop,” said his mom, Catherine. “When I mentioned to the associate in the store that Ben had a great track record, which he chronicled online on YouTube, the store salesman pulled it up immediately. After that, there was a whirlwind of activity.”
Kimberly Ha, community development specialist at Lakeside Mall’s Microsoft Store, soon heard about the young finance whiz. The store offers a variety of short workshops on tech-related subjects, including 3-D art for kids, coding for the popular game Minecraft, and how-tos on Microsoft apps such as PowerPoint and Office.
“Our product adviser Justin Breaux told me all about him, and said he even had workbooks,” said Ha. “After I met Ben, we decided we’d love to have him set up a workshop in our store, giving stock market classes to kids and adults alike.”
The store did a trial run over the Thanksgiving holiday week, when Ben was out of school.
“We were so impressed, we’re bringing him back on a regular schedule in December,” Ha said.
Ben is “super enthusiastic about empowering kids and adults and showing them personal money management habits,” the store’s website notes.
Ben also started an investment club for the store’s employees, coming in before it opens on Sunday and tutoring the team on how to optimize their portfolios.
His dad, Greg Levy, who owns The Educator stores in the New Orleans area, says Ben was always a self-starter.
“Our family has always put a premium on education, but Ben seemed to have a special aptitude for finance, and when he started getting short-term successes he was hooked,” Levy said.
When he’s not playing the market, Ben enjoys soccer on the levee or video games at home. He also loves chess. His favorite subject in school is math.
He wants to expand his YouTube channel, write a third booklet that explains the stock market in simple terms, and teach his mall workshops. But long-term, he sees himself as an entrepreneur.
“I’d like to have my own business, something that is fitting with the marketplace,” he said. “It could be a tech company or maybe even online retail.”
Ben says he has no plans for a career as a stockbroker — he feels much more comfortable risking his own money than someone else’s.
Nevertheless, his dad, Greg, doesn’t hesitate to ask his son for investment recommendations.
“He’s run the gamut of wanting to be a lawyer, a chess player, and even a meteorologist, but I think he’s found his calling,” Levy said.
***************
BEN’S TIPS
Learn about the stock market by reading books that explain it simply (like Ben’s workbooks, “Financial Literacy for Kids” and “Financial Literacy for Adults”) both available on his YouTube Channel
Keep abreast of financial news in newspapers, online and on TV
Do your own research by becoming familiar with websites like Finviz
Look for stocks with high trading volume, where thousands of shares are being traded daily. High volatility moves markets and you can get returns more quickly.
Dedicate at least 30 percent of your portfolio to stocks with dividends. Some stocks earn as much as half a percent return a day.
When you’re ready to dip your toe in the water, download the Robinhood app and try a small diversified group of stocks … some blue chips, and some short term stocks, in order to minimize risk.
****************
For information on Ben’s free one-hour introductory classes at the Microsoft store in Lakeside Mall, go to microsoft.com/Metairie, then click on See the Schedule.
The first class is Dec. 10.
