Sussex Tech team 2nd in business contest

SPARTA — One of Sussex County Technical School's teams finished second in the Ithaca School of Business Stock Market Competition in March, entitling them to $3,000 in prize money.

The team was comprised of Joseph Mitchell, Keith Rupp, and Justin Cherena. They posted a 29.04 percent rate of return in five months, giving the team an overall valuation of $645,187.25

The sixteen students from Sussex Tech broke into groups and began investing $500,000 fictitious dollars. Throughout the competition no more than 20 percent of the team's portfolio balance could be invested in one stock. This forced each team to diversify its stock holdings. Every month, each team had to decide whether or not to maintain its current stock holdings or decide if it wanted to reallocate the money into different stocks. With actual prize money at stake incentified the students to conduct thorough research and take calculated risks. While prize money was only awarded to the top three finishing schools, all the teams involved put forth a maximum effort.

When the Feb. 20 standings were released Sussex Tech had two of the top four investing teams. However, one of those teams saw its profits erode