Bullish enrollment: Stock market schools created to train small investors

Soon 11 Polish towns will have their own stock market schools. The program will be prepared in accordance with local academic centers and investment institutions. "Among students taking part in our schools we find people of different ages. The oldest one was 75," says director Hanna Linde from the information and promotion office of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). "The teachers are both academic specialists and practical workers, because their opinion differs a little bit in many cases," says Wojciech Kolenda from CDM Pekao S.A. Enrollment in the course costs zl. 200 and lasts 14 hours (over three successive weekends). So far 1,000 people have graduated from the course and by the end of this year this number is predicted to double. "Small investors are very important to the stock market as they influence changes in the stock prices and make them more reliable," said WSE president Wieslaw Rozlucki. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 26) M.M.