Reflections and looking back on this semester's game

Reflections/Looking back:

As we wrapped up our game this semester we found our group to be disappointed in profits.

We ended up 6^th place on both the US and Canadian side. As we liquidated we found ourselves stuck with one stock as Investopedia wouldn’t let us sell the stock as it showed that it wasn’t a stock. You couldn’t sell or search it; the stock was sitting at 0 on Friday. So we had to sadly leave it in our portfolio and wait it out. As we researched and gave it a few days the stock came back and showed up on Investopedia and it was making money. In corporate history we can now review that the stock symbol changed from QQQQ to QQQ. We ended up having to sell it after the fact, when the game was finished. So we just had to find the stock price on Globe and Mail and using the day’s closing numbers. We had 200 shares of QQQQ and on that day it closed at $56.84.

We didn’t tend to be as technical in picking stocks this semester and in doing so we didn’t make money. We didn’t decide we were brave enough to enter into the world of options this semester as we wanted to try to win the game. We tried a technique of only doing the minimum amount of trades per week. The technique worked out good and it wasn’t too tough to do the charting of our trades and such. Our experience with short selling wasn’t the best this term and it was a learning experience to make sure you are checking the status of your short sales frequently as we didn’t follow them every day when they decided to start going up we never caught it and could of got out before we lost as much money as we did.

This game goes to show that the random walk theory could in fact work if you monitor the stocks well and just go in as a day trader and hope for the best. When picking stocks we weren’t to incline to do heaps of research, it was more going with our gut, and letting the market decide what will happen. It was an interesting semester of stock game and our group enjoyed playing the game once again. Until next time. Shalom! ( Good bye in Hebrew))

Buzzzzyyy Words By Dummies

Black Swan

What Does Black Swan Mean?
An event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and that would be extremely difficult to predict. This term was popularized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a finance professor and former Wall Street trader. Investopedia explains Black Swan
Black swan events are typically random and unexpected. For example, the previously successful hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) was driven into the ground as a result of the ripple effect caused by the Russian government's debt default. The Russian government's default represents a black swan event because none of LTCM's computer models could have predicted this event and its subsequent effects.

At almost the end of our stock game a natural disaster that could not have be predicted happened. The Earthquake that hit Japan on March 11^th 2011, followed by a huge tsunami caused a tragic event. The stock market results in ways that they wouldn’t be predicted. The event can cause changes in the stock market that wouldn’t appear if the event didn’t happen.

 Gorilla

What Does Gorilla Mean?
A company that dominates an industry without having a complete monopoly.

Investopedia explains Gorilla
This term is a reference to the old jokes about the 800-pound gorillas, who "does whatever it wants." For example, you'll hear people say that Microsoft is an 800-pound gorilla.

During our game we bought the Stock Lululemon. Lululemon is the gorilla of the fitness clothing suppliers. Lululemon happened to be one of our most successful stocks in our game. Well on the American side at least.

Lululemon seems to have quite a strong demand and always seems to come out on top for the fitness clothing sales. The company doesn’t have a complete monopoly. But definably dominates the industry. 

Market Jitters 

What Does Market Jitters Mean?
Feelings of nervousness created by uncertainty or fear about the current investment environment.

Investopedia explains Market Jitters
Market jitters can be caused by (among other things) poor corporate earnings, high rates of unemployment, or uncertainty with the Federal Reserve interest rate decisions.

This semester we found we had the market jitters. The investment environment was some what uncertain and didn’t tend to have a upward trend as we experienced in the previous stock game. We think it had to do with the Bank of Canada deciding about rate changes as well as continued unemployment from the recovering economy.

 

Final Week

Well the end is here. It has been fun again, but all good things must stop? I believe that is the saying!

We have sold off our portfolio for a gain on the American side. Good old Uncle Sam making us some moola! We started off with $100000.00  and ended with $98,995.40... Wait that isn't a gain. What is going on here? Apparently as Canadians trying to tap tap tap choose on the American side doesn't work. Coincidence probably. We need to do our due diligence when it comes picking companies to invest with for our portfolio.

$102,287.59 is what we ended up with on the Canadian side. That is what we wanted! We are in business to make money, not lose it! On the Canadian side we were able to grow mainly because of our unbelievable banking system. We were able to grow grow grow because of the bank!

All in all it was a fun game, but we did learn that we need to take our time, do our research, and take our money when we can. Like Steve Miller Band said "Go on take the money, and RUN!"

Week 8

LULU! What have you done to us in Canada? Why is there no growth. Possibly because of the MAJOR growth going on in the rest of the world. It could also possibly be that there are a few other companies that are starting to get recognized in Canada for their yoga and athletic wear. Sport Check the Forzani Groups monster has been getting into the yoga scene with less expensive athletic stretchy gear. Hopefully Chip Wilson can continue to build his brand and grow the multi-million dollar brand of Lulu Lemon. Oh we ended up selling off our shares in the Canadian side for a bit of a loss (almost $10.00/share, ouch!)

Next we took a major hit on our shorted stock of CMG. This restaurant must have found a secret recipe or the Mexican food Gods are looking down on them, because their stock gained about $11.00! We are not having any luck with our short selling. I think we need to take a better look at the trends of the stock and possibly do a little bit more research into what the company is going to be doing!We were pretty disappointed with our short selling. Dumb move and wont do that again if we want to win.

Lastly we sold off our ROI stocks as we couldn't justify the Wisdomtree Largecap Growth! A loss of about a dollar per share.

LOSERS! That is not what we want to be. Minimize the hit and take our growth where we can. That is basically the best thing we can do now. This week we sat pretty low on the rankings we were in 9th on the Canadian side and 7th on the american side. Heres to hoping we can recoup and get to first place to win the badly needed 20 dollars.

Semain Sept

Alright we are back online! WAHOOOO!
Week 7 started off with a bang seeing us buy, buy, buy!

First it was Research In Motion (RIM.TO). The Canadian smartphone, and technology company is releasing their tablet in the next month! This tablet will contend with Apple's I Pad.

We bought RIM on both the Canadian, and American sides. This should be a great buy! Very excited to see where RIM goes!

Next buy is Children's Place Retail (PLCE). This company specializes in everything to do with kids. From clothing to furniture to completing the room and having exactly what you need to bring the baby home, or making it easier for the transition of kids growing up. This company is growing and there is always a need to have baby furniture and clothes. This is a great buy and a very safe investment for our portfolio.

QQQQ is no longer the symbol for Powershares Trust it was changes to QQQ. This trust company has seen some great growth in the past 12 months. We also used our trusted tap tap tap choose technique! This should work!

NDN! Ninety-nine Cents Only Store. Dollar Stores are always a great bet. Who doesn't love to go into a store with a fiver and be able to walk out with gems that will keep you occupied for at least an afternoon? This will prove to be a phenomenal growth stock!

week 6

Glitches happen with technology. This week we had troubles making the trades because Investopedia wouldn't allow the trades to go through. Extra trades to be made next week!

Week Number 5

Reading week! Party time? No way! We were working away and studying all week! To week 6.