It’s that time of year again—time to quit skiing, start mountain biking and enroll in your classes for next year. Hurray! Whether you’re a sophomore who has to fill out IB application forms, or an incoming freshman searching for the perfect learning experience to initiate your high school career, you will need to know about one of the new and exciting courses that AHS will be offering next year: “Introduction to Investing.”

Chris “Bono” Bonadies, a business teacher and investment guru at AHS who used to be a financial adviser at Wells Fargo Investments, will teach this course.  According to the AHS course of study guide, students in the class will “be studying some of the philosophical underpinnings of American capitalism and markets, investments in all their various forms.” Bonadies, who already teaches a variety of theoretical business classes, is excited to teach a class about something very practical and tangible: making money in the stock market.

“The course really goes through a lot of the basics of what someone who would be going into being a stock broker would learn,” Bonadies said in a recent interview. “Basically, the class is advanced financial planning. We learn how to construct portfolios; we learn how to value stocks; we learn some of the different ways of analyzing and evaluating companies as potential investments; and we learn about other kinds of alternative investments.”

If you take the course, you will also have the opportunity to learn from stockbrokers and investors who live and work in Aspen. Wally Obermeyer, the founder of Obermeyer Asset Management, is scheduled to visit the class and share some of his knowledge about managing wealth. Students will also meet Lawrence Altman, an AHS parent and an experienced and successful investor.  Mr. Altman specializes in trading options “which is a really interesting part of investing, and very specialized,” Bonadies said.

Part of the class will also be devoted to studying mutual funds, ETFs (electronically traded funds) and bonds, which are comparatively safe investments.

“Bonds are a big part of creating a balance to the risk of stocks,” Bonadies said.

You will also be able to compete against fellow students in the class, as well as business students throughout the state, by playing simulated stock market games. Plus, there is a possibility that that you could experience trading with real money. Aspen High School’s Investing Club found an anonymous donor who gave the club $50,000 to invest. (All of the profits, if there are any, go to charity. The losses, thankfully, are ignored.)  Bono said there’s a chance the same could happen for students in “Introduction to Investing.”

Henry Godfrey, who is currently part of the investing club at AHS, said that the concept of a class that has to do entirely with investing interests him greatly.

“I can’t wait to have an investing class,” said Godfrey. “It will provide me with another aspect of business that we don’t learn about in normal business classes.

Bonadies and Godfrey both believe that there is a lot of knowledge to be gained from learning about the stock market.

“It brings a lot of different skills together – math, reading skills, business skills, evaluation skills, analysis,” Bonadies said.  “You’re looking at charts and graphs. It’s a fun practical way to learn about things you learn in other classes but with this class, it’s attached to something tangible.”

If numbers, math and money intimidate you, you can sign up for this class to conquer your fears. Bonadies said you do not need to have taken any prior business classes to be successful in “Introduction to Investing.” Also, keep in mind what the superstar stock investor, Peter Lynch, once said: “Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.”