For the past 10 weeks, a dozen area residents have been learning about the stock market the easy way  with fake money.

They participated in the Stock Market Game, sponsored by Douglas County Senior Services. Participants were given $100,000 in fake money and a bit of real information about the stock market. They used a computer program to make simulated trades to see how much money they could make or lose.

Dave Mattern, an A.G. Edwards & Sons financial consultant who helped manage the Stock Market Game, said everyone came out a winner.

“The prize is really the education that you take from the game,” Mattern said.

Mattern and his partner, Matt Neis, said understanding how the stock market works was important, especially during volatile times.

“Investing is an emotional roller coaster for a lot of people,” Neis said. “But you can ease that feeling some if you’re educated about the market.”

Mattern said the game, developed by the Kansas Council on Economic Education, gave people a “hands-on” way to experiment with what they’ve been learning about the stock market.

Members of the game met once a week with Mattern and Neis to hear about financial topics such as profit-to-earnings ratios, bond ratings, selling on margins and principles of long-term financial planning.

“I think people not having enough financial education is a big problem, especially in the corporate world,” Mattern said. “There’s a lot of people who just stick money in their 401(k) and don’t really understand it.

“That can be a problem because we’re not in the go-go years of the late ’90s where everything you bought went up. Now that the market has started to correct itself, we’re starting to see who went swimming without their shorts. The tide has went down, and you can see who had a plan and who didn’t.”

Several of the players said they liked the program, in part, because it let them test stock strategies they normally wouldn’t be willing to try with real money.

“I find it educational and interesting,” Lawrence resident Edward Lunte said. “It lets me get into a lot of areas I haven’t gotten into before.”

Members of the Lawrence group compete against one another but also can see how their investments stack up against other Kansans participating in the program at the same time.

Mattern, though, tells participants not to get too wrapped up in the results. The losers of the contest, he said, actually might walk away the biggest winners.

“If you lose, you probably have learned the very important lesson of volatility better than somebody who won the contest,” Mattern said Tuesday during the last meeting for the Lawrence group.

Game winners will be announced Friday.