Stock Portfolio 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.

Although this investment class can be considered the most conservative of the three, the low yield of government bonds in the past 10 years does not lend a comparative metric against many other investment opportunities (Jacobs, 2012). The fixed rate of these instruments allows for a guaranteed return, but should only be utilized at a point in an investing cycle when risk is higher than potential income growth. The 25% allocation that is invested in this class is positioned to provide a long term guaranteed investment, with the possible that these lower rates will not rise significantly in the next few years.

“The Benefits of diversification are clear. Portfolio theory has played a crucial role in explaining the relationship between risk and return where more than one investment is held. It also enables us to identify optimal and efficient portfolios.”

As an investor one needs to be immune to the emotions of greed and fear. In a bull market people fall victim to greed. They are afraid that if they don't sell

Our approach is an active security selection with passive asset allocation. We invest heavily in common stocks, but vary our holdings to include companies of all sizes and industry groups. We seek to achieve sufficient diversification by abstaining from investing more than 5% of the total assets in a single security unless it has significant upside potential, and we make an exception for ETFs and index funds as they represent a basket of securities. Our main goal is to identify and invest in common stocks with high potential for both short- and long-term capital appreciation. Our secondary goal is to invest in common stocks with steady income. When potential for rewards are high, we also enter into derivative

Life insurance is meant to provide funds to replace a breadwinner's to protect and support dependents. Chad and Haley are dependents, not income providers. Therefore, the purchase of life insurance is unnecessary and not recommended. The Dumonts should use the money they would spend on policies for the children to increase their own coverage.

The “Stock Market” is a term that actually describes several markets such as the New York Stock Exchange NASDAQ, where the stocks of companies are traded. Shares in a company are sold and the shareholders then become part owners of the company. Offering shares of stock raises money for continued research and development of company products or services.

The stocks I brought were growth stocks, values stocks, and income stock. Investing in growth stock will allow my share within the company to be more profitable, because the companies’ profits are reinvested creating a substantial amount of cash flow within the company. I brought value stock, because there are companies that I believe will be worth investing in for their long-term growth. I could diversify between different companies ranging from most popular to unpopular. Finally yet importantly income stock, which will gradually grow during my time horizon to offset inflations within my stocks. Purchasing these three types of stocks will allow me to split up my initial $100,000 fund into the industries I am going to invest in.

For the month of December, I was given an assignment consisting of $100,000 and four stocks to invest in. My four stocks were The Ralph Lauren Corp., Visa Inc., Master card Inc. and The Chevron Corp. As stated I was given a month to record my data and I ended up with a total capital gain of $5,518.36 for the one month period for my investments. I have to thank you Mr. Acker, this project was not difficult, but it did confuse me. Receiving this assignment scared me in a way, because I didn’t know what I was getting into. The finance world is scary and tricky, one minute the market is doing good and other days it would be low. While calculating my capital gains or losses I thought I would lose a larger

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.

Over the past semester in Economics I have invested in and monitored the stock market. I learned how investing in certain companies can be risky and proper research about the companies are detrimental before buying stocks. Three stocks that have influenced most of my financial earnings and losses include Twitter, Amazon, and Pepsi.

From September 3rd, 2015 to October 28th, 2015, our group was given the opportunity to manage an investment portfolio, with the goal of maximizing the value of the portfolio through acquiring, holding, and selling stock. The beginning cash balance of the portfolio was $100,000, and our group had the ability to make up to 500 trades. During this time period, our group made 20 stock purchases and sold stock twice. At the close of business on October 28, 2015, the value of our group’s portfolio increased from $100,000 to $106,785.33, yielding a return of  6.78% (((106785.33/100,000)-1) x 100)). In comparison to the S&P 500 returned at 7.16% and the Dow Jones having a return of 8.65% (Yahoo).

According to the CAPM model:R_i=α+βR_m+ε, α represent the abnormal return gained by the portfolio. If the market is efficiency, the α has to be zero.

Equity-fund managers usually use one of three particular styles of stock picking when they make investment decisions for their portfolios. First there is value, where a fund manager uses a value approach search for stocks that are undervalued when compared to other similar companies. Next, there is growth and those funds try to find stocks that are growing faster than their competitors, or the market as a whole. These are often the stocks of well-known established corporations. There is blend where managers buy both kinds of stocks, building a portfolio of both growth and value stocks.