A large share of the class's portfolio value is currently held as cash. This is student investment-account cash, not cash on company balance sheets. In this game it earns no interest and does not change with stock prices. It can protect money from a market decline and leave room for future purchases, but it also misses any gains on money left uninvested.

Students begin with $10,000 and receive $500 per simulated month for 48 months. A deposit increases the money contributed; it is not an investment profit. Compare your portfolio value with total contributions to measure dollars gained or lost.

Regular investing creates repeated opportunities to review evidence without requiring a guess about the perfect trading day. You can use recurring allocations, but review them when the business case changes. Consider diversification, available cash, whole-share prices, and the $6 trading fee before placing many small orders. Holding cash can be deliberate; explain the reason and the evidence that would make you invest it.

Classroom observation: Cash represents 69.3% of classroom assets.

Research question: How much of your account is uninvested, why are you holding it, and what published evidence would justify investing the next $500 deposit?