How many S&P 500 companies are in your area and how has their stock price performed recently? 

I wanted to share with you an interactive stock market map developed by Gene Natali and the folks at Troutwood that answers these questions (and many more too!)

Gene was kind enough late on a Thursday night to share his perspectives on the tool. I will first point out two of the use cases that I found valuable (and there are certainly countless others!): 

1. Click on the magnifying glass (top left margin) for the filter which allows you to create lists of top performers selecting an index (this one is ALL) and performance period (3 years below). Whatever you select here for index (S&P 500, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, Russell 3000, Nasdaq and Dow 30) and APPLY will filter the map so only the companies in the index appear too. Interesting to see GameStop as one of the top 5 performing even after a steep sell-off: 

2. What companies are near you? One way to get students interested in the stock market is for them to see companies listed on stock exchanges that are in their state or their city where they might even know someone working there. The map makes it easy to hone in and find companies in your area. Once you click on a company you get information about them too: 

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Gene shares answers to questions you might have as you explore this interactive: 

Why did we build a map? 

 There were two reasons.  In hundreds of unique HS and college classrooms I asked the same two questions, and very few students were able to answer either  (less than 1%):

(1) “What is the s&p 500?” 

(2) “Do you have a Roth IRA?” 

I learned the 3 top reasons that students didn’t have a Roth IRA were, fear, trust, lack of confidence, but interestingly a majority of the students had jobs.  With google maps being actively used at nearly ever grade level, we thought that both students and teachers would be comfortable teaching within a map framework + maps aren’t scary, and maybe the Troutwood map could help to reduce the fear commonly associated with investing. 

The three founding principles of the Map:

1. A company is more than its CUSIP.  It has a story, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and neighbors have jobs at these companies.  Jobs that are important to them.
2. Investing (correctly) is a long-term relationship.
3. Pension funds aren’t coming back in scale, and it’s never been more important for students to know “this stuff,” BECAUSE, they are now responsible for their financial future and well-being.
   

What's the universe of companies included in the map? 

Currently comprise of 3,600 publicly traded companies with ALL of the companies that comprise the S&P 500, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, Russell 3000, Nasdaq and Dow 30.  WE have begun to enter MSCI companies and will soon be showing over 5,000 companies.

What are the top 3 features? 

1. Sector Select (bottom right hand corner; default is all sectors selected; unselect by clicking on it)
1. For example, this is Year to date performance for the energy sector:

2. This is YTD performance for the technology sector:
3. 

2. The fun Facts
1. Over 3,000 company specific fun facts (hoverable) are now on the map.
2. Career/Internship explore: Apple is shown below.   I have been using Duolingo (which is not in the S&P 500 but growing fast and widely followed) a lot lately, and students have a lot of fun exploring current career openings at Duolingo and learning about the company.

My personal favorite use case:

Selecting “S&P 500”, filtering to “YTD performance” and seeing the best and worst performers.

My top Two teaching use cases:

1. Guess the S&P 500 Companies.  My record in a HS classroom is 18 in a row.  The students start cheering each time a guess is in the index. 

   How to execute this: a)  Choose just the “S&P 500” from the search icon. b) Then quickly sort by market cap from smallest to largest and select “apply”. c) From there the teacher just types in the company name after it is guessed by a student. 

2. Teaching about the economy using “consumer discretionary” versus “consumer staples” companies.  One is very red, and one is far less red YTD.  One sells something “we need” the other sells something “we want.”

Enjoy! 

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We used the stock market map at FinViz to create an Activity: What's the S&P 500? to bring the concept of index funds to students. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.