The Importance Of Investment In The Stock Market Game

Competition in the oil industry is separated by about 10 cents here in the US. The difference between ARCCO, Shell, Mobil, and Chevron, is between 1 and 10 cents. Oil companies don’t compete with each other. With gas prices constantly fluctuating towards the $3 mark, there is little room to raise prices. Consumers will not pay 25 cents more for a gallon of gas. Although Chevron Texaco and ExxonMobil make have a slight difference in price at the pump, the will not try to do anything to rock the boat.

For my stock game I invested into seven different stocks. The seven stocks I invested in were Microsoft, Boeing, Cisco Systems, the Clorox Company, 3M, Wal-Mart, and US oil. The reason I invested into these stocks was that their value was dropping or it was low so i was trying to make big gains thinking the stock prices would go up a lot. That didn't seem to be the case because i lost almost $2000. The stock that hurt me the most was my US oil stock. I bought 500 shares of it and the stock went down 23.23% so i lost a total of $1,720 on it. When i bought it i had a feeling that the price of oil was going to go up but it did the opposite and went down. Another stock that i lost money off of was Cisco systems. The stock went down 6.53% since i bought it causing me to

Their ability to map the contours of a market, and then maximize profit given that structure, is just as important as understanding demand, production, and costs (JWI518 W5 L2). Oil and gas prices fluctuate on a minute by minute basis, taking a look at the historical price range is the first place you should look. Many factors determine the price of oil, but it really all comes down to supply and demand. Demand typically does not fluctuate too much (except in the case of recession), but supply shocks can occur for a number of reasons. When OPEC meets to determine oil supply for the coming months, the price of oil can fluctuate wildly. Day-to-day fluctuations should not influence investment decisions in a particular energy company, but long-term trends should be followed more closely (OPEC, 2014).

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.

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is now focusing on the expansion of its superstores in to the Northeast and, Western United States, Florida, and urban markets. Lowe’s is currently undergoing a five year two billion dollar expansion plan. This expansion plan is combined with the merger and re-merchandizing of Eagle Hardware & Garden, Inc. In 1999, Lowe’s transformed forty-one Eagle Hardware & Garden stores into Lowe’s stores. Most of these stores were located in the Western United States. Some might say that this aggressive expansion plan that Lowe’s is undertaking, might be overdoing it. That is nonsense; Lowe’s and its largest competitor Home Depot,

"They have an excellent management team, an excellent strategy. They communicate well with shareholders. They hold themselves to a high degree of transparency. There are other company-specific things that they do well. They have very strong margins, returns and they seem very disciplined at maintaining those margins and returns. Generally speaking that should make for a good investment."

From the recent case data, ExxonMobil has not acted irresponsibility in pricing its gasoline products. Outside of the grocery industry, I have not heard of any business segments surviving on less than a 5% profit margin. In reading that ExxonMobil reported only a net profit of 8.5%3, it is difficult to state that the firm over priced its products to reap abnormal profits. Although Mr. Lee Raymond’s $400 million retirement seems grossly out of proportion in utilitarian terms, adding these funds back into the firm’s bottom line would not change the profit results. With profit margins of less than 10%, it is unlikely that ExxonMobil would be able to keep the price of gasoline fixed if sweet crude oil were to increase from $80 per barrel to $88. This 10% increase in raw material cost would have to be passed through to the customer in the form of higher prices for the firm to survive.

They also have the highest earnings per share at $4.97 and this help stimulate the company’s growth because more people will want to invest in the company. They have the highest debt to equity ratio at 325% and this means they are the riskiest investment out of the three because they borrow

Toward the beginning of the stock market game, I honestly did not know what I was doing, but I managed to remain in the Top 10 ranks, which made me feel like I was doing something right or correct. However, after finding out how the stock market actually worked, I began testing out some strategies such as short-selling and covering, but to my dismay, I wasn’t very good at it. I invested in random stocks that I “thought” would be successful and didn’t think much of it, until I went for it. With all the penalties in mind, I tried my best to keep my account updated, so that it wouldn’t go back too far behind, but the more that I tried fixing my account, the worse I found myself.

3. My third company I chose to invest $40,000 into was Mastercard Inc. Mastercard’s incorporation is exchanged by NYSE. MasterCard Incorporated, a payments and technology company, together with its subsidiaries, provides transaction processing and other payment-related services in the United States and internationally. Its payment solutions include payment programs, product development, payment processing technology, payment security, consulting, and information services and marketing. The company provides transaction processing services comprising transaction switching, which include authorization, clearing, and settlement; connectivity services, such as network access, equipment, and the transmission of authorization and settlement messages; and other payment-related services, including products used to prevent or detect fraudulent transactions, cardholder services, professional consulting and research services, compliance and penalty, account and transaction enhancement services, holograms, and

Exxon and Chevron are no doubt some of the leading incorporated oil companies on the globe. Exxon Corp. is the second largest oil firm after Royal Dutch Shell, it is respected for getting the biggest revenue return in 2008 which no company in the U.S. have ever reported before. According to Wilson (2009) Chevron has managed to show a lot of profitability in the market despite the decease in its oil production. It graded as one of firms which made a billion dollars profit within a week in the period of July to September 2008. Regardless of profitability trends set by the two oil firms in the U.S. market, they have been facing financial decline like the rest of the companies in other industries. The two firms are like two sailing ships which are taking longer time to sink. In the last few years, the production capacity of Chevron and Exxon has decreased and their listings on the stock market have become weak. The continuation of construction and drilling which requires billions of dollars in expense of oil production might make them experience a bigger financial crisis (Wilson, 2009).

Home Depot’s stock posted a beta of 1.01, which means the stock moved almost identically with the market. With this blend of volatile and less volatile stocks, the group was able to take some chances while still anchoring our return to the market to ensure a competitive return.

The energy sector is generally driven by the price of crude oil. Recent trends of reviving global economy, increasing demand for energy, and political turmoil in oil-producing regions, have seen oil prices soar (to more than $55 a barrel in 2004), thus causing industry rebound. Higher prices have reached most of the industry – producers, refiners, pipeline companies, equipment makers, oil field service providers, and gas station operators - which have all enjoyed new profits. Leading the charge are the world 's largest integrated oil companies: Exxon Mobil, BP, and Royal Dutch/Shell (Yahoo Finance, Industry Profile).

Many Americans are taught that investing is the avenue to wealth and financial independence in retirement. However, the questions: where should I invest, how much should I invest, or is my money safe precludes some from entering the investment arena. While this paper is not meant to answer those question, the first half will compare the daily performance of three well known stocks: Microsoft, Apple and Staples based on the probability of a daily loss and the probability of closing above the mean value, the second half will explore the probability of winning a game of chance.

This report doesn’t include calculation of share’s fair value and potential of its growth in comparison with current market price, but analysis based recommendation for Exxon Mobil shares is made in the report conclusion.