GoodHeart | 12-y-o Kahleel Hutchinson wins virtual stock market game
Wants to venture into entrepreneurship and stocks in the future
Published:Saturday | March 29, 2025 | 12:05 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
After his teacher introduced him to the Wizdom CRM Virtual Stock Market Game, held in collaboration with the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), Kahleel Hutchinson, a math enthusiast, knew the competition was perfect for him.
In an interview with GoodHeart shortly after the 12-year-old was awarded the top prize by the JSE on Tuesday at their downtown Kingston offices, Hutchinson was on a high. He shared that his love for the stock market began at age five when he first discovered it through YouTube videos.
His teacher also motivated him to enter by mentioning the cash prizes that would be awarded, adding an extra incentive to take part in the competition.
“I’ve always been interested in stocks so I decided to join and learn about it, and that’s how I ended up here. I just wouldn’t stop and then I got $1,000 worth of profit now,” Hutchinson, who is a grade six student at The Avondale Preparatory and Kindergarten School, said.
He went on, “Mathematics is actually my favourite subject in school. From I was young, I was so intrigued in math, because I heard that in high school it’s very complicated and you need to be like a rocket genius to do all of that math, and even Elon Musk, he has to use maths to create everything. So I was just really intrigued in [the subject],” he said.
Now that Hutchinson has been named the winner at the primary level, he is thrilled and eager to continue his investments, including those in Tesla, the popular company owned by Musk, and the American streaming service, Netflix.
“I feel very good, because I really worked hard on it since I had to look at what was going up and down and invest in them manually,” Hutchinson told GoodHeart.
He said the key to his victory was that he would invest in multiples to earn more returns “than the usual”.
PROFIT
While I was doing my investment, what I would do [is that] I would mainly invest in Netflix and Tesla, because I realised that, for Netflix, it’s normally going down a lot. [For example,] it used to be at 1,000. Now it’s at 900. So, back then, I used to sell about two Netflix [stocks] or three Netflix [stocks], since it used to cost a lot, but it really made a bunch of profit for me, which is how I really got to first place,” Hutchinson explained
Today, I started buying Tesla [again], since it’s been going up, so I can earn extra profits, because Netflix [isn’t] really going down anymore,” he said.
When asked why he felt Tesla’s dividends were reducing, he explained that it might be because fewer people wanted to buy Teslas, and perhaps they believed investing in other companies would be a better option.
With the current academic year winding down, he is eagerly awaiting his Primary Exit Profile (PEP) results and hopes that, when they are released, he will be accepted into Campion College.
In the distant future, Hutchinson hopes to become an entrepreneur. He dreams of owning his own business and earning his own money, so he “won’t have to depend on others”.
“I’d like to [invest in]stocks in the future, as well as own a large store like a Nike or a supermarket or a wholesale that can make me passive income as well,” he said.
On a typical school day, he wears several badges, including recognition for being on the principal’s honour roll and a prefect. He also wears a mental ability badge for maintaining an average of 95 per cent and above, along with badges for being the best performer in language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science.
Having lost his father at the age of four, Hutchinson’s mother, Mellisa Ramsay, has been a constant source of support and is extremely proud of his achievements. She was present at the awards ceremony to cheer him on.
“I am extremely elated as a single mom, not by choice, because his dad passed. You know they say raising a boy child is not that easy, but, trust me, he has been making me a very proud mom, not just today but in general. He’s not a child that gives trouble. I always try my best to believe in him and have his back 100 per cent. [While], I still don’t understand the stock exchange market, I know that he does and he has a passion for it, and, if I keep pushing and believing in him, we can move forward,” she said.