Download C. Mon. Sept. 30--STOCK MARKET GAME PACKET FALL 2013

Economics Stock Market Challenge
Name: __________________
Rules of the Game:
Each Student:
 Receives $100,000 to invest; you have 5 days to invest the money
 You must have a minimum of $80,000 invested in stocks throughout
the game
 You must own at least 5 stocks at all times
 You cannot invest more than $20,000 in a single stock (that is
gambling not investing)
 You cannot buy a stock with a price below $3 dollars per share
 Each trade costs you $10 in commission fees. Be careful! Excessive
trading is expensive!
Class game ID: _______________ Password: ____________________
1st Stock Market Homework Assignment—due _____________________
(20 points)
1. Invest in at least five stocks.
2. For the one stock that you commit to keeping, complete Stock Check
#1 below. As part of that first section, read at least one current event
article related to your stock and in the “What’s Happening Recently with
My Company” section, discuss at least three specific concrete details you
learn about your company from the article. Give as much detail as
possible—information that is too general is not helpful. The information
learned from the current event article(s) must provide information that
will give clues about where the stock’s price may be headed in the future.
You must staple the current event article(s) to the back of this packet to
get credit.
Stock Check #1
Name of Company:
_____________________________ Ticker Symbol: _________ Date: ________________
Price Paid Per Share: __________
Shares Purchased ____________
Market Capitalization: (Circle one:) Large Cap Mid-Cap Small-Cap
Total Current $ Value of Company: _________________
52 wk Price Range: Lowest Price Over the Last Year: ________________
Market Sector:
(Circle one:) Energy
Technology
Highest Price Over the Last Year: ____________
Financials Health Care Retail Transportation Other ______________
Stock Market Index Levels at start of simulation: DOW:
__________ NASDAQ: ___________
SP500
____________
What’s Happening Recently With My Company: In complete sentences discuss three or more substantial specific concrete details
you learned about your company from one or more Current Event Articles. The information learned should provide specific
information that will help understand how the stock’s price will do in the future. Cut/print out the article(s) and staple it/them to
the back of this packet:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To calculate percentage change
[ (Price Change / Beginning Price) * 100 ] = % Change
Stock Check #2
Date of stock check:
Current Index
DOW:
SP500
Index at start
of simulation
__________
__________
__________
__________
Current Price
of your stock
Original Price Paid
___________
___________
Points Change
____________
____________
Change in Price:
______________
% Change (use formula above)
________
________
% change
_________
Best Performing Stock in your portfolio: ____________________________
Worst Performing stock in your portfolio: _________________________________
What’s Happening Recently With My Company: In complete sentences discuss three or more substantial specific concrete details you
learned about your company from one or more Current Event Articles. The information learned should provide specific information that will help
understand how the stock’s price will do in the future. Cut/print out the article(s) and staple it/them to the back of this packet:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To calculate percentage change
[ (Price Change / Beginning Price) * 100 ] = % Change
Stock Check #3
Current Index
Date of stock check:
Index at start
Points Change
% Change (use formula above)
of simulation
DOW:
SP500
__________
__________
__________
__________
Current Price
of your stock
Original Price Paid
___________
___________
____________
____________
Change in Price:
______________
________
________
% change
_________
Best Performing Stock in your portfolio: ____________________________
Worst Performing stock in your portfolio: _________________________________
What’s Happening Recently With My Company: In complete sentences discuss three or more substantial specific concrete details you
learned about your company from one or more Current Event Articles. The information learned should provide specific information that will help
understand how the stock’s price will do in the future. Cut/print out the article(s) and staple it/them to the back of this packet:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To calculate percentage change
[ (Price Change / Beginning Price) * 100 ] = % Change
Stock Check #4
DOW:
SP500
Date of check:
Current Index
Index at start
of simulation
Points Change
__________
__________
__________
__________
____________
____________
Current Price
of your stock
Original Price Paid
___________
___________
Change in Price:
______________
% Change (use formula above)
________
________
% change
_________
Best Performing Stock in your portfolio: ____________________________
Worst Performing stock in your portfolio: _________________________________
What’s Happening Recently With My Company: In complete sentences discuss three or more substantial specific concrete details you
learned about your company from one or more Current Event Articles. The information learned should provide specific information that will help
understand how the stock’s price will do in the future. Cut/print out the article(s) and staple it/them to the back of this packet:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How to Choose your Stocks
Step#1: Develop an overall portfolio strategy:




How much risk do you want to take?
How many stocks do you want to own?
What sectors do you want to invest in?
Do you plan to invest all of your money?
low
5
medium
10
high
15+
Step #2: Begin your stock research on Yahoo.finance.com to help pick your stocks Yahoo Finance Home Page
You can:

Look up stock symbols

Graph recent stock prices

Compare market capitalizations:
Small Cap $500 million-$2 billion
Mid Cap 2-10 billion
Large Cap > 10 billion
Other sources that you may find valuable for your research include:

MarketWatch: http://www.marketwatch.com/

Wall Street Journal: www.wsj.com

List of SP500 Stocks
(The biggest 500 companies in the USA based on market capitalization)

List of Dow Jones Stocks
(The 30 Stocks in the Dow Jones)

List of Index Funds to invest in (great site to find index funds!)
These index funds trade just like a stock and offer you instant diversification among many companies. You can use these to concentrate your
portfolio in different areas such as:
 market sectors (such as energy, finance, retail, healthcare, technology etc…),
 International stocks (such as China, Japan, Europe, etc…)
 market capitalizations (large cap, mid cap, small cap)
These are very efficient way to instantly diversify your portfolio and attempt to concentrate on sectors rather than picking the best company in a
particular sector. Sample index fund symbols are:
SPY = SP500 index
XLK = technology index
MDY = Midcap 400 index
GLD = Gold Index
XLF = financial index
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/newinvestors/a/040901a.htm (4 things to look for in an investment)
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/research/a/researchinvest.htm (Investment Research 101)
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/newinvestors/a/011503a.htm (Finding investment ideas for your portfolio)
http://www.korpritzombie.com/ (Introduction to stock investing)
http://www.thestuartlangridgeletter.com/stock-market-for-beginners.html (stock market for beginners)
EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS (ETFs)
An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or
bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day. ETFs may be
attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features.
Most ETFs are index funds that hold securities and attempt to replicate the performance of a stock market index. An index fund seeks to track the
performance of an index by holding in its portfolio either the contents of the index or a representative sample of the securities in the index. The first
ETF, SPDR Trust, was listed in 1993 with an underlying portfolio designed to replicate the performance of the S&P 500 Index.
Examples:
DIA
SPY
VV
XLK
Dow Jones Index
SPDR Trust Series S&P 500 Index
Vanguard Large Cap ETF
Select Sector SPDR Fund--Technology
Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) are investment vehicles that track the performance of an underlying commodity index based on a single
commodity. ETCs trade just like shares, are simple and efficient and provide exposure to an ever-increasing range of commodities and commodity
indices, including energy, metals, and agriculture.
Examples:
USO
GLD
United States Oil Fund
SPDR Gold Trust