Background Prior to the Investopedia simulation I had very limited exposure to the stock market, only knowing of the existence of the TSX, NYSE, among other stock exchanges. Last year I started an Investopedia account and casually traded stocks without knowing any techniques or strategy, and managed my account which only had one or two stocks. I started it because I believed that Research in Motion, of whom was performing poorly on the stock exchange, would do better. I wanted to see if I was correct and what the return would have been. Past that I did very little trading. The only knowledge I had of stock terminology was what I learned in grade twelve accounting and what I self- taught myself on Investopedia. Some of these were short
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For the most part my portion of the portfolio was in the red although there were a few trades did bring help my investment portfolio. My biggest gain in the simulation came from my first purchase, Pepsi. Out of all my trades, I analysed Pepsi the most, both qualitatively and quantitatively. I also had an instinctual feeling of its growth potential and thought it had to have a fair value. I bought 376 units at $99.68 for a total of $37,489.67 and sold them at 102.39 for $38,488.65, only after one week. I would have held onto them for longer, but due to the sell one stock a week rule, I got rid of it the following week. Appendix C has the stock price trend for the past three months. My biggest loss was ironically Coke, of which I bought 25 units at $212.95 for a total of $5,333.74 and sold at $174.62 for a total of $4,355.51. The lesson I learned from Coke was do not invest in a company without an in depth analysis. My Coke purchase was not well researched and I just believed that because it was a big company it would do well. If I had looked at the stock price trend or a Vuru analysis, I would have discovered that although it has a 19.65% return on Equity, which is relatively good, it is encountering some tough financial times (Vuru). Overall, I learned that using outside sources to help you make decisions, keeping in tune with financial news, utilizing a solid investment strategy, and using financial ratios can lead to a better experience in the stock market. The stock market also requires a lot of time if one wishes to get high returns on their investment. These are takeaways I plan on employing in future stock
For the most part my portion of the portfolio was in the red although there were a few trades did bring help my investment portfolio. My biggest gain in the simulation came from my first purchase, Pepsi. Out of all my trades, I analysed Pepsi the most, both qualitatively and quantitatively. I also had an instinctual feeling of its growth potential and thought it had to have a fair value. I bought 376 units at $99.68 for a total of $37,489.67 and sold them at 102.39 for $38,488.65, only after one week. I would have held onto them for longer, but due to the sell one stock a week rule, I got rid of it the following week. Appendix C has the stock price trend for the past three months. My biggest loss was ironically Coke, of which I bought 25 units at $212.95 for a total of $5,333.74 and sold at $174.62 for a total of $4,355.51. The lesson I learned from Coke was do not invest in a company without an in depth analysis. My Coke purchase was not well researched and I just believed that because it was a big company it would do well. If I had looked at the stock price trend or a Vuru analysis, I would have discovered that although it has a 19.65% return on Equity, which is relatively good, it is encountering some tough financial times (Vuru). Overall, I learned that using outside sources to help you make decisions, keeping in tune with financial news, utilizing a solid investment strategy, and using financial ratios can lead to a better experience in the stock market. The stock market also requires a lot of time if one wishes to get high returns on their investment. These are takeaways I plan on employing in future stock