Interim report: Companies in the New York Stock Exchange

Stock Market Project: Companies in the New York Stock Exchange

FIN 150: PERSONAL FINANCE (Spring 2014)
PROJECT: You have been given $100,000 to invest in the Stock Market. 'You will be choosing which real-life stocks to purchase and will track their price changes during the semester.
ASSIGNMENT PART ONE - Due February 2, 2014

AS YOU CHOOSE THE 6 COMPANIES FOR YOUR PROJECT ...
Growth Industries: Two of the companies should come from industries (two separate industries) that you feel sell products/services that are growing in popularity.
Stable Industries: Two of the companies should come from industries (two separate industries) that you feel are not growing rapidly; however, the products/services are always needed.
RISK vs. REWARD: The Stable Industry has less risk of losing a lot of money because these industries do not normally have big changes in the number of people buying and selling their stock. However, this also means it has less potential for high growth and high growth can result in high profits.
Personal Favorites: Two of the companies should be businesses you personally like or are interested in (example: Disney).
For the Growth and Stable industry companies, explain why you believe they are in the growth mode or stable mode. Supplement your personal opinions with research, citing at least one source (magazine, internet article, etc.) for each industry/company.
Decide how many shares of each stock you would buy to add up to a total investment of $95,000-$100,000.
For examDle. if Disnev stock is 440/share and vou buv 1.000 shares: 440 x 1.000 = 440.000.

Look up the stock price for each of your 6 companies on the same two days of every week (for 4 weeks)...
•    Create a graph for each company showing the Closing Price on each of those days. You can use any chart style. If you do not have access to software to make a chart - you can put the data into a table.
•    Take notes on what might have caused any significant change in price...this can come from key word searches on the internet. For example, if you are tracking a cellular phone company - you might read about any announcements they made that week on a new product. This type of announcement may make more people purchase their stock because they feel their value will increase.
•    On some weeks you may not find anything specific about each company. However, keep researching and at a minimum note something of interest written about the industry.

Look up the stock price for each of your 6 companies on the same two days of every week (for 4 additional weeks - you should have 8 total weeks tracked at the end of the project)...
•    Complete your graph for each company showing the Closing Price for all 8 weeks. You can use any chart style or table.
•    For the additional 4 weeks you should continue to take notes on what might have caused any significant change in price...or at a minimum, a news story about the industry in general.

This project is an extension to the stock market project. The Stock Market Project completed paper will be attached as well as the instructions for Part 2 of the assignment. Only Part 2 instructions are required for this assignment and Part 2 rubrics guide. Interim Report Look up the stock price for each of your 6 companies on the same two days of every week (for 4 weeks)... Create a graph for each company showing the Closing Price on each of those days. You can use any chart style. If you do not have access to software to make a chart – you can put the data into a table. Take notes on what might have caused any significant change in price…this can come from key word searches on the internet. For example, if you are tracking a cellular phone company – you might read about any announcements they made that week on a new product. This type of announcement may make more people purchase their stock because they feel their value will increase. On some weeks you may not find anything specific about each company. However, keep researching and at a minimum note something of interest written about the industry.

1. 1.      Growth Mode Industries
   1. a.      Energy Sector

The rapid growth of the energy sector is attributed to the high global demand for energy resources for domestic and industrial use. Oil and natural resources are the most wanted and traded products in the world market, and exporting countries are enjoying stable economies because of the high international demand for oil products and natural gas. The growth of major industrial sectors such as manufacturing and processing ensures that the demand for energy is always high. Another development front that will ensure high growth in the energy sector is new investments in third world countries and increasing demand in emerging economic powers like China and India (Tracy, 2013). At the same time, a growing population will cause an increase in the demand for consumer goods. This means that more energy will be consumed to process and manufacture these goods, as well as transport them to the markets. In North America, for instance, a high demand for consumer goods is behind high consumption rates of diesel in the trucking industry as more and more industrial products are distributed in the market (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2013). In this regard, the high global demand for oil products guarantees long term growth of the energy sector.

1. b.      Technology Sector

Another industry sector that has experienced rapid growth is Information Technology. The growth of the sector is a result of the adoption of technology in almost all sectors of the economy, and the critical role it plays in economic development (Kramer, Jenkins, & Katz, 2007). From record keeping, communication systems, human resources management, to production channels, various technology applications are used to run and monitor the processes involved to perform these functions. In addition, an emerging young college-educated and technology-savvy generation has created a big buzz in technology. Within this group, there is concentrated use of information-technology devices and gadgets like smart phones, tablets, personal computers, as well as services like Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. In business, there has been a big shift from paper work as most functions become automated, such as e-banking and e-commerce.

1. 2.      Stable Mode Industries
   1. a.      Health Care Sector

The stability of the health sector stems from its being a provider of basic services. Harsh economic times can reduce or limit people’s access to healthcare services, especially in developing economies and low-income families. As a result, such people might not use non-emergence medical services, such as regular checkups.  However, people will always need and seek healthcare when the need arises, regardless their economics status.

1. b.      Consumer Durables

This sector provides building materials, which could easily qualify it as a growth-mode industry due to the usually high demand in real estate. However, real estate is highly influenced by changes in the economy, which could lead to value depreciation. This situation was witnessed during the recent economic meltdown, especially in Spain, where real estate property values collapsed when the housing bubble burst (Smyth, Callanan, & Doyle, 2012). Regardless, the demand for raw material in the real sector is steady since individuals must invest in real estate by building or buying homes.

1. 3.      Personal Favorites Industries

My interest in the finance and consumer services sectors is inspired by my desire to be a successful investor. I intend to apply the knowledge and skills I acquire in this course to invest in shares and offer strategic investment advice to others.

Investment Plan ($100, 000)

In investing this amount of money, I will spend a larger portion to buy shares in the growing industry companies (about 50%) and invest the rest in the stable (20%) and personal favorite industries (30%). The reason for investing more in the personal favorites sectors than in the stable industries is because of the potential of making quick returns in the former, unlike the latter where stocks may take longer to move depending on the performance of the real estate sector.