Financial crisis hits the nation’s 13-year old traders

The WSJ reports on students in the “Stock Market Game,” a school contest where students from grades four through 12 get a hypothetical $100K to invest in the market:

Michael Ashworth slumped by his computer, weary from another rough day in the stock market. All his favorite picks — Domino’s Pizza Inc., Hershey Co. and Gap Inc. — were down.

“I’ll be honest with you,” he confided. “Before all this, I asked my mom to get me stocks for Christmas,” but then “I told her not to do it. I asked for a parakeet instead.”

Fifteen years from now, some one should follow up this year’s new entrants to the market, and the entrants three years from now (when financial life returns to normal–we hope). Does witnessing a crash early on shape your financial behavior for life?