Stock Market Game Week in Review

The Stock Market Game is a curriculum-based teaching tool that allows students to invest a hypothetical $100,000 online stock portfolio to learn about long-term saving and investing.

It's been another tough week (and not just for Michael Phelps). On Friday morning the Labor Department reported that employers slashed 598,000 more jobs in January, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.6%, its highest level in 34 years. According to many economists, the losses were much worse than expected, putting more pressure on Congress and President Obama's administration to jump start the economy through a stimulus package and a revamped financial bailout plan, both nearing completion.

The labor report also showed that 2.6 million people have been out of work for at least six months, the largest number of long-term unemployed since 1983. Despite the dismal job loss news, stocks rallied Friday, adding 217 points to the Dow. (Don't miss "Markets Rally Ahead of Stimulus Vote.")

One topic that has been in the news frequently as of late is the fate of dividends. Especially during these turbulent financial times, receiving a dividend check is a welcome relief for many investors. For our novices, corporations may pay part of their earnings as dividends to shareholders as a return on their investments. These dividends, which are often declared quarterly, are usually in the form of cash, but they may also be paid as additional shares or scrip (a receipt that represents something of value but has no intrinsic value). Investors may be able to reinvest the cash dividends automatically to buy additional shares if the corporation offers a dividend reinvestment program (DRIP). In terms of The Stock Market Game program, if a team holds a stock in their portfolio paying a dividend during their game session, they will be credited with the dividend payment.