STOCK MARKET PROJECT
Adapted from Personal Finance (Jeff Madura, 2016, Pearson)
Introduction
The financial markets are one of the most dynamic elements of the U.S. economy.The primary function of the financial market is to channel funds from individuals, businesses and institutions thathavefunds to lend or invest to those individuals, businesses and institutions thatneedfunds.For those who have funds to invest, the financial markets provide an opportunity to profit from their investments; for those that need funds, the financial market provides a source for those funds.
This project allows you to gain experience in making investment decisions. This project provides an opportunity for you to learn to maximize your investment returns over a specified period. Assume you have $10,000 to invest.
Deliverables:
Here is what you need to submit in order to fulfill the requirements of this project:
Screenshot
1.Screenshot upload. At the end of Unit 2, you need to upload to Blackboard the information contained in the section labeled “Obtaining Stock Price and Dividend.”The screenshots should be placed in aWord documentand should be legible – not blurry, not extremely small.My sample screenshots, below, meet those criteria and so should yours.
2.Here is an example of the screenshot you need to upload.
Report Criteria:
3.In addition to the screenshots that you will upload, you will also submit a report on the due date specified in the Course Calendar, answering the questions that appear later in this document. The project should look like a product you would be willing to place in front of your manager or in front of an important customer. Here is a laundry list of things to keep in mind regarding the report.
a.Your report should follow APA guidelines. The project is partly a writing project.So, spelling, grammar, clarity of expression and observing APA style matter.
b.In creating your answers to the questions that appear later in these project instructions, please do NOT try to create a continuous essay.Rather, your document should be in question and answer format. Write the number of the question and then write your answer to that question.Be sure the number of your answer corresponds to the number of the question.
c.Include a references page.
d.In Part II, include a screenshot of the window fromhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/moneythat contains the financial ratio you used to answer questionunderComparing your stock to the market.Place this screenshotaboveyour answer to the question regarding financial ratios.
e.In Part II, include a screenshot of the 3M Chart that provides a comparison of your stock performance to “the market” – you need only one screenshot of this at the end of your simulation.Be sure your graph covers 3 months.This relates to question underComparing your stock to the marketand the screenshot should be placedaboveyour answer to that question.
f.Submit your stock market project by uploading it to Blackboard by the due date.Name your fileSMP1A_your first name.last name
Blackboard:
4.Note that in the event of any Blackboard difficulties, you need to contact Blackboard Support.
a.Guidelines are in the Blackboard shell for the course (see the Welcome Announcement and the link to Blackboard Support).Note that when you contact Blackboard, you need to ask them for a “trouble ticket” number. This will allow me to verify that you contacted them, and, if the problem cannot be resolved, will enable me to possibly give you permission to submit other than through Blackboard.Without the trouble ticket number, no submission outside of Blackboard will be permitted.
b.Be sure that you upload only Word files. Word files will have a suffix .docx.Students sometimes upload other types of files that are not compatible with Blackboard.In such case, I will not be able to open your file and if I can’t open it, I can’t grade it.
5.Due Dates:
The due dates are set out in the course calendar.As indicated above, all deliverables should be submitted by uploading to Blackboard.Back up your work, as technological malfunctions will not be accepted as justification for a late submission.Late papers will be penalized 5 points for each calendar day they are late and, after a few days, may not be accepted at all, at my option, resulting in a zero grade for the project.
Content of Report
The specific requirements for the project are set out below and are divided into 2 parts.
PART I: REQUIREMENTS DUE AT THE END OF UNIT 2
Obtaining Stock Price and Dividend Information
1.Pick a publicly owned company in which you are interested.Use the symbol lookup link in Yahoo Finance to find the symbol for your company.You will need this symbol to answer some of the questions below. Give the name of the company and its symbol.(2 points)
2.Go to Yahoo Finance site (www.finance.yahoo.com) and enter the symbol for your chosen company in the box that says, “Quotes Lookup.” Here you will see the stock price along with other financial information as well as the quarterly dividend if the company pays a dividend.Take a screen shot of the page(2 points). The screenshots should be placed in a Word document and should be legible – not blurry, not extremely small.The sample screenshots, below, meet those criteria and so should yours.Along with the screenshots:
a.Enter the price per share of your stock (1 points)
b.Enter the number of shares you purchased [$10,000 divided by the price per share of stock]. (4 points)
c.Enter the dividend per share [if the firm pays dividend] paid per quarter (1 points)
d.Make a brief comment regarding your expectations regarding the stock price and your reason for choosing this company. Just a few meaningful sentences. (10 points)
This project is graded partly on writing skills, including grammar, spelling, clarity of expression, etc. (5 points)