Stock market game keeps fun in fundraiser

Even when its members “lose” money in the stock market, Chattanooga’s Mizpah Congregation wins.

The city’s Reform Jewish temple is in the eighth of 10 weeks of a fundraising game in which participants make a contribution to be able to watch five stocks rise and fall with the daily fortunes of the stock market.

Mizpah Congregation will reap more than $2,500 from the competition, according to Rabbi Joshua Lief.

“We’re very happy with it,” he said. “Everybody likes the idea of a stock-market game. It’s been a very successful fundraiser.”

Rabbi Lief said Mizpah borrowed the idea from his childhood congregation, Temple Shalom in Wheeling, W.Va., where his father, Dr. Jonathan Lief, conceived it.

“It’s a clever idea,” he said.

Participants pay $20 to purchase one certificate, Rabbi Lief said. That allows them a fictitious $10,000, which is spread among five separate stocks at $2,000 apiece.

The stocks are either chosen by participants from a list of 50 local or national companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange or randomly chosen for them.

The local companies include Chattem, CBL and Unum, while the national companies include the likes of Coca-Cola, Disney and IBM.

“It’s fun for people to pick and choose,” said Rabbi Lief, “but you can’t buy or trade. It literally is more of a sweepstakes, not a stock-market game. Your stock-market choices become a sweepstakes entry.”

Technically, he said, it’s a lottery, so the temple had to get the game approved and licensed by the state.

David DiStefano, a Mizpah member who compiles the weekly standings with an Excel program and e-mails the results to participants, said the approval process “isn’t that big of a deal” but did take a little time.

The actual stock market’s poor results in 2008 have made the game more interesting, participants said.

In fact, said Rabbi Lief, after the results of weeks five and six, even the game’s leader had lost money. He had around $9,800.

“Everyone is in the same boat,” Rabbi Lief said.

Mizpah member Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, said it’s fun to look at the standings each week to see how his individual portfolio compares to those of people in various professions.

He said his portfolio is not in the top third of the 235 certificates but not in the bottom third.

“I’m glad these are fictitious stocks,” he said.

Rabbi Lief said he has purchased a certificate in the annual contest of his childhood congregation for years but has never won.

This year, he said, his portfolio has been in the top 10 most of the contest, but that could change quickly.

Mr. DiStefano said he took some good-natured ribbing when his son Blaise was the contest’s first-week leader, but he since “has plummeted like a rock.”

“It’s been interesting,” he said. “You would expect companies that have done well to continue to grow and companies that have struggled to continue to struggle, but that’s not always true.”

Mr. DiStefano said his standing — he has one certificate for each of his five family members — is “all over the board.”

In the first six weeks of Mizpah’s game, only one person has led more than once.

“Historically, people with randomly circled stocks do as well as people picking themselves,” Rabbi Lief said. “It’s hard to guess. You can’t pick what the stock market will do in 10 weeks. It really is a random game.”

The participant who winds up with the largest portfolio at the end of 10 weeks wins $1,000. There are lesser prizes for second, third and fourth place. The participant who finishes last receives $50, and each weekly winner gets $10.

Rabbi Lief, who will be moving to a Jacksonville congregation in July, said the fundraiser more than covered its nearly $2,000 in prizes and will show a nice profit.

“It’s been great,” he said, “but I think it’ll do even better next year. People will remember this.”

Mr. Dzik agreed.

“It’s just for fun and to support the congregation,” he said. “It’s an incredibly creative idea.”