Experience With the Stock Market Game

Throughout the stock market game, there was a numerous amount of things that I did to try and help our team to succeed or exceed expectations. Throughout the 10 weeks, I wrote several blog posts including information on almost everything that has to do with the economy and the companies that we purchased stock in. I tried to make the posts as detailed as possible while trying to keep them limited in length. I also commented on other people's blog posts which I would try to provide the person with a uplifting comment but yet some remarks to help enable the person to write better posts for the next week.

If I was given the opportunity to contribute to the Stock Market Game or perhaps in real life, I would do some things the same. I believe that our way of researching the stock before buying was a good idea, in which we would watch to see how a stock was doing before buying stocks in it. I also thought that by purchasing stock in certain companies during certain holidays was helpful. By purchasing stock from companies that produce services or products that pertain to a certain holiday that was coming up, we could buy the stock while it was low and sell after the holiday was finished after the stock of that company went up.

There are some other things that I would change if I was given another chance to participate in the Stock Market Game. First, I would change the companies in which we purchased stock in because we appeared to lose quite a bit of money due to the unsuccessfulness of the stock after we bought it. I also would have liked to have changed how much and when we got rid of stock becuase after selling some stock off, it appeared to have went up, which limited our potential income that we could have gotten.

I learned quite a bit about the stock market and how hard it is to judge when a stock will either go up or down. I learned that a key to achieving success through the stock market is to research a stock as much as u can, and then purchase it only if you believe that it will do good for you. I also learned that the stock market cannot be predetermined by anybody really. The best hope is to research the stock until your satisfied with the what you see and then hope that the stock does what you believe it will.

Review of What Kyle Kranzusch Did!

I contributed greatly to our group. I did one or two blogs every week and a comment. Our group spilt up the work fairly and equally.

I learned that you can lose a lot of money in the stock market game. I also learned how to short sell stocks.

If I were to do the stock market game again I would change a few things. First, I would research the company more before purchasing it. Second, I would try short selling more stock. Third, I would invest in mutual funds.

I would not keep anything the same because it didnt work!

New Products

Hershey has always been coming up with new products and projects that people can experience for a limited time. Now hershey has brought up this new taste to an old candy. Hershey has announced that they have developed a new taste called Hot Cocoa Creme, which they have made into their famous kiss candies. This new version of the candy is also being followed by Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate with Almonds and their candy cane mint kisses which will help people be able to celebrate the Christmas holiday a little more sweeter now.

Ben's Review

Through my experience with the stock market game I learned a few valuable lessons about the stock market. For one, I realized that it is not a very good idea to make impulse buys without doing research on the company first. As far as the blogs go, all three of the group members contributed equally. We would divide the four required posts amongst ourselves each week and I would always do one or two posts plus the comment. I would not change anything about the stock market game; I thought it ran smoothly and taught me about the stock market. I would keep everything the same as it was easy to use and worked well.

Market Review Dec 14-18

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Started the week at 10,501.04 and ended the week at 10,328.88.



The NASDAQ started the week at 2,212.10 and ended at 2,211.68.



The S&P 500 started the week at 1,114.11 and ended at 1,102.47.

Portfolio Review Dec. 14-18

Last week in the stock market game we had another down week. We finished the contest with a total of $88,648.93 and were ranked 862. Once again, Hersey had a terrible week and went down another few hundred dollars to a total loss of 4,963.06. Conagra and Pepsi had consistant weeks and did not move much at all. We short sold 100 shares of CEO stock this week. The company only lost a slight amount of money so we gained 79.51.

Competition

Our most competitive company is Kraft. Kraft continues to do pretty good starting the week off at 26.97 and ending the week at 27.01. They had a spike in their stock on wednesday going up to 27.15, which was their highest point. Our companies did pretty good themselves apart from Hershey who did terrible last week starting out at 36.13 and continuing to decrease throughout the rest of the week and ending at 35.29. Our other stocks didn't do so great but did not fail so much like how Hershey did.

New Products

Our companies currently have no new products on the market. However Campbell's has a new type of soup out. There Campbell's Select Harvest soups have gone over very well. So Campbell's introduced the new Select Harvest Light soups. There are 12 new varieties of the Harvest Select Light soups.

Competitors Dec. 7-11

The biggest competitor of all of our companies is Kraft. Kraft is doing very well and holding steady. Our companies are doing well too, except hersey which has lost us $4000. Kraft started the week at 26.68 and ended the week at 26.79. They had a steady week and on friday they went up .10. Kraft has no new products on the market. During the week of Christmas and New Years they will probably go up because families will get together.

Review of Our Portfolio Dec 7-11

Last week our portfolio stayed rather close to what we fell to from the week before. This week conagra gained and has a net cost at 10796.70 in our portfolio. The current price per share is 22.43 and has helped improve our overall total. Pepsi has gone down a little this last week and has a net cost of 15612.38 and our current price per share is 60.98. Our worst stock right now continues to be Hershey with a net cost at 48,969.69 and a current price per share at 36.13. Although Hershey has been killing our portfolio we still managed to have a total equity of 89452.43.

Market Review Dec. 7-11

Nasdaq: Last week the Nasdaq had a steady week, starting at 2189.61 there was a slight fall bringing the total down about 15 points.The total went up from then on and ended up at 2190.31.

S&P 500: Last week the S&P 500 took a large dip on Monday after starting at 1103.25 to 1091.94. The rest of the week produced a steady growth as every day the total went up slightly until the end in which the total was 1106.41.

Dow Jones: The starting value was 10,390.11 and much like the other two indexes. However the rest of the week was good and the value ended at 10,471.50.

USA Today Article Review

Quarter of workforce could be temps as contract work grows

Last week expert analysts predicted that a few years down the road about 25% of the workforce are going to be temps. One of the major reasons for these ideas is that last month only 11,000 jobs were lost and temporary staffing agencies found 52,000 jobs for others. For the next few years temporary employees are going to find great job opportunities because as employers look for long term replacements they do not want to pay their current employees benefits, which would not be included in the pay of the temps.

Portfolio Review Nov.30 - Dec.4

We did not purchase or sell anything this week. We kept our current companies to see if they would go up. Our portfolio value went up about $1,000. Our portfolio is now worth $90,369.88. We currently have a cash balance of $18,227.85. Two companies that we have invested in are doing very good but Hershey has lost us $4,090.16. We don't want to pay the commission fee to sell it so we are hoping that it will go up.

Market Review Nov.30-Dec.4

The Dow appeared to start the week at its lowest point which was 10344.84. It proceeded to rise the next day to its peak at 10471.58 on Dec. 1st. The stock begins to decline after the first until it hits 10366.15 on the 3rd. Afterward it starts rising again and ends the week at 10388.90. The NASDAQ began the week at 2144.60 and continued to incline throughout the week. On the 3rd its slope decreased a little bit, but then continued its slope upward and hit its spike at the end of the week at 2194.35. The S&P 500 started the week off at its lowest point of 1095.63 and continued to increase until the 2nd, when it decreased to 1099.92 on the 3rd. It then continued on to increase and ended the week at 1105.98.

Competition

The major competitor of all of our companies, Kraft, actually did not have a very good week last week. They started the week of November 30th off with a major jump of about 40 cents up but from there on out the prices were lower. They ended the week off at 26.57. As of December 7th, the price is 26.74 which is decent and consistent with Conagra Foods and the other stocks that we hold.

Video: Pepsi and Grammy Award-Winning Artist Will.i.am to Create the Ultimate Music Collaboration

Having started in September, Pepsi started allowing music fans to apply their own musical touch to create their own unique mix of the song "La, La, La " by LMFAO. Will.i.am has joined Pepsi and LMFAO to help produce a user-generated video and music track that will be available to consumers in December 2009. Pepsi's "Ultimate Refresh" has introduced a new, digital mixing player that can be used by the music fans to combine three different original music clips along with the performance by LMFAO for a two minute collaborative video which can be viewed on www.ultimaterefresh.com. Upon uploading the video to the site, it will be revised by Will.i.am, and his favorite user-generated content will help Will.i.am to produce the ultimate remix of the song which will then be available free for download in early December 2009.

Competitors

Taking a look at Kraft foods, which is the top competitor of all of our stock companies, had a rough week. Starting the week off on November 23rd, their stock started and peaked at 27.34. Their stock continued to decrease throughout the week and ended at 26.64.

Market Review Nov. 23-27

NASDAQ: Started at 2,176.01 and ended at 2,138.43. They had a down week except for Tuesday November 24th.

DOW JONES: Started the week at 10,450.95 and ended at 10,309.91. They held steady until Wendesday November 25th and then crashed.

S&P 500: Had a down week too. Started at 1,106.24 and ended at 1,087.27.

Portfolio Review Nov. 23-27

Last week our portfolio value went down. It was a very bad week as it was the first time we dropped below the 90,000 mark. Conagra Foods and Pepsi actually did not have bad weeks as Conagra is still up about .60 and Pepsi is at 62.30 which is .12 below our buying price. Our ranking is 859 which is our worse all time. The total portfolio value is 89,179.10 which is also the worse value ever.

Review - Be Prepared for the Worst

This article ensures that the economy will continue to go down from here. The author said that the people who are saying that the worse of the recession is over are the same ones who believed that it was on the upside last year. There was an interesting idea included in the article that a balloon with trillions of dollars pumped into it to keep our economy stable will eventually deflate. This will most likely happen with the current problem that we have because we have taken somewhat of a socialist approach and in order to get the economy back in a fully capitalist style we will take a hit. The author predicts that we will have another Great Depression like economic problem to come.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1116/opinions-great-depression-economy-on-my-mind.htm

Review of the Market Nov.16-20th

In the market this week the Dow Jones Industrial Average started off at around 10,406.96 on the 16th and spiked the next day at 10,437.42. On the 18th they started to fall down a bit and by the 20th the stock had fell down to 10,318.16. The NASDAQ started the week off at about 2,197.85 and spiked at 2,203.78 on the 17th. The stock then continued to decrease and ended the week at 2146.04. The S&P 500 started at 1109.30 and on the 17th it made it's highest point at 1110.32. The rest of the week consisted of the stock decresingand ending the week at 1091.38.

Competition

The number one competitor for all of our stocks is Kraft Food. Kraft is actually having a shaky performance lately. The current price is 27.35 per share which is actually up from last week when it fell to 26.94 on Thursday. A possible reason for the rise in price of late is that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and many people will be buying food. Our companies will also have a price rise and keep up with the competition.

Portfolio Review Nov. 16-20

In the third week of November we did not purchase any stocks or mutual funds. Over the last week our portfolio has decreased significantly. Our portfolio dropped over $2000. Two stocks that we have invested in are doing good but Hershey's is doing very poor. Today, on Nov. 20th we have $91,082.54. We have a cash balance of $18,113.96.

New Products From Pepsi

Three new retro sodas wil be hitting the shelves beginning in March and April. New Pepsi natural and Pepsi and Mountain Dew throwback will allow the consumers to experience a refreshed version of their favorite sodas. Along with the new look that the cans will have, the sodas will also be replacing the high fructose corn syrup with natural cane and beet sugar which will eliminate four grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving. There will also be a few other additions to the new revamped sodas to achieve a better tasting formula. The bad part about the new throwback sodas is that they will only be available for a limited time only.

Portfolio Review Nov. 9-13

We kept the same stocks that we had for the previous week. We have stock in Pepsi, Hershey and Conagra Foods. Today on Nov.17, we have $93,212.83. Compared to week 4 we gained roughly $1500. All of our stocks are doing well. Also, we have a cash balance of $18,113.96 to invest if we want.

Market Review Nov. 9-13

NASDAQ: The NASDAQ had a steady but not great week last week. The value started at 2154.06 and the values went up and down slightly throughout the week. There were no huge anomalies in the values and it ended up at 2167.88.

Dow Jones: The Dow had a decent week, staying above 10,000 for the entire duration. The value started at 10226.94 and had steady gains other than a slight dip on Wednesday. The final value was 10406.96.

S&P 500: This was a week very similar to that of the Dow Jones. 1093.08 and were steady all week other than a small drop on Wednesday. Values stayed consistent after this and ended at 1093.48.

Antioxidants & Phytonutrients

Through research, it has been found that plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, peanuts, and tree nuts contain naturally occuring plant compounds or phytonutrients. Through some experiments it has been said that these phytonutrients may provide a wide range of health benefits. Phytosterols have also been found in peanuts, almonds, and other nuts which have been found to lower LDL-cholesterol. There have been many nutrients within the plant foods that may have a healthy effect on the body including the vitamin E found in some nuts have some antioxidant activity which can provide similar activity to some fruits and vegetables.

New Products

There is not really any new product in the food industry. However, with the approaching holiday season there will be a plethora of food being produced. Also, although there are no actual new products in the industry but companies are always attempting to modify their old products in order to make them taste better and be healthier.

Competition

All the stocks that we currently hold are in the Food Industry. The biggest competitor of all our companies is Kraft Foods. Kraft is currently not having a good week. Kraft opened the week at 27.64 and ended the week at 26.78. Analyst predict that Kraft will fall 3.8% by the end of the year. Our companies are currently doing well, so I believe that we made the right decisions on what companies we purchased.

Market Review Nov. 2-6

Dow Jones: The week was overall positive for Dow Jones. The Dow Jones started at 9,789.44 and ended at 10,023.42.

NASDAQ: Also had a very good week. It started the week at 2,049.20 and ended at 2,122.44.

S&P 500: Had a great week too. It started at 1,048.88 for the week and ended at 1,069.33. Gaining more than 20 points for the week.

Portfolio Review November 2-6

Last week we decided to keep the stocks we had and just wait and see what the stocks will do. Our stocks in Hersey, Pepsi, and Conagra Foods all went down slightly. The ending balance was only about 500 dollars lower than what it started at for the week. We paid no commission and there were no stock splits.

Market Review Oct. 26-30

By the S&P 500 market index the market was down roughly 30 points for the week. The market fell on Oct. 27 and Oct. 29. By friday the S&P 500 was at 1036.18

By the NASDAQ market index the market had a down week. The NASDAQ fell on Oct. 27 and Oct. 29. By friday the NASDAQ was at 2045.11

By the DJIA market index the market was down roughly 150 points for the week. Again the market fell on Oct. 27 and Oct. 29. On friday DJIA was at 9712.73

Doritos Issues Last Call for Consumer-Created Ads Vying for $5 Million in Prizes and Air Time During Super Bowl XLIV

Doritos, Pepsico's Frito Lay divison, is making the last call on entries in this year's "Crash the Super Bowl" challenge. This event challenges fans to submit their own homemade 30 second advertisements that show and share their love for Doritos tortilla chips. The grand prize for winning the competition is a massive total of $5 million and even a free trip to the super bowl for the six finalists, where they will wait and watch the winning ads while they are displayed across the entire nation. The "Crash the Super Bowl" challenge is just another way for Doritos brand to give the control over to the consumers. The ads will air on February 7th, 2009 during the commercial spots in between the Super Bowl.

Portfolio Review

We decided to sell our remaining 500 shares of DXRLX because of lack of performance. We lost nearly two dollars per share on the stock and no longer felt that it was a worth while investment. We decided to invest in Hersey because at the time Halloween was coming. The shares cost 39.27. With Thanksgiving and the holiday season approaching we felt that purchasing Pepsi and Conagra Foods. Pepsi shares sold for 62.45 and Conagra for 21.59. So far all three of the stocks are down very slightly. We expect them to rise within the next few weeks with Thanksgiving around the corner.

Competition

All of the stocks we currently hold are in the food industry so a fitting competitor for all of them is Kraft Foods. Kraft is currently at a higher point after a long down period the price is 26.80 which is lower than all three of our companies, therefor I believe we made good purchases within the food industry. Kraft is not projected to make much for gains for the remainder of this year.

Review of the Market (Oct. 19-23)

This week the S&P 500 was actually doing fairly well. At the beginning of the week index values were slightly below 1090 and rose to points above 1100. However, at 3:00 Wednesday the values took a dive and dropped all the way down to 1084. Values for the NASDAQ this week started around 2162. It was an average week with a notable gain Wednesday morning, but also a dive at about the same time the S&P 500 fell. The NASDAQ fell more than 25 points in a matter of a half hour. The Dow Jones had a very similar week to the other two rating scales. The week started slightly below 10,000 and at points was well above, but as of Wednesday afternoon took a tremendous drop.

Review of DBK Investment Portfolio

We decided to give up on all of our companies this week and invest in some other possible companies. We started by selling all of our stock in WWW for $6455.58 after having $131.92 extracted for the sales and commission fees. We also sold all of our stocks in CEO for $32036.92 after providing $654.68 for the sales and commission fees. We also gained $14.36 just from interest. The overall value of our portfolio has decreased about three or four thousand dollars just from this week. Due to the loss of this amount of money, our team decided it would be better to try our money in some different stocks. So far the companies that we have invested in have not had any stock splits or dividends.

New Products

We recently purchased stocks in Pepsi. Pepsi is obviously most well known for making types of soda. One of the major new beverage types in the soda/energy drink category is Monster Nitrous. It is formulated with NO2 to supposedly enhance energy. Another type of beverage that is picking up steam in sales is called Fuze. It is a carbonated type of sparkling water that will compete with many of the Pepsi products.

Competitors

Our company Coeur D ALene CP New is in the mining industry. The price of gold has dropped rapidly causing their industry to fall. Their big competitors are POSCO and Arcelor Mittal. POSCO fell 2.08% on Tuesday and Arcelor Mittal fell 4.78%. We also have money invested in Direxion Monthly Small Cap Bull, a mutual fund. They are still losing money. Many mutual funds are losing money because the stock market is not doing real great.

Dan's Comments

Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10

Kyle's Comments

Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10

Ben's Comments

Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10

Review of Market (Oct 12-16)

This week was a fairly good week for the NASDAQ. There was not much fluctuation on Monday, but on Tuesday the value went from 2139.8899 to 2172.23. For the rest of the week the values stayed fairly consistent aside from a slight dip on Thursday putting the value at 2156.80. As far as the Dow Jones it was an excellent week. The index value finally broke 10,000 again. There were steady gains all week other than the slight dip on the 16th dropping the value to 9,995.9102. The S&P 500 followed the same basic pattern as the other two. Monday had a slight gain but values skyrocketed to 1092.02 on Tuesday. Once again, values fell 9 points on the last day.

Competitors

This week was a normal week for our company CNOOC LTD. Their big competitors are BP and Exxon Mobil Corp. BP is having a down week on Friday their stock dropped 2%. Exxon Mobil Corp is also having a below average week. Their stock price dropped 1.1% on Friday. Another company that we bought stock in was Wolverine Worldwide. Wolverine Worldwide's big competitor is Timberland Co. Their stock prices dropped this week and on Friday their price dropped 2.45%. We also bought stock in Coeur d' Alene Mines Corporation. POSOCO and Arcelor Mittal are their competitors and they are both having down weeks.

Review of Our Portfolio

We started the stock market game by purchasing stocks starting with 200 shares of CNOOC LTD ADS priced at $164.8830/share equaling out to be around $32976.60 as a net cost. We also bought 250 shares of Wolverine Worldwide priced at $28.0296/share with a net cost of about $7007.40. We paid for 1000 shares of Coeur d`Alene Mines Corporation priced at $24.3894/share and a net cost of $24389.40. Lastly, we purchased 500 shares of Direxion Small Cap Bull 2.5x Inv priced at $30.3858 with a net cost of $15192.90. We haven't had to pay any commissions or even sold any stocks yet. The ultimate value of our portfolio has decreased within this past week due to all of the stocks decreasing in value. We chose the stocks to invest in after viewing the companies past history and decided if they were respectable enough to invest in. No stock splits or dividends have occured to our stock this week either.

Article Summary: Market Gains

As U.S. stock market gains, pullback predictions mount

The major point of this article was that since the market has risen so rapidly, it is poised to go on a down fall. Seeing as how a stock strategist with a very bullish point of view even said that the market was booming too rapidly. By the end of next week there will most likely be about a 5 percent pullback. Although analysts do expect a slight fall the overall perception of the market is basically positive. It was said that if the March lows were actually the bottom, that there is more growth to come in 2009. The outlook is good for the long run and the stock market should be back to where it should be in a tangible matter of time.