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.