Instruments

Teach the complete lesson. Emphasize stocks as ownership in a corporation, why companies issue stock, how investors earn returns through capital gains and dividends, and the risks and potential benefits of stock ownership. Reinforce that stock returns are not guaranteed. Note: A lesson demonstration video is available on EconEdLink if you would like to preview the lesson before teaching it.

Teach the complete lesson. Students participate in a simulated stock market to examine how supply and demand determine stock prices. Emphasize how expectations about company performance, dividends, economic conditions, and alternative investments affect buying and selling decisions and market prices. Note: A lesson demonstration video is available on EconEdLink if you would like to preview the lesson before teaching it.

Teach the complete lesson. Students explore bonds as debt investments; principal, maturity, coupons, and bond types; and the relationship between credit risk and return. Emphasize how credit ratings help investors evaluate default risk and why lower-rated bonds generally offer higher coupon rates. Note: A lesson demonstration video is available on EconEdLink if you would like to preview the lesson before teaching it.

Complete this extension after LEI Lesson 5 (e.g. Essential Lesson 3) and the Understanding Bonds video (e.g. Essential Activity 1). Extend students’ understanding of bonds by introducing yield to maturity, interest-rate sensitivity and duration, and the yield curve. Focus on interpreting relationships and graphs rather than complex calculations.

Teach the complete lesson. Students use an investment-club simulation to explore pooled investing, diversification, professional management, NAV, fees, liquidity, and investment objectives. Emphasize differences between actively managed and index funds and how costs, risk, goals, and performance should inform fund selection. Note: A lesson demonstration video is available on EconEdLink if you would like to preview the lesson before teaching it.

Teach the complete lesson. Students explore buying stocks on margin and selling short, including leverage, collateral, margin calls, and short covering. Emphasize how these strategies can magnify both potential gains and losses and how their usefulness and risks differ in rising and falling markets.

Introduce derivatives and alternative investments, focusing on futures, options, commodities, and REITs. Distinguish calls from puts and hedging from speculation. Emphasize how derivatives can provide leverage and manage risk and how alternatives can provide exposure beyond traditional stocks and bonds.

Show the complete video after LEI Lesson 5 (e.g. Essential Lesson 4). Emphasize how changing market interest rates affect existing bond prices and yields, and reinforce differences among government and corporate bonds, TIPS, and levels of default risk.

Skip introductory instruction covered in LEI Lesson 3. Begin with the stock table and quote activities. Students interpret market terminology and current stock data, then research a company and use the information to recommend whether its stock should be considered for investment.

After LEI Lesson 8, use Activity #7: Webquest from the GameStop resource collection. Have students complete the Share Prices and Reflection questions only; skip the Losses questions. Students calculate gains and losses from long and short positions and explain the risks associated with short selling and short squeezes.