The scary thing is that banks actually sponsor investing games to be taught in schools, encouraging crappy habits like stock picking and trusting your gut and such.

We had a yearly competition like that at school. The "winner" was always someone who put all their money in one penny stock and got lucky.

A better approach is to reward the portfolio with the highest Sharpe ratio, but even that is flawed because it ignores systemic risk and confuses historical volatility with actual risk.

Anyway, these games teach nothing about the essential habits of delaying gratification and living within your means. Those habits are far more likely to make you rich (and keep you rich) than any particular investment strategy.

Couldn't agree more. Kids learn to handle money from their parents behavior, for good or bad. A single letter can't have the same impact that years of example and teaching can.