Chapter 687
“Even if you sell a stock shortly after buying it, you still have to pay the market levies, transfer fees, and commissions p>
“If you back out, I’ll cover your losses. Is that enough?” Wyatt Wright shot Cedric Miller a sideways glare.
“Who needs your money? Do you think I’m broke p>
Mira Mercer noticed their bickering was starting to draw stares from the other students in the room.
“This is just a practice run. The capital involved is small, so consider it a learning experience,” she intervened smoothly. Pausing for a moment, she added, “Everyone should follow their own instincts. The stocks I picked aren’t guaranteed to win, either p>
She wanted to manage their expectations so they wouldn’t blame her if things went south. Beginners in the stock market were always overly sensitive and had zero tolerance for risk.
“I’ll change mine back. I was the one who picked that stock to begin with,” one of them muttered.
Given Mira’s flawless track record, the group silently agreed that even with her new methodology, her chances of winning were astronomically higher than theirs.
Seeing her portfolio, Harvey Rivers and the other two began tweaking their own strategies. Since they were all competing, having identical portfolios would be flagged as plagiarism. They needed at least one unique stock pick of their own.
After classes wrapped up for the afternoon, Mira and the group gathered in the study hall to continue trading, their eyes glued to the daily candlestick charts.
“You two aren’t even in the competition. Why are you crowding the market goddess?” Harvey teased as he walked in, spotting Elara Finn and Leah Monroe flanking Mira, mirroring her every move on their screens.
Gavin Hayes, the class president, was sitting right next to Elara.
True to form, the class president had pulled together a couple of thousand dollars to invest alongside Elara.
“And you, Mr. President, you didn’t even join the club. What are you doing here? Hurry up and give up your seat p>
“Who made a rule that you can’t sit next to Mira if you aren’t competing? We’re learning here, okay?” Elara fired back defensively.
Defeated, Harvey and the boys had to settle for seats a bit further away from Mira. Whenever they needed guidance, they would lean over to peek at her screen for reference.
Mira understood their anxiety. It was their first time trading with real money, and it was only natural to be cautious—especially for the students who were tight on cash.
Whenever she had a free moment, Mira patiently answered their questions and helped them analyze the market trends.
They were classmates and friends, after all; learning together was a good thing.
In the club’s group chat, everyone was posting screenshots of their portfolios. Mira went through them one by one, paying special attention to the upperclassmen and the heavy hitters in their grade.
Mira noticed that their investment models were also being heavily copied. Just like Harvey and the others were mirroring her, little factions were forming around the top players.
A few students were even using the model assigned by one of the senior members. Curious, Mira decided to adopt that model as well, setting up a separate simulation account to test its effectiveness.
It was all about practice and seeing what worked.
Beneath every screenshot, team members left a flurry of critiques and comments.
Mira’s strategy, along with the portfolios of her copycats-dubbed “The Mercer Methodology”—wasn’t highly regarded by the majority of the club.
But Mira had absolute faith in her portfolio.
She wasn’t relying on any cheat codes from a past life, but she had weathered enough massive financial storms to know what she was doing, Plus, with top-tier mentors like Owen Lance and Ethan Mercer in her corner, failure wasn’t an option.
When they returned to the dorms that night, Elara sent Mira a text: Madison Wright and Piper Bennett are both crying. It looks like they got dumped by their boyfriends.
Leah turned to Mira, utterly perplexed. “Why would they both get dumped at the exact same time p>
“Think about it for a second. Connect the dots p>