| Is this a good recommendation?
I got this at a pre-college course at Columbia. Seems nice, but very vague and general.
The Slock Market course offers a sophisticated introduction to the market mechanisms that
sustain our economy. Students assume the role of money managers in order to gain an
understanding of financial markets as they manage their own portfolio of securities in a stock
markel Simulation game. Students must grapple with concepts normally introduced to MBA
students, including the time-value of money, the capital asset pricing model, the valuation of
stocks, bonds, options and futures, and trading strategies that incorporate these various financial
instruments. The students must then apply these concepts, along with their own intuition, to
develop trading strategies that aim to out-perform the market while minimizing risk.
The class is both time intensive and intellectually demanding. Over a three-week period students
devote over 45 hours to lectures, trading and challenging assignments. The course culminated in
an extensive report and presentation by each group. In this final project participants provided a
detailed account of their trading strategy and a summary of their portfolio's relative performance
and risk, along with the measures of profitability of the individual assets in their portfolio and its
overall vulnerability to economic trends.
In this course, ____ did extremely well -- if I had given out grades he would have received an A. In a group of gifted, engaged and exceptionally well-educated young students, ____ stood
out. He was one of the sharpest and also one of the most enthusiastic. It was a pleasure to have
him in class because he clearly enjoyed the subject, learned a lot and was willing and able to help
his fellow students learn as well. He contributed to class discussion, helped others with their
assignments, and excelled in his own class work. This course required the students to perform at
a college or graduate-school level, and ____ thrived.
For the final project, ____, unlike many students, made his report something more than a
simple record of the ups and downs in his portfolio. He reflected on how and why he had made
his decisions and discussed how his technique changed over the several weeks and what he
might do to improve his strategy. He understood the assignment and exerted the necessary effort
to give a thorough, reflective overview of his thought process. He adeptly integrated the course
concepts into his trading strategy and report, demonstrating a level of comprehension well
beyond his years.
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