National Competition Showcases Students' Financial Analysis and Writing Skills

New York, NY, January 17, 2008 – Fifth grader Caroline Hersh from Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Morristown, N.J.; David Cole from Osceola Academic Center of Excellence in Osceola, Ark.; and Sean O'Donnell from Faith Christian Academy in McKinney, Texas are winners of the fall 2007 national "InvestWrite" student essay competition, the Foundation for Investor Education (FIE) announced today.

The winning essays were chosen through rigorous judging from among 1,422 classrooms nationwide. Judging criteria included student understanding of the subject matter, analysis of the topic, and writing quality. The fall 2007 InvestWrite competition experienced a record 14,928 student participants, an increase of 34 percent over 2006 levels.

FIE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of investor education across the country, created "InvestWrite" to reinforce students' critical thinking skills and bridge classroom learning in mathematics, social studies, business and economics, with the practical knowledge required for successful saving and investing. The competition is an innovative extension of the award-winning, curriculum-based Stock Market Game™ (SMG) Program, which for three decades has helped students learn the fundamentals of long-term saving and investing and how the capital markets work.

"Teachers continually tell us that the essays help their students apply classroom lessons to real world scenarios," said Donna C. Peterman, Foundation chair and chief communications officer for PNC Financial Services Group. "Together, we are helping students learn the financial principals that will help them compete in the global economy, and pursue personal savings goals – from saving for college, buying their first home, starting a business, or managing their 401 (k)."

INVESTWRITE WINNER PROFILES:
Elementary Division (Grades 4-5): Caroline Hersh competed against 1,208 other entries nationwide. Participants compared two popular clothing companies to determine the better investment. Her essay entitled Buy or Not to Buy…That is the Question!, weighs the investment merits of Ann Taylor versus Abercrombie and Fitch. In her research on the two stocks, Hersh determines that "monitoring the trading behaviors of executives is very useful because if the insiders of the company are selling their shares, the general assumption is that the executives have lost short-term confidence in their company." Recently top executives at Abercrombie and Fitch "sold more than 50 percent of their individual shares" while Ann Taylor insiders were buying stock.

Middle School Division (Grades 6-8): David Cole's essay was chosen from among 1,988 entries. Students were asked to select two mutual funds for a college savings plan.
Students wrote a review of the two funds as if they were reviewing two movies. In his engaging essay titled Funds for the Future, Cole reasons "I have to acquire as much growth of my capital investment as possible for my future college savings. I always get the best popcorn, soda and candy combo deal when thinking about my reviews, and I intend to get the best return on my investments as the story of my life plays out." His selection of Washington Mutual Investors Fund and The Growth Fund of America "offer diversification and continuous management in their offerings" as well as dividend reinvestment, "which is a must for this double feature."

High School Division (Grades 9-12): Sean O'Donnell's essay was chosen from among 3,905 high school entries nationwide. Each student was confronted with the challenge of investing $10,000 before embarking on a 40-year space mission. O'Donnell's essay titled Can You Imagine cleverly outlines his rationale for investing in the "Puppies of the Dow", the five Dow companies with the lowest stock price selected from the 10 companies with the highest dividend yield. He explains, "I choose this strategy because I like the 15 percent return that it has produced over the past 15 years. During the same period, the return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 13 percent, the S&P 500 was 12 percent, Fidelity's Magellan was 10.8 percent, and Vanguard's Index 500 was 11.9 percent."

Teachers nationwide performed the first round of judging for the 7,101 essays written. Financial professionals volunteer as judges and choose the winners from the essays submitted by the teachers. The first-place winners in each grade division will receive a laptop computer and a trip to either Disney World or New York City with their parents. They will also advance to compete against the winners of the spring 2008 competition for the InvestWrite National Grand Championship in June 2008.

The Foundation for Investor Education
The Foundation for Investor Education, an affiliate of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, is a charitable, educational not-for-profit (501-c-3) organization dedicated to advocating investor education in the U.S. SIFMA brings together the shared interests of more than 650 securities firms, banks and asset managers. SIFMA's mission is to promote policies and practices that work to expand and perfect markets, foster the development of new products and services and create efficiencies for member firms, while preserving and enhancing the public's trust and confidence in the markets and the industry. SIFMA works to represent its members' interests locally and globally. It has offices in New York, Washington D.C., and London and its associated firm, the Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, is based in Hong Kong. For more information about the Stock Market Game visit http://www.stockmarketgame.org.