Stock assignment

Hi,

Stock is a funny invention. As a shareholder, you own a company. Yes, at one point I was proud owner of Porsche, Airbus, Microsoft, Apple, Alibaba and I used Facebook investment to put down payment for my apartment. But, am I really "the owner"? Yes, I am because I invested my funds and trust that the company will be managed responsibly.

With the internet and availability of investment options, the stock market boomed. Now, everyone in the USA and many other countries in the world can play with the stocks (etf's, bond's, options, mutual funds and other financial instruments.)

My goal is not to teach you how to become stock market players - maybe some of you can teach me. My goal is to help you understand trend, visual representation of data and some regression or similar analysis. Yes, I know some of you are not very interested for that but it is a small part of the class. To make it interesting and understandable, I decided to create this assignment.

So, what is your task?

1. You are given $100,000. In three weeks you should hopefully make some money. If you loose it - it is fine as well. 

2. Select up to 10 stocks (etf, mutual funds or other instruments as you wish) and invest money in each one. The key part is - strategy. Therefore:

a) What is your strategy? Your strategy is logic behind the stocks you selected. You might say - I like to drink and all my stocks are invested in 10 different companies that produce beer, vine and alcohol. One could say, I want variety of companies and include technology, airlines, cars, fashion, sports, or other stocks. Somebody does not have any clue about stocks - well, then look around you - what is the brand of your fridge, car, shoes, food you buy and select the stocks. That is ok but I want to know why particular company and what are you planing to get out from the investment. 

b) Please use attached excel sheet and populate all data. Each week collect the stock price and follow the stock for three weeks. You want to see did you make money or loose it. 

c) Create an essay and outline your approach. Explain in one to two pages the above questions (strategy, stocks, investment breakdown.) Use some graphs and charts based on your background - if you are finance/economics person use this opportunity to shine. 

Good Luck