Ms. Reddy's Stock WebQuest

You have just won $10,000!! CONGRATULATIONS! Now, what are you going to do with this money? You can invest it to potentially make more money, just stick it in the bank, or you can do a combination of both.  It is up to you but remember, these are big decisions because you could lose some of your money (if not all) or you can make hundreds! Good luck investing

TASK

    You are going to pick three stocks to buy shares in and invest your money.  You need to develop a strategy for investing and decide how many shares of each company you want to buy and if you have money left over, you are going to place that in a savings account and collect 1/4% interest at the end of the four weeks.  You should research your options and pick the best combination possible.  Ask yourself these questions:

What is happening in the news now that might tell me what companies are doing well and which are not?

What parts of the economy are thriving now and which are suffering?

Do I want to use all of my money to buy shares in companies or do I want to keep some for security in the bank and make a definite, set interest?

    You will track your investments weekly for four weeks to see how much you gained or lost and compare different stocks.

Resources

1) News about different industries in the economy  This site will direct you, by industry, to headlines in the news to collect up-to-date information about financial current events.

2) Pick a an industry and pick a company  Here you can choose a particular industry (say banks, beverages or appliances) and then pick a company in that industry to research.  In the charts of the different companies, use the options on the right (say news, charts) to view information about that company!

3) Check your stocks! Here you can use the ticker for your company and get very current (about 20 minutes delayed) information about your company's stocks.  You can also graphically compare your company to the S&P 500 companies

4) Graph all three of your companies and compare their progress on that day!

5) People!  Ask around, see who can give you a good tip on a stock that might make you some money!
 

Process

2) Pick three companies in three different industries to invest in.  **Make sure you note the abbreviated ticker symbol for that company so you can use that in the future to look up you company faster**

3) Decide how many shares you want to buy in each and then how much money you will put in the bank (the cost per share is listed at sites 2 and 3 under last trade and is in a dollar amount)

4) Put this information in the chart below under the initial week.  This will be the prices and initial information that you will base your gain on.

5) Write in your folder predictions of which company you think will do the best

6) Weekly, on the same day of the week, do the following:

•     Use site 3 to check your stocks.  Type in the ticker for your company and you will get information about your company for that day. Use the last trade for your share price for the day and fill in the charts for that week

•     Click on the link below the graph to get a graph of your company and the S&P 500 companies.  Make a rough sketch in your folder of this graph *Make sure you label the graph accurately** Below each graph, briefly describe in words what is happening to your company as shown by that graph.

•   Go to site 4 and graph your three companies on the S&P index.  Print this to keep in your folder! This is a great way to compare your companies.  Record whether are your graphs linear or non-linear.

Advice 

Stock Ticker	Initial Price	# of shares bought	Total $ Spent	Gain Week 1	Gain Week 2	Gain Week 3	Gain Week 4	What's my money worth?
1)	.	#	$	$	$	$	$	$
2)	.	#	$	$	$	$	$	$
3)	.	#	$	$	$	$	$	$
Totals	.	#	$	$	$	$	$	$

1) Compile all of your charts and graphs (the rough ones and the printed ones) in your folder

2) Use Microsoft Excel to make a scatter plot from the  data in the Gain chart.  Graph a different line for each company and use the gain for each week as a point on a week (independent variable)  vs. gain in dollars (dependent variable) graph.  Use Excel to find the best fit line for your data and put this graph in your folder. Answer the following questions:

    Is your graph linear or non-linear?

    If your graph is linear, what is the equation, slope and y-intercept of this line?

    If it is not linear, what type of graph is it?

3) Write a reflection about your investment experience! Tell how much money you earned by adding what your money is worth, the gain from the money in the bank and the amount of money you put in the bank.

Include in the reflection a description of your strategy....

•     why did you choose those companies?....did you look in the paper?...read article online?....watch the news on tv?....ask people for advice?

•     Looking back on your decisions, what would you change about your strategy?

•     How were your predictions? Did the same company you predict to perform the best actually do so? Why or why not?

•     Say you just put all of the money in the bank.......how much would you have? Would it be more than what you made investing some?  Do you think investing is a good idea? Why or why not?

•     What industries did you choose? Does the performance of your company as a representative of that industry tell you anything about how that industry is doing in our economy? Look in the news and see what might be affecting your companies industries!

Conclusion

Extensions

• Allowing students to work in groups of two to help in decision making.

• In groups, students can create a two column newsletter detailing the performance of their stocks and some articles about current events that involved their companies.
Using the sites above, students should read articles about their company or their company's industry to see what is happening in the economy that is affectingthem or how their company is affecting the economy.

• Groups can make a PowerPoint presentation to tell the class about their investments, they should use graphs from Excel in their presentation, outline their strategy and draw conclusions about their predictions.

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