From Twinkies to trading: Essay winner makes $1.5 million trade

Aug 19, 2013

Lots of area kids went to New York City with their parents during summer vacation. But none of them probably made a million dollar trade on Wall Street.

That’s one of several stories Carly O’Connell can tell when she starts junior high this year.

O’Connell, who is entering the seventh grade, took a three day trip to the Big Apple this summer after winning the InvestWrite essay competition sponsored by the SIFMA Foundation.

As an Old Hammondtown School student, O’Connell participated in the foundation’s Stock Market Game with classmates last year. The competition was an extension of the game.

Carly’s winning essay, “Ring Ding, Anyone?,” discussed the fate of the Twinkie. It won her first place in Massachusetts and in the nation for her age group for the spring semester.

In June, O’Connell, her sister Serena, and her mother Laura Mirabito, flew to New York for a whirlwind trip.

The other winners, two from high school and one from middle school, got the royal treatment with a trip to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

“When I first won it, I didn’t know it was so hard to get on the New York Stock Exchange floor,” said Carly. “No one could go near it and we were on it.”

During the tour, both she and her sister got to make a large trade. When a trader gave the signal, Carly pushed a button that moved $1.5 million of stock for American Eagle. Serena, a fifth grader, traded $1.6 million of Disney stock.

While at the stock exchange, the winners also got interviewed by CNBC reporter Kelley Holland (the article opens with a quote from Carly) and presented speeches on their essays at a SIFMA conference.

Then the group went to the gold vault of the Federal Reserve 80 feet underground.

“It was so cool because if anything ever happened, they said this could supply New York for two weeks,” said Carly.

The winners and their families also visited the World Trade Center Monument.

When not with SIFMA, Carly and her family blitzed the town. From the Broadway show “Wicked” to the Empire State Building, 5th Avenue to Little Italy, the three didn’t stop until they were on the plane home.

“We were going and we were going to see it all. Hurry up and have fun!” said Mirabito.

For Carly, the trip was an opportunity of a lifetime, and she sees a future in finance. “Everyone is moving in New York,” she said. “I want to live in New York.”