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Stock
Market Game Project
The Stock Market Game is a simulation of Wall Street trading, designed to help
you understand the stock market, the costs and benefits involved in
decision-making, the sources and uses of capital and other related economic
concepts.
This
is a semester-long project, so you need to dedicate at least 3-4 hours at the
beginning to read all the web sites and plan your initial purchasing of stocks.
Read through the materials below to get started.
Yahoo! Finance allows you to set up an initial stock portfolio, add or remove stocks you buy or
sell, and obtain printouts that display performance charts, total increases and
decreases in stock value and other useful information.
Web
Readings:
For
information on selecting stocks, visit the Contemporary
Business Companion Web site Stock Market Game.
To
get started with the Yahoo site, just follow this link:
Create
Your Own Portfolio
To
set up your portfolio on the Yahoo Finance site, just follow the
instructions on the site. Here is a summary of the instructions:
FIRST
TIME:
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Register for a username and password following the
instructions given at "Sign Me Up!" Don't forget to write
down your username and password! (If you are already registered with
Yahoo for email or other services, you might not need to re-register.
Try to log in using the username and password you already have.
Note: The Yahoo Finance site is very "information rich," which means
there are about a million things on the page, including flashing ads and
other things that are distracting. Try to keep track of the steps you
use so you can retrace them the next time you visit your portfolio.
After you've done it a few times, it'll be easier. The first few times
it's overwhelming! Hang in there! :-)
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Once
you have signed in using your username and password, you will want to create
a portfolio. Look on the right side of the screen and click on
"create." Then follow the screen prompts and answer the
questions shown in all steps on that screen. Be sure to give your
portfolio a name (of your choice!)
HINT:
The first time you create your portfolio, it may be necessary to go out of
your Internet browser and re-start the browser and re-sign in to Yahoo
Finance. If you're having any problems, try this!
CAUTION:
Be careful not to click on an advertisement that allows you set up a REAL
portfolio. If you are asked for a credit card, click on BACK until you
get out of that company's material (examples: Ameritrade, Datek, etc.)
DO NOT SPEND ANY ACTUAL MONEY ON THIS PROJECT!
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When you click
on
Symbol Lookup, you can type in the name of
the company you want to "purchase" and it will bring up the symbol.
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Follow
the screen prompts to find the companies you have chosen. You will
notice that there are a number of different symbols available for some
companies. Some of these are overseas affiliates, or companies with
similar names. Make sure you get the right one for the company you're
interested in.
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When you see the
correct company, click on the SYMBOL (letters) to see the current trading
information about your chosen stock. You must do this BEFORE you add
the stock to your portfolio. Otherwise you won't know how much the
stock is currently trading for.
When you've
found out how much each share is selling for and you're ready to "buy,"
click on ADD (on the right side of the box).
Then click on "I
want to enter price paid, number of shares, etc." AND click on the name of
your portfolio (on the pull-down menu). Then click the ADD button.
Initially
choose only 3 companies to buy. Try to find 3 companies that you are
familiar with and figure out how many shares you can buy while spending
around $30,000. Example:
For
instance: McDonald's (one of my FAVORITE
companies -- love those happy meals!) is currently trading at 14.34 ($14 a
share). If I want to spend around $10,000 on McDonald's, my
calculations indicate that I can buy 696 shares (700 x $14.34 = $10,038).
Yes, it's a little over $10,000; no big deal! Just start out AROUND
$30,000 total. (Remember: This is a GAME!)
Initially you don't need to do too much research on the companies you
choose. After you've tinkered with it for a few weeks, you might want
to get more selective and/or daring! Choose some new bio-techs or
technology stocks to see what's happening!
RETURN
VISITS:
When
you return to your Yahoo Finance to check your gains or losses, make additional
purchases, sell your initial stocks, etc., follow these steps:
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Log
in with your username and password.
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The
banner at the top of the screen (under the ads) should welcome you back --
using your username! Mine says "welcome pammi4!"
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Click on Performance to see how your stocks are doing.
Here's what my screen looks like when I am logged in to my portfolio!
| Portfolio for pammi4 - PAMMI4 |
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| Symbol |
Last Trade |
Chg |
Volume |
Shrs |
Value |
Value Change |
Paid |
Gain |
Related Information |
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DD |
10:04am |
43.28 |
+0.41 |
473,600 |
233 |
$10,084.24 |
$95.53 |
+0.96% |
42.87 |
$95.53 |
+0.96% |
Chart,
Messages,
Profile,
more... |
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GE |
10:04am |
30.37 |
+0.23 |
2,876,500 |
300 |
$9,111.00 |
-$2,289.00 |
-20.08% |
38.00 |
-$2,289.00 |
-20.08% |
Chart,
Messages,
Profile,
more... |
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IBM |
10:04am |
82.68 |
+0.68 |
2,022,600 |
-100 |
-$8,268.00 |
$232.00 |
+2.73% |
85.00 |
$232.00 |
+2.73% |
Chart,
Messages,
Profile,
more... |
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MCD |
10:04am |
20.94 |
+0.07 |
1,721,300 |
695 |
$14,553.30 |
$48.65 |
+0.34% |
14.37 |
$4,566.15 |
+45.72% |
Chart,
Messages,
Profile,
more... |
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$$CASH |
0 |
$0.00 |
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$25,480.54 |
-$1,912.82 |
-6.98% |
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$2,604.68 |
+6.53% |
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Pay bills on time, every time.
Yahoo! Bill Pay is free! |
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Set Alert - Portfolio Email |
Notes about what you see:
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The volume column refers to how many shares of that stock were
traded on the last trading day. For IBM, 1,743,000 shares were traded on
January 28, 2003. That doesn't mean much to us until we compare that to
the volume for the last week, month, or year. |
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Red numbers mean that the stock went down from the last
trading day! (That's NOT a "good thing!") |
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At the bottom of the screen you'll see lots of links to recent
news articles about your companies, etc. You can read some of these, but
don't spend too much time doing research (at least not early on).
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To
add a stock later:
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While
in the Basic view of your portfolio, click on Create Transaction (on the
right-hand side of the screen above the boxes with your portfolio information.
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Read
the instructions and select BUY from the pull-down menu. Fill in the stock
symbol of the company you want to add, the number of shares, the price, etc.
You can add several stocks at one time by using the button at the bottom that
allows you to continue.
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When
you're finished adding stocks, be sure to click on Finished at the bottom of the
screen.
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To
sell stocks later:
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While
in the Basic view of your portfolio, click on Create Transaction (as above) and
click on Sell on the pull-down menu. Follow the same instructions for
giving it the number of shares you want to sell, the price per share, etc.
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BIG
DEAL HINTS AND REQUIREMENTS:
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You
must visit your portfolio and make notes on your log sheet at least 3 times
throughout the semester. You MAY visit and "trade" as often
as you like. It's more fun and you'll learn more if you visit about
once a week!
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Markets are Open! Remember that the markets open at 9 a.m. and
close at 3 p.m. Eastern time. If you are working on your portfolio at
3 a.m., you won't see any changes when you go back into a stock until the
next business day.
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Record keeping: When you work on your portfolio (every time - once a
day or once a week), download the spreadsheet and store it on your disk or
hard drive. Occasionally, I'll email you and ask you to email a copy
of it to me. (See below for instructions on how to convert the file,
etc.)
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This will eliminate the need for using the forms that I created and filling
it in. You will automatically have an excel file for each trade you've
made (or update).
Throughout
the semester, you’ll want to check on the ups and downs of your stocks, buy
some more, sell off the losers, and read more about the companies you’ve
invested in.
To do
so, you’ll return to the Yahoo! site as well as visit the web sites of the
companies you’ve bought. Research
other companies you’re interested in by reading on the web!
This takes some time and work, but it's really fun and painless since you
aren't really spending any $$!
Once
you've got your portfolio started and downloaded the materials you'll need, be
sure to check your stocks at least once a week and download the portfolio
into an excel file.
Project
Instructions:
The
game consists investing a hypothetical $30,000 in common stocks listed on the
American Stock Exchange (AMEX), the Nasdaq Stock Market (NASDAQ), and the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE). You must initially invest equal amounts of around $10,000
in three different stocks.
This
is a game, but there will be no winners or losers!
Since you’re just learning about the stock market, the objective is to
“play” without losing any money!
Excel
Stock Market Form.
You can download your portfolio and
convert it to an excel file directly from the yahoo site. Here are the
instructions:
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From
either the
Basic view or the
Performance view, you can
download your portfolio. Under the boxes with your stocks on the far right
side of the screen, click on Download Spreadsheet.
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Then
click on SAVE and direct your computer to save the file on your disk or hard
drive (at home). The file will be saved with a .csv extension (instead of
the regular .xls for an excel spreadsheet).
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Open
MS Excel in another window and find the file that you saved. Be sure to
click on All Files in the open box so the computer will show every file, not
just the .xls ones.
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Click
on the file then immediately go to File, Save As, and switch it to an excel
worksheet (.xls extension). Change the name of the file to include your
name and the date of your portfolio. (Such as pamjune10portfolio.xls).
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Once
you have the document open in Excel, go to File, Page Setup, and in a header,
add your name and the current date.
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Email
me a copy of the file when requested.
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At
the end of the project, you will need to email me ALL excel files that you have
saved along with a summary document that you create in MS Word.
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Word
Log Form.
Click here to download a Stock
Market Game MS Word file that you can use to log your activities throughout
the semester. This allows you to make notes about why you bought or sold
various stocks and to keep track of the details. Feel free to alter the
form in any way that meets your needs.
Once
you have completed the semester-long project, please
send me an email with both forms (Excel and Word) attached.
This
is a fun, exciting, and free way to play the market! The more you play,
the more you'll learn.
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Click the book to access the web site for the text.
Click the Vista box to access the log-in page.
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