Lafayette School fifth grader Alexander Chatterjee won first place of the Elementary Division Northern Region Fall Stock Market Game.

Chatterjee received his award at the New Jersey North Stock Market Game 2016 Awards Ceremony held on May 24.

The stock market game is an online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students in the world of economics, investing and personal finance.

Starting with a virtual $100,000, students strive to create the best performing portfolio of bonds, common stocks, and mutual funds. They earn interest on cash balances and pay commissions on trades, just as in real life.

“As I began investing, I noticed that Amazon’s stocks were going up every week,” Chatterjee said. “I bought 20 stocks for about $10,000. By the end of the stock market game, they were worth about $13,000 and I made $2,618.96 to be exact. My gain went up by 24.36 percent.

“I also purchased Alibaba’s stocks. Alibaba was my second highest stock and I made $492.83. I was very fortunate that only one of my stock choices decreased in value and that was Bank of America. I lost only 30 cents.”

Chatterjee finished the 10-week game period with a total equity of $105,242.58. He participated in the game through the ACE Program, the Gifted and Talented Program in the school district.

“Earning this award is a great honor and something to inspire me to push my limits,” he said. “I would like to tell the students that tried but didn’t win to keep trying, you might win next time.”