Rapunzl vs. The Stock Market Game: What's Different for Your Classroom

Ask a room full of economics teachers which stock simulator they ran first, and most will give the same answer: The Stock Market Game. The SIFMA Foundation has run it in American classrooms for decades, and plenty of the teachers assigning it today played it themselves as students. Rapunzl's founders are in that group. They met in high school in Chicago and played The Stock Market Game together, which is why this comparison is written with respect rather than a competitor's sneer.

So this is not a takedown. SMG earned its place, and for some schools it is still the right call.

The short version of Rapunzl vs. The Stock Market Game: SMG is a team competition, built around a shared $100,000 hypothetical portfolio and a session calendar. Rapunzl gives each student their own simulated $10,000 portfolio, priced on live Nasdaq data, inside a full personal finance curriculum. Which one fits your room depends on whether you need a competition to run or a course to teach, and the rest of this piece works through that.

First, what The Stock Market Game gets right

Two things, mainly: the team format and the local support network.

The Stock Market Game has decades of classroom history and the SIFMA Foundation behind it. According to SMG's own site, students in grades 4 through 12 work in teams to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds across fall, spring, and year-long sessions. The team model does quiet, valuable work. Three students arguing over whether to sell an airline stock are practicing persuasion, evidence, and compromise, not just finance. Plenty of programs never figure out how to make investing social. SMG solved that long ago.

Then there is the support network. SMG is delivered through state and regional coordinators, often the state's council on economic education, who set registration fees locally (typically per team); in some states a sponsor covers them outright. Add the InvestWrite essay competition that runs alongside the game and the Capitol Hill Challenge, and you have something a school with no budget line for extras can still run. If that describes your school, it is a serious point in SMG's favor. Confirm the current fee and session dates with your state coordinator before deciding anything.

Team portfolio or individual portfolio? The difference that matters most

The biggest practical difference between the two programs is who owns the decision. In The Stock Market Game, a team shares one $100,000 portfolio. In Rapunzl, every student runs a simulated $10,000 portfolio of their own, and it moves on live Nasdaq prices, during the school day, on the same market the news is talking about.

Shared portfolios spread the accountability thin. On a team of four, it is easy for one student to do the research, one to do the arguing, and two to nod along, and the grade at the end says nothing about who did what. Give each student a portfolio and the coasting stops. There is no one else to blame for the airline stock.

The size of the portfolio matters too, and it is easy to underrate. Most high school students are a long way from having $100,000 to invest, and a portfolio that size makes every gain feel abstract. Rapunzl uses a simulated $10,000 portfolio on purpose. It is closer to a number a young person might build toward, so a 4% loss feels like something that could happen to them, not to a hedge fund.

And because that portfolio is priced live, the moment something happens in the world is the moment it happens to the portfolio. Which brings us to a Wednesday.

The same Wednesday, in two classrooms

The Federal Reserve announces a rate decision at 2:00pm Eastern, right in the middle of 7th period Personal Finance.

In a Rapunzl classroom, the teacher pulls up the class portfolios at 2:01. Bank stocks are moving. The students who loaded up on growth names are groaning; the student who kept cash on the sidelines is suddenly insufferable. The teacher asks one question: why did your portfolio move? Every student has a personal stake in the answer. Interest rates stop being a vocabulary term. They become the reason a specific student's simulated portfolio just changed value, sixty seconds ago, in the room.

In a Stock Market Game classroom, that same Wednesday is a team conversation. The shared portfolio belongs to four students, so the reaction is a negotiation: does the group sell, hold, or table it until the next team meeting? That is a lesson in persuasion worth having, and experienced SMG teachers run it well. But no single student can point at the screen and say "that was my call," and the decision tends to land after the bell, once the team has agreed on what to enter.

Multiply that across a semester of earnings reports, jobs numbers, and market swings, and the two classes have learned two different things. One practiced reacting to information, individually and immediately. The other practiced deliberating about it, together. Both are worth something. Only one of them is the skill an investor uses at 2:01.

Where Rapunzl fits

Rapunzl was built around that live, individual connection. Each student manages a simulated $10,000 portfolio of stocks and crypto, priced on live Nasdaq data, so the market they see in class is the one moving on their phones.

The simulator sits inside a standards-aligned curriculum that scales from a 3-week unit up to a 28-week, year-long course, available in English and Spanish, so it works whether you have a short window inside an economics class or a full personal finance course to fill. The Educator Dashboard handles grade export and state standards crosswalks, because a simulator that creates grading work for the teacher has missed the point.

SMG's competition is a powerful motivator, and Rapunzl runs one too: a national scholarship competition from January to late April that is free for students to enter. A recent season drew 50,000+ students from 500+ high schools, and Rapunzl has distributed $300,000+ in scholarships to date. Students in Rapunzl's program average 34% on a financial literacy assessment coming in and 93% after completing it, against a national average of 64%.

Rapunzl vs. The Stock Market Game: side by side

Everything above in one place. Rapunzl does not win every row, and it should not.

An honest verdict

Both beat a textbook chapter on investing. The choice comes down to what you need most.

Choose The Stock Market Game if cost is the binding constraint and your state coordinator has a sponsor, if the team format fits how you run your room, if you teach 4th or 5th grade (Rapunzl starts at 6th), or if what you want is a competition rather than a course. Those are real advantages, not consolation prizes. If the fee is not covered where you are and the budget is truly zero, the best free stock market games for students roundup walks through the other no-cost options.

Choose Rapunzl if the thing you most want students to learn is cause and effect: news arrives, prices move, that student's own portfolio responds, and the next decision is theirs. A portfolio each student owns, priced live, is the difference between studying the market and participating in it, and in Rapunzl it comes inside a full curriculum rather than standing alone as an activity. For how it stacks up against the rest of the field, see the best stock market simulators for high school in 2026.

Some teachers even sequence them, running SMG's team competition one semester and Rapunzl's individual-portfolio course the next. There is no rule that says a classroom gets only one market.

If you are also weighing the Stock-Trak family, there are head-to-heads like this one for HowTheMarketWorks, StockTrak, and PersonalFinanceLab. In practice, SMG and the Stock-Trak family are the two names most teachers end up choosing between.

The question worth asking is simple. When the next big market day lands in the middle of your class period, do you want every student holding a portfolio that just moved, or one team holding a portfolio they will talk about at the next meeting?

Frequently asked questions

Is The Stock Market Game free for teachers? It depends on your state. SMG is delivered through state and regional coordinators, often the council on economic education, who set registration fees locally (typically per team); in some states a sponsor covers that fee for classrooms. Your state coordinator is the only reliable source for the current number.

Does Rapunzl use live market data? Yes. Rapunzl prices every student's simulated portfolio on live Nasdaq data for both stocks and crypto, so portfolios move with the actual market during the school day.

How big are the portfolios in each program? The Stock Market Game gives each team $100,000 in hypothetical money to manage together. Rapunzl gives each student an individual simulated $10,000 portfolio, so every student makes and owns their own decisions.

Does Rapunzl have a competition like SMG's? Yes. Rapunzl runs a national scholarship competition from January through late April each year, free for students to enter. A recent season included 50,000+ students from 500+ high schools.

Can I run The Stock Market Game and Rapunzl in the same year? Yes. One clean sequence is SMG's team session in the fall, then Rapunzl's individual-portfolio course in the spring while the scholarship competition is running. Nothing about either program stops you from using both.

Which program works for middle school? Both, with a gap at the bottom. SMG serves grades 4 through 12, so it is the option for 4th and 5th grade. Rapunzl's curriculum and simulator are built for grades 6 through 12, in English and Spanish.

Want to see what a live, individual portfolio does to 7th period? Watch student portfolios move on live Nasdaq prices during a walkthrough and check the curriculum against what you have to cover this year. Start a free Rapunzl teacher demo account.

By Nate Thomas, School Partnerships Lead at Rapunzl and former classroom teacher.