Small finance assignment

Specifically analyze both your best and worst performing investments by comparing their performance to the S&P 500 index and explaining why these investments did well or poorly.  You will likely find that these stocks had a postive or negative news announcement - perhaps an earnings announcement that was different than what stock brokerage analysts expected.  You can find these news announcements by getting a quote within StockTrak.com or Yahoo Finance and clicking on a news link for the company ticker you entered.

Discuss your portfolio asset allocation between stocks, bonds, cash and also your industry diversification.  You can see this automatically calculated by clicking "My Portfolio" and then scrolling to the pie chart at the bottom right of the screen.  Are you under diversified?  Some financial advisors would recommend 75% in stocks, 20% in bonds and 5% cash.  Would your portfolio be more or less risky than this recommended portfolio?  Are you over invested in any one industry?  More than 20% in one industry?

You need to pick your best and worst performing stocks and look at their percent change since you bought them.  Then see how much the S&P 500 changed over that same time period (check out yahoo finance).  Now compare the your best and worst stocks to how the S&P500 did over the same time period.