“Cabrera Capital Markets Sponsors Stock Market Game™ For All Illinois Schools”The CEO and Former Stock Market Game Participant Sponsors Students in the Program That Inspired Him to Start His Own Investment Firm
Chicago, November 2009 – As the new school year begins throughout Illinois, teachers are registering their students to participate in The Stock Market Game™ Program and preparing their lesson plans to include a financial education. With the support of funding from Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC schools throughout northern Illinois will again have the opportunity to use the Program in their classrooms. The award-winning Stock Market Game™ is the longest-running stock-trading simulation program for students and meets Illinois state-level teaching standards.
Cabrera Capital’s grant helps make student-team participation in the Stock Market Game™ free for schools throughout Illinois. The impact of the firm’s sponsorship has been felt with increased registration by teachers. During the 2009 spring school semester, through the Cabrera sponsorship, 11,023 students throughout Illinois participated in The Stock Market Game, with 4,432 of those registered attending Chicago schools. In addition to funding materials for the program, sponsorship helps underwrite teacher workshops and an awards ceremony for the top-performing student teams.
Martin Cabrera, Jr., CEO of Cabrera Capital Markets, an investment bank and institutional brokerage firm headquartered in Chicago, participated in the Stock Market Game™ as a high school student and has sponsored the program in Illinois since 2002. Additionally, Cabrera Capital has expanded its sponsorship and increased overall participation in the borough of Bronx, San Antonio, Houston and Pennsylvania.
“The Stock Market Game made such a positive impact on my life that I am honored to be in a position to give back to the program and to students throughout Illinois,” Mr. Cabrera said. “The program provides a creative and engaging experience for students while actively demonstrating the importance of saving and the power of investing. I still use lessons learned from the competition in my investment business on a daily basis.”
“Through this grant, Cabrera Capital Markets is providing the students of Illinois an exciting and interesting way to learn the importance of saving and investing, as well as math and social studies,” said Joanne Dempsey, President and Executive Director of Econ Illinois, the administrators of the program throughout Illinois. “This is a wonderful example of a local business’ commitment to its community creating a positive impact on schools and education throughout Illinois.”
In addition, in 2007, Mr. Cabrera created a special award for the top honor teams in both the elementary level and high school level. The Cabrera Awards recognizes the high school team with the highest portfolio value in the state with a trip to New York City, where they visit the New York Stock Exchange, the offices of Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association, and also get to enjoy other activities in the Big Apple.
In the 4th through 8th grade level competition, the team with the highest portfolio value statewide spends an overnight in Chicago as guests of Cabrera Capital Markets. Past winning students and their teacher have visited the Chicago Board of Trade, the Cabrera corporate offices and the Federal Reserve Bank Money Museum, as well as taking in other sites of interest.
The Stock Market Game™ has served over 10 million American students since its inception in 1977. The program is administered by the Foundation for Investor Education, a nonprofit affiliate of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), dedicated to raising the level of investor education across the country. In Illinois, the program is administered for the Foundation through Econ Illinois, which provides teacher training and participant support for the program.
Cabrera Capital Markets
Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC is a full service broker-dealer headquartered in the heart of Chicago’s financial district. Cabrera is a member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Cabrera is also a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and member of the US Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) program.
Martin Cabrera
Martin Cabrera, Jr. is the CEO of Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC, one of the premier investment banking and institutional brokerage firms. A native Chicagoan, born and raised on the city’s south side, he graduated from Bogan High School. He earned his degree in Finance from Northern Illinois University. Martin studied at the London School of Economics in England, where he traded on the London desk for Merrill Lynch International Ltd.
Mr. Cabrera is a member of the Board of Trustees of Econ Illinois, an organization dedicated to teaching young people the importance of economics in society and creating the business leaders of tomorrow. It was the Council’s “Stock Market Game” that prompted Martin to pursue his investment banking career and set him on the path to success that he follows to this day. For more information on Cabrera Capital Markets, please call (312) 236-8888.
Econ Illinois
Econ Illinois, an affiliate of the Council for Economic Education, is a charitable, educational not-for-profit (501-c-3) organization dedicated to advocating economic and financial literacy education in Illinois schools. More information on Econ Illinois can be found at www.econed-il.org, and information on The Stock Market Game Program can be found at http://www.stockmarketgame.org.