Investment — it’s not exactly the most common hobby for high school students. But for students searching for a community just as passionate about finance as they are, the Los Altos Investment Bowl aims to create a space where students can find exactly that.

Organized by junior Kaden Ma, the Bowl was held at the Los Altos Community Center on February 24. Though it was designed to be a local event, it attracted students from various other Bay Area schools including Blach Intermediate School, Bullis Charter School, Crystal Springs Uplands School, Egan Junior High, Monta Vista High School, Mountain View High School and Palo Alto High School.

Kaden discovered a passion for investing in middle school after his parents opened a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) account for him. Previously, he had only ever gotten to trade with stock simulations — now, he invested with real money. To further his interest, Kaden took college classes and summer programs on investing and macroeconomics.

“When I started trading with McDonalds and Disney, it felt like I was really using money and building wealth,” Kaden said. “It was very different from a stock simulation.”

In a world that is, according to Kaden, becoming increasingly less affordable, understanding investment and financial literacy is more important than ever. He wanted to ensure that students invest responsibly with a proper understanding of finances.

“Understanding money is important,” Investment Bowl tech lead and senior Vir Shah said. “Getting even just surface-level knowledge can help people have more economic agency.”

With his team, Kaden worked to build the Investment Bowl, a competition catered toward beginner investors.

“[The Investment Bowl’s] hope is that students who walk in, not even knowing what the word ‘investing’ means, can walk out knowing how to create a fully customized portfolio,” Kaden said. “Bringing all of these resources together — industry experts, parents — can show students that it’s worth learning about investing.”

In teams of three, students learned the fundamentals of investing at the event and were given a case study and a list of stocks. Their goal? To build an investment portfolio and pitch it to the judges in just a few hours. The judges then awarded winners for nine categories, including Best Pitch and Most Innovative Portfolio.

“It was really cool to connect with others who share a passion for investing and finances,” junior Simon Giertl said. “The event created a community of like-minded individuals eager to learn about the investing field.”

The bowl wasn’t easy to organize, but the Investment Bowl team of ten worked hard behind the scenes to ensure it would succeed.

Vir, who picked up an interest in finance after discovering online investing simulator Investopedia, led his tech team of three in creating the website for the Investment Bowl.

Creating the platform was a demanding and extensive process, with tedious software bugs constantly throwing new obstacles in the tech team’s direction. But a shared determination to tackle challenges head-on and eagerness to try things from a new perspective ultimately paved the way for their success.

“I’m very impressed with how Kaden was able to pull everything together,” Vir said. “I think if he continues down this path, he’s going to have a much larger event next year with the same level of success.”

Looking ahead, Kaden is excited to bring back the Investment Bowl next year. Building on the success of its first run and the positive response it received, he’s aiming to expand its reach and impact.

“It felt like I was looking at the next generation of [start-up] founders,” Investment Bowl judge May Xu said. “It was such a joy to see the students tackle this project.”