Report On The Daily Market Essay

Portfolio management is an important factor that determines the performance of the portfolio. To perform well in the portfolio, it is not only essential to develop personal investment strategies, but analyzing current financial trend is also vital. Stock Trak is an online portfolio simulation that allows students to try out different investment strategies, and also get a hand on experience in what the real market trading conditions are. By managing the portfolio, I have acquired some new knowledge of investment strategies and also become more familiar with the current market by following closely to the financial headlines.

Choosing two profitable stocks amongst a myriad of potential alternatives is a daunting task to say the least. In order to narrow my choices from thousands to two, I examined several aspects of companies I was interested in. Among these were, company overview, alpha and beta ratings, price ratios, price charts, and company headlines. After evaluating this information, I chose Intuit INC (INTU) listed on the NASDAQ and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) listed on the NYSE.

In the beginning, there was no real stock market. However stock exchanges did take place in smaller groups and corporations. This all took place during the 1700's where stocks were already around for a long time before that but it wasn't really popular in the United States. Stocks originally started as auctions where traders called out names of companies and the shares available. There was a auction that took place and the shares went to the highest bidders.

After levering the equity beta, the asset beta of the firms are calculated. As mentioned we think that the three discount brokerages (highlighted in green) should be used as comparables for Ameritrade. The average asset beta of the three firms is 1.386. As a comparison the investment services firms have average asset beta of 0.603 and the one internet company (Mecklermedia) for which enough historical data is

Here we choose VW NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ data as market returns, because it’s value weighted and more reliable. The results show CSC’s equity beta = 2.27, QRG’s equity beta = 1.79.

* Stock Beta: Exhibit 5 shows a detailed measurement of the company’s stock returns in relation to the rest of the market through 5-year historical price and index data. The analysis includes monthly returns of both the NYSE and the S&P 500 index in order to capture a comprehensive view of the market return. In each comparison, the monthly returns of the Target stock and market are plotted on Y-axis and X-axis respectively to get the regression line’s slope or beta. The analysis arrives at an average beta of 0.988 which indicates a similar movement of Target stock’s returns in comparison to the whole market over time.

There are many different ways to save money and there are different things to save for. A savings plan for an immediate want is apparently different than a savings strategy for retirement. One may choose to select stocks, bonds, or mutual funds for a savings strategy, however, my personal choice is to invest in bonds first, then mutual funds.

Reviewing GM's financial information in GM Exhibit 1 and its stock price in GM Exhibit 2, when do you first see signs of GM's impending financial distress?

3. At what price would you recommend that Rosetta Stone shares be sold?Rosetta Stone: Pricing the 2009 IPO

Monday, September 10, 2012, I started Stock-Trak, an online portfolio game. Stock- Trak allowed me to gain hands on experience testing different investment strategies in a risk-free, yet realistic environment. From September 10 to November 16, 2012, I took part in one such simulation by managing an online Stock-Trak portfolio. I was given an initial amount of $100,000 pretend cash with which to invest. All monetary decisions were at my discretion. This paper discusses my trading experience , my portfolio’s performance, the strategies used during the simulation, what I learned in the process, and how I will implement the knowledge gained from the simulation in future investments.

The stock market works by increasing the value of stocks based upon multiple factors. One of the factors is company performance. The better the company is doing the more stocks will increase and vice versa. Another factor is the demand. The more demand the bigger the price and also vice versa. So to maximize the amount of money you get from a stock you need many people buying that stock and having the company do well.

We use the equation ri=(Pt-Pt-1+Dt)/Pt-1 to calculate the monthly return of stock of Charles Schwab Corp, Quick & Reilly Group and Waterhouse Investor Srvcs. Then we have two methods to calculate the Beta of Equity for each company.

On May 17, 1792 24 stock brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement on Wall Street in New York City under a Buttonwood tree. The agreement formed a centralized exchange that eliminated the need for auctioneers. It also set up rules for the trading of public bonds that were used to pay for the American Revolution. In 1817, a formal organization was setup and named the New York Stock Exchange & Board. In 1863 it was renamed the New York Stock Exchange and in 1903 it moved to its present headquarters at 18 Broad Street.

In oligopoly market, each firm has substantial market power with high degree of interdependence. The key for success in a oligopoly market is to gain more market share than the competitors. Increasing the price can lead to loss of market share to the competitors, so in the oligopoly market, if a firm decreases the price, the other firms will always follow, but if a firm increase the price, the other firms will not follow. The demand curve is kinked.

7. Compare your valuation with Smith Barney’s. What assumptions do you have to make to get the terminal value EBITDA multiples used by Smith Barney. Is there any benefit of their method relative to FCF method?