Investing in the Stock Market Project

Economics Mr. O'Reilly

You may begin trading stocks as of Tuesday, March 15. As the game progresses, we will discuss stock strategies and means of doing research and understanding the data you find about your particular stocks. The game ends on June 15 with the closing bell at 4:30 that day. The top 10 winners will be announced on the last day for seniors.

Starting Out:

 Log on to www.stoccksquest.com  Create a user ID and password  Log on using user ID and go to "Join a Class"  Our class's name and password is "sharoneconomics" and "eagles". Be sure all the letters are in lowercase form, no spaces.  After you have successfully joined the class go to the "My Stocks" page.  You will see two underlined classes in the left hand column, one labeled "Stocks Quest" and the other "Sharon High School". MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON OUR CLASS (SHARON HIGH SCHOOL) BEFORE TRADING STOCKS OR THEY WILL NOT COUNT!!! You will know you are in our class when the interest earned is 3% and the margin charge is 8%.  Once you have clicked on our class you are ready to trade stocks.

Making Trades:

You MUST write WHY you are buying this stock in the notes section every time you make a trade. This will be used as part of your evaluation for the project.

 The initial purchase of one stock can not exceed $20,000  Each time you buy or sell a stock, your account will be charged a flat commission fee of $20.  Each account must be full invested (at least $85,000 of your $100,000) by Monday, March 21st.  You must make at least three trades a week.  If you want to buy more than $100,000 worth of stock, you may. Here's how: you may use a margin account up to %50 of the portfolio value. Borrowing this money will cost you %8 interest. If you go into debt, it will show as a negative number in your cash account.  No dividends will be paid on any stocks for this simulation.  You may trade on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX and a few major international markets if you wish.  Trades made during trading hours are delayed thirty minutes from actual trading on Wall Street. You may trade 24 hours a day from home or school or wherever (but don't stay up all night doing this). If you trade outside Wall Street trading hours of 9:30 and 4:00, the price you pay for that stock will be whatever the previous closing price was.

Daily Activities:

We will be using the computer lab for some portion of class to help you get started. Any additional trading will take place on your own time. We will also be doing reading in class and for homework on how to analyze and invest in stocks.

You will be graded on whether you had a sound strategy for buying and selling and your participation as evident in your trading notes and your journal.  Notes Section from your actual trading log online (I have access to all of your activity)  Journal entries of one to two pages on our recent performance and your upcoming goals will be due periodically (you will be given due dates and specific questions for these. The first one is below.)  Analyses of articles or information printouts about your investments will be due with some of your journal entries.  A final reflection paper of about 2 pages TYPED will be due at the end of the project, describing if you would have been better off making other investment decisions. You will also evaluate yourself as an investor. THESE PAPERS WILL BE DUE THE END OF THE WEEK OF April 12th (week before vacation)  Choosing stocks on the first day and leaving them for the long term and not buying anything else will not earn you a good grade on this project, even if that is what you might do in real life. The purpose is to do research and stay on top of what is happening in the real-life markets.  You will not be graded on how much money you make, but on the reasoning process and the level of activity in the stock market. You will be graded on your work up until the end of the week of April 12th. However the five points on the final exam will be based on trading through the seniors last day of class.

The first journal entry is due Friday, March 25th. In it you should:  Explain how you went about choosing your stocks--where you gathered information about them, why you think they are good investments.  What your general strategy is for the course of the game.  Anything you are unsure about or are concerned about--terminology, how and when to sell, or general questions about the market.

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!!