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.

Financial BUZZY words by dummies

                                                               Aunt Millie  

A slang term for an uneducated or unsophisticated investor. The term is considered a derogatory remark in the financial sector, often used to refer to poor investment choices.

Financial professionals might recommend an "Aunt Millie" investment to clients who are unfamiliar with investing. Because the professional tries to match the investment to the customer, he or she will typically offer "Aunt Millie" a simple, low-risk investment.

Analysts may use the term to berate a stock or other security. For example, one may say that investing in a certain stock is so foolish, only Aunt Millie would buy it

We tend to invest in a lot of stocks, which Aunt Millie would as well. We feel this semester as we are uneducated and unsophisticated when we are investing. The investing we do seem to be random and we aren’t sticking to familiar companies. We are trying to be open to different stocks and going on a whim picking them.

                            

                      Bull Market  

 

A financial market of a group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. The term "bull market" is most often used to refer to the stock market, but can be applied to anything that is traded, such as bonds, currencies and commodities.

We have a propensity to invest in stocks that are in the bull market expecting to make some great profits fast. As we have found out that always isn’t the case. When we think we will make money quick we end up losing money. Bull markets and our group aren’t have a successful time so far into this game.

Momo Play 

A slang term used to describe an investment purely as a momentum play, not worrying about the company's fundamentals.

Our team has been known to Momo Play. We haven’t been too worried about the company’s fundamentals at all lately. We are having our random walk test and we think the markets can’t be predicted so we are testing that theory out. We kind of just buy for the symbols or name of the stock and just go with it.

Woche vier

Tap tap tap choose would have been amazing with this stock ABCO if we had decided to believe in the company and its growth. Instead we shorted and it grew by about $3.00. NOT COOL!
It looks like Wisdomtree Largecap Growth is doing just fine though so that makes us happy!

LULU is cleaning up on the American side so why would we not buy on the Canadian side also? Well I am here to tell you that's exactly what we have done. LULU.TO can make it big. Lets see if the yoga clothing giant can continue to dominate markets all over North America and the world! Winter should not mean that yoga pants go away. It should mean that they come out in forces!


We have seen a three dollar growth in our RY.TO stock so we have made the wise decision to load up on it. The bank is booming out of the recession and we are going to hop on the train to moneyville!


Our portfolio after the fourth week is looking good and we are still sitting pretty in the middle of the pack just waiting for our time to pounce on first place and knock this game out of the park. Can you tell spring training is here?

Semain trois

We sold BUD after the game because we got so caught up in the hype of the PACKERS WIN! It did not pay off we lost about a dollar per stock. That's ok though you win some and lose some.


Kim's experiment in researching stock did not work! Probably if we had left it a little bit longer we would have been ok, but we decided to sell at about $0.60 discount.


Wisdomtree Largecap Growth or ROI seems to be our new friend. This was another tap tap tap choose technique and we are going to buy. The stock has been plummeting and it has hit a 5 week low. We believe that this company is going to explode in the near future because of the growth they have seen this year. Hopefully we are getting in at the bottom of this drop and there will be some major growth!
LET'S GO WISDOMTREE LARGECAP GROWTH LET'S GO!

Semana el número dos

So Superbowl is upon us. We decided to by more BUD and it is paying off! The stock is up! Probably our best bet is to sell friday though as sales will go through the roof and then a major decline after the weekend. We have profited so we will take our winnings and go!


We also came up with a new stock buying technique and its called the tap tap tap choose method. We blindfold a group member they tap 3 letters and whatever stock comes up we decide if we are going to buy or not. In this case we found the Advisory Board (ABCO). We looked at the stock history and realized that it was a perfect stock to try our short selling skills! We shorted it and won! Hooray!


We looked at the numbers for our 3rd trade of the week and read some articles and did our due diligence! (Kim took the lead on this one and forgot to tell Dan and I)
She bought Research In Motion stoc. Apparently since their release of the tablet they have been climbing. Also with their new add campaign for the special apps that they ahve for their smart phones the stock has been popping! Thank you Kim we will see how RIM.TO does in the coming days.

OFF WITH A BANG!

A new stock class a new game, yahoo! Graham, Kim and I have teamed up to play this semester's game!
We've divided up our stock picks, Graham is a big believer is beer, he keeps on talking about the Superbowl and how that will drive up the stock price and we'll make big dollars. So far this has not happened but I guess we will give him the benefit of the doubt.                                                                                     


Kim has decided to buy Lulu Lemon, I like Lulu Lemon. I think they are also a pretty solid/safe investment.  As our blog name suggests we're pretty elementary here, I think our motto will be to keep it simple and safe or at least we will try to.                                                                                                                             


I bought RBC I figure it'll be safe - call it boring and it is but it shold at least not lose us any money! I am         going to buy us some RIM, there was a good article not too long ago in the Globe and Mail concerning RIM and technology in general, I will paste it below.                                                                                            

Top hedge fund manager turns to tech micro-caps                                                                      

SHIRLEY WON — INVESTMENT FUNDS REPORTER

Canada’s best performing hedge fund manager of the past year has generated triple-digit gains from surging resource stocks, but now expects market leadership to switch to technology wallflowers.                            

“There will be a pullback in resources this year,” predicted Steven Palmer, the president of Toronto-based    AlphaNorth Asset Management Inc. “By the end of this year, resource stocks will be flat to modestly higher, but returns won’t be as good as we experienced in 2010.”                                                                            

In contrast, large-cap technology stocks such as Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM-T61.45-0.27-0.44%) are looking attractive as they “have been beating earnings estimates, trade at cheap prices, have tons of cash on their balance sheet and have been buying back stock,” said Mr. Palmer, who runs the $65-million                AlphaNorth Partners hedge fund, which garnered a stellar 114-per-cent return in 2010.                              

The Article goes on to talk about how Technology will go up and resources will go down - in general. So as a result of this we have decided to buy some RIM! I am happy about this because I think it is a pretty safe     industry to invest in and it is a Canadian company - yay!                                                                             

Week 1 of the GAME!

We have a new strategy for this game. It's name is KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid! We have decided to make 3 trades a week We know that this is the minimum, however, we believe that by doing our homework, and finding the best stocks for out portfolio we will stay even and grow. This is important, as people have BIG up's, and BIG down's we will be able to come out on top. It is the tortise approach to the stock game, but we believe it to be our best approach.


Our first stock we bought into was Annhauser-Busch brewery (BUD). We know that superbowl is coming up and the stock price has been falling. We intend to buy low and sell high. This has worked in our favor as the price of the stock has risen everyday since we bought it. Our projection is for it to max out Superbowl Sunday. GO PACK!


Next we bought Lulu Lemon on the State side (LULU). There has been major growth in the athletic apparel company in the past year. They have opened stores in emerging markets where health, wellness, and yoga have been gaining popularity exponentially. This is a great buy and will continue to make us money! Also it looks good!


Lastly on the Canadian side we bought Royal Bank Stocks (RY.TO). This bank reported earnings of 374M in the 4th quarter of 2010. As the economy recovers Royal Bank looks to lead by example and continue growing into the future.


Thats all for now!