Stock Portfolio

The basic things you need to know to create and maintain a healthy stock portfolio. 

1. Know your resources: After your bills are paid, how much money do you have available for investment? (For our class, you will have $100,000, but in real life you will need to think a bit more deeply). 

2. Know your goals. Realistically speaking, what do you hope to accomplish with your investments? Pay for College? Retirement? A certain amount of money? What will the timeframe be for reaching this goal?

3. Know your risk-tolerance. The stock market is inherently risky, it will require you to deal with loss. How much can you afford to lose?

4. Know your strategy. Based upon your resources, your financial goals, and your risk-tolerance, you should be able to develop an investment strategy. You should be prepared to stick to the strategy even if the market begins to behave in a way that scares you. 

5. Know your companies. Keep track of how your companies are doing, do they have upcoming changes, challenges, opportunities? 

Investment advisers will all tell you the same thing: diversification is the key to a healthy stock portfolio. As we begin to research stocks for our portfolios, we will be following a specific diversification strategy. 

Please choose at least ten stocks for your online portfolio. You should begin researching this week. Your stock portfolio should include at least one of each of the following:

1. A Local Company. Choose a company that you know personally, perhaps it is located nearby or a friend or family member works there.

2. An Energy stock. It can be solar, it can be wind, or it can be just plain oil, but you need to include some energy stocks in your portfolio.

3. A Blue Chip. Look through the S & P 500 list and find something a bit different from your other stocks.

4. A Bank. You should include at least one bank. What bank do you or your parents use? Do they like it? Try buying some of that bank’s stock.

5. A Science Stock. Choose a company that is doing something truly revolutionary. It can be anything from biotech to robotics, but it has to be innovative.

6. A Speculation. Do something crazy, research a small company that you think might have a chance at suddenly breaking through with a new product.

7. A Retailer. Do some research and find out what company is opening new branches, look for franchise opportunities as a possible sign of growth.

8. A large company with stable growth. Look through the products you use at home, choose a company that produces the goods that you and your family are using on a regular basis.

9. A Cyclical stock. You should buy a cyclical stock. A company that has big swings in value over time: think of companies that may go up or down in value, like construction companies or aircraft makers.

10. A Tech company. You should own some tech stock.

Here is some basic information on how the virtual stock exchange works.

The Stock Market Game 

Password: ziggurats