TL;DR
This guide explains how the Wharton Global High School Investment Competition works, what judges score, and eight ways to build a stronger entry. Unlike most stock contests, returns don't decide the winner: your strategy, research, and fit with the client's goals do. It's written for students in grades 9 to 12 who can form a team of four to six with a teacher advisor. Only 50 teams reach the semifinals, and the top 10 make the Global Finale. If you'd rather build your own business than manage a mock portfolio, Young Founders Lab is worth a look.
Most teams approach the Wharton Investment Competition as a race to generate the highest portfolio returns, focusing on popular stocks and short-term market movements. But judges care more about the quality of your investment strategy and research. How well your decisions align with your client's financial goals matters more than how much money your portfolio makes.
If you are exploring other ways to build your finance and business skills, check out these guides to online investment competitions for high school students and investment competitions for high school students.
How the competition works
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a free, international challenge where teams of four to six students build and manage a virtual portfolio for a client case study. It's run by the Wharton Global Youth Program at the University of Pennsylvania, which also offers the summer programs covered in our guide to the Wharton Global Youth Program. You compete with classmates from your own high school, alongside a teacher advisor.
Each year's case study features a real Wharton School alum, but the financial scenario is written just for the competition. Your team gets a profile describing the client's background, financial circumstances, and long-term objectives. You then research companies and industries, develop an investment strategy, and use the Wharton Investment Simulator (WInS) to buy and sell approved securities with virtual cash. Your whole team shares one WInS account, and all official materials and submissions run through a platform called SurveyMonkey Apply.
You must also submit four required deliverables: an Official Team Roster, a Trading Notes Analysis, an Investment Policy Statement (IPS), and a Comprehensive Final Report, along with school documentation.
Here are the official dates for the 2026-2027 cycle, which runs about 10 weeks from the first day of trading to the final report:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| August 10 to September 11, 2026 | Advisors register teams (closed at 5:00 p.m. ET on September 11) |
| September 15, 2026 | Case study, trading requirements, and instructions released; WInS practice runs through September 25 |
| September 28, 2026 | Competition begins; first day of trading |
| October 9, 2026 | Official team roster due |
| October 23, 2026 | Trading Notes Analysis due |
| November 6, 2026 | Investment Policy Statement due |
| December 4, 2026 | Final report and school documentation due |
| To be announced | Top 50 semifinalists named; virtual Semifinals |
| April 29 and 30, 2027 | Learning Day and Global Finale in Philadelphia |
How do you enter the Wharton Investment Competition?
You enter through a teacher or educator at your high school, who must register your team, since students can't register themselves or enter as individuals.
Your team needs four to six students from the same high school, with a teacher advisor from that school. The competition is free. Your advisor registers the team and serves as a main point of contact, while a student team leader, who must be at least 16 on the first day of the competition, submits deliverables and receives official updates. One advisor can oversee up to five teams, and there's no limit on how many teams a school can enter. Home-schooled students can also take part, though an all-home-schooled team needs approval from the competition team before registering.
What are judges actually scoring?
Judges evaluate the quality of your strategy, your research, your alignment with the client's objectives, and your ability to communicate your reasoning. Your portfolio's returns don't determine whether you win. Wharton's own competition FAQ says your WInS standings have little to do with the final outcome.
This distinction changes how you should approach every trading decision. A portfolio that earns a strong return through speculative bets may be less convincing than one that performs poorly in a difficult market but follows a well-researched, client-focused strategy.
How to win the Wharton Investment Competition: 8 things that decide it
1. Read the client brief carefully and build everything around it
Start by understanding your client's financial goals before researching individual stocks. Identify the client's investment horizon, risk tolerance, financial priorities, and any constraints stated in the case study. Turn these details into a short list of objectives that will guide your team's decisions throughout the competition.
For example, a client prioritizing long-term financial security needs a different strategy from one seeking aggressive growth. Your investment choices should reflect that difference rather than simply follow whichever companies are popular.
2. Treat your Investment Policy Statement as the backbone of your strategy
Use your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) to set the rules your team will follow. It should explain your client's objectives, risk tolerance, investment approach, and the reasoning behind your portfolio's intended allocation. Refer to it whenever you consider buying, selling, or changing a position.
The IPS should not be a document you complete once and forget. If your team proposes a trade, ask whether it supports the strategy you have written down. If it does not, identify the reason before going ahead.
3. Meet every trading requirement on time
Check the official trading requirements as soon as your team receives them on SurveyMonkey Apply. The rules say teams must meet the required trading activity and portfolio management guidelines throughout the competition, and missing a requirement can put your eligibility at risk, no matter how strong your research or final report might be.
Past cycles have tied eligibility to placing a first trade by a set deadline. The 2026-2027 competition has its own published requirements, so follow the current instructions rather than relying on an older article or another team's schedule.
4. Document the reasoning behind every trade
Record why you make each investment decision when you make it, not weeks later. Keep a shared trading log that lists the security, the date, the supporting research, its expected role in your portfolio, and the risks you considered.
Suppose you buy shares in a company because you expect its industry to grow. Record the evidence behind that expectation and explain why the company fits your client's objectives. If you later sell the position, note what changed and whether the decision followed your original strategy. These notes will make your required Trading Notes Analysis and final report far easier to prepare.
5. Divide responsibilities across your team
Give every teammate a defined responsibility and set a routine for making decisions together. One student might focus on company fundamentals, another on industry and economic research, another on portfolio allocation and risk, and another on documentation and report coordination.
These roles should support collaboration, not create separate projects that never come together. Schedule regular meetings to compare findings, challenge assumptions, and agree on trades. Every member should understand the overall strategy well enough to explain it, since all team members must take part in the Semifinal and Global Finale presentations.
6. Research real holdings instead of choosing familiar names
Select investments because the evidence supports them, not because you recognize the company. Examine annual reports, company announcements, financial statements, credible business news, industry trends, and relevant valuation measures. Consider profitability, debt, competitive advantages, growth prospects, and the risks that could undermine your expectations.
You can use frameworks such as SWOT analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Compare potential holdings rather than assuming that a famous technology company or a fast-growing stock automatically belongs in your portfolio. Your research should explain both why an investment could work and what might go wrong.
7. Write the final report for someone who was not there
Make your final report understandable to a judge who has never attended your meetings or followed your trades. Explain the client's needs, your strategy, the evidence behind important holdings, your approach to diversification and risk, and how your decisions developed over the competition.
Use a clear structure, specific examples, and credible citations. Avoid filling pages with stock descriptions that do not explain why a holding matters to your strategy. Your report should tell a clear story: what you set out to achieve, how you tried to achieve it, and what your decisions reveal about your understanding of the client.
8. Resist the urge to panic-trade when your portfolio falls
Do not abandon your strategy just because your portfolio temporarily loses value. First, find out what caused the decline, whether your original investment thesis still holds, and whether the change creates a meaningful risk for your client.
A market downturn is not automatically a reason to sell, just as a sudden price increase is not automatically a reason to buy. If the evidence supports a change, document it and explain how the new decision fits your client's objectives. If nothing fundamental has changed, staying disciplined may be easier to defend than chasing a quick recovery.
What loses team points?
The most common strategic mistakes are chasing returns, making undocumented decisions, drifting away from the client's goals, and leaving the final report until the last few days.
Some mistakes go beyond lost points and can get your team disqualified. The official rules ban paid advisors, education consultants, and non-Wharton courses that claim to teach the competition. Teams also can't contact the competition client, and a team that drops below four members or goes above six is disqualified. You can use AI tools like ChatGPT for brainstorming, but any AI-generated material in your report must be cited, and you can't submit it as your own work.
Your simulator portfolio is temporary, but the skills you build don't have to be. If you want to take your research and analysis further, business plan competitions for teens let you practice turning them into a practical business proposal.
Frequently asked questions: the Wharton Investment Competition for high school students
1. Does the Wharton Investment Competition cost anything?
No, the competition is free, with no registration fee. If your team reaches the Global Finale in Philadelphia, though, Wharton does not cover travel, lodging, or meals. Teams that can't afford the trip can choose to take part in the Global Finale virtually instead.
2. What is an Investment Policy Statement?
An Investment Policy Statement is a document that defines your client's financial objectives, risk tolerance, and investment strategy. It acts as a reference point for your portfolio decisions and helps you show that your choices follow a consistent, client-focused approach. It's also one of the two documents the rules say are used to select the 50 semifinalists.
3. Can international students compete?
Yes. The competition is open to eligible high school teams around the world, and the 2026 Global Finale included teams from Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You still need a qualifying team at your own school, registered by a teacher from that school. If you advance to the Global Finale, you can attend in person or virtually, but Wharton does not provide travel funding or sponsor visa applications.
4. What do winners actually get?
There's no cash prize. Every student on a team that completes the required deliverables gets a digital participation badge, and semifinalists and finalists receive a certificate. Each student on the top 10 teams gets a waived fee for Wharton's online Understanding Your Money course, while students on the nine finalist teams below the champion get 50% off one of several Wharton Global Youth online summer programs. Each Global Champion student gets a free spot in one of those summer programs, and the champion's school can fast-track one team to the next year's Semifinals.
5. Who won the Wharton Investment Competition in 2026?
FigCapital from Stuyvesant High School in New York City won the 2026 Global Finale. HHA Investments from Colégio Marista de Brasília in Brazil placed second, and Riverhawk Traders from Farmington High School in Connecticut placed third. The 11 finalist teams presented their strategies to a panel of investment industry leaders at Wharton.
6. Is the Wharton Investment Competition prestigious?
Yes, it's one of the best-known investment challenges for high school students. It's run by the Wharton School, draws thousands of teams from around the world, and only 50 teams advance to the Semifinals. If you want to compare it with other options, see our list of finance competitions for high school students.
Want to put your research and analysis into something that's yours, not a mock portfolio that ends in December with a client someone else picked? The Young Founders Lab Program pairs you with a one-on-one mentor for 12 hours of personalized coaching, with a flexible start date, as you take your own idea to a launched, revenue-generating business. Apply here.