...Julius Chen George Chiu Armen Odadjian Mengyang Wu FBE459: Stock-Trak End of Semester Report Our portfolio had a return of +6.97% as of November 28th compared with a +3.86% return on the S&P 500 in the same time period. We ended with a Sharpe Ratio of 4.30 and portfolio beta of 0.23. Over 136 trades, we employed various option strategies, longed and shorted equities, speculated on commodities with futures, and invested in fixed income securities. Listed below are a few highlights and in-depth analysis of the strategies that we used. Protected Put Ticker | Position | Cost | Strike | S0 | ST | Profit/Loss | MU | Long | | | 30.61 | 34.30 | +$369.00 | | Buy Put | 1.72 | 31 | 30.61 | 34.30 | -$172.00 | DVN | Long | | | 59.02 | 67.20 | +$818.00 | | Buy Put | 1.60 | 57.5 | 59.02 | 67.20 | -$160.00 | SSYS | Long | | | 116.63 | 102.42 | -$1,421.00 | | Buy Put | 6.70 | 115 | 116.63 | 102.42 | +588.00 | *where S0= price at position open and ST=price at position close On October 22, we entered into three protect put strategies for Micro Technology (semiconductor maker), Devon Energy Corp. (energy company), and Stratasys, Ltd. (3-D printer maker). Our team believed that each company would outperform their peers in their perspective industries. Each company, however, operates in volatile industries. The semiconductor industry suffers from cyclical demand and producers often see margins slashed due to constant price wars. The stock prices of energy companies often...
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...Stock Trak Simulation Project Team: RELDTraders Members: Rose Ewatame & Laura Dujmovich FINA 5319 Investments Dr. Debby Su Revised Investment Policy Statement Introduction The RELDTraders Fund (the “fund”) was created to promote wealth for the portfolio’s investors. The fund managers are Rose Ewatame and Laura Dujmovich who both have minimal trading experience. The purpose of this policy statement is to establish guidelines under which the portfolio will be managed. Such guidelines include accountability standards and monitoring of the portfolio’s development. The investor’s current goals are capital appreciation partnered with current wealth preservation. Investment Objectives & Spending Policy The objective of the fund will be to earn short-term capital gains due to the minimal investment period of ten weeks. The current assets of the portfolio are $1,000,000. We will attempt to keep our cash holdings under 20% of our portfolio. The fund managers anticipate a return of 4.8% and the worst case scenario 3-month loss limit is -10.0%. The assets of the portfolio will be allocated as follows; 30% Bond Market, 30% Mutual Funds, 40% Stocks. Investments in bonds will be equally distributed between corporate and government bonds. We will invest in risky mutual funds such as ProFunds and high yield bond funds to offset the low-risk characteristics of our equity holdings. All of our stock holdings will be long equity positions that we expect to gradually appreciate therefore...
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...On January 25, 2016, the Stock-Trak simulation program began and my goal of this simulation program was trying to increase the value of the portfolio with minimizing the risk before April 15, 2016, which is the last trading day. Throughout the duration of the assignment, as investing strategies were discussed in class, I began to take more of an academic approach in regard to my investment strategy. I began to not only rely on news articles but I also analyzed company financials, giving me a better picture of the company as a whole. I decided to buy stock in safe, well-established companies that I new would give me a steady profit. That strategy worked pretty well for me, I made a profit with Alibaba, Starbucks and Wal-Mart. I made the biggest profit with Alibaba “ $18,139 and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc “ $20,161, while I made only minimal profit with the others. However, I failed to make a profit with Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3X ETF and Momo Inc, losing a total over $20,000 with each. I decided to take a chance and buy some stock in companies that I was not familiar with and achieved slight success doing so. I used various articles available on Stock Trak such as, Stocks to Watch, The Market Story, and Market Update, as my guide to buying stocks in unfamiliar companies, I received my biggest profit with VS 3X WTI CRUDE at $12,870 and Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X ETF at $12,280. Both of these two stock are 3 X ETF, which seeking a return that is +300%...
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...Building a successful investment portfolio is a very important task that millions of people put a lot of time and research into in order to be successful. A portfolio is a mixture of different types of investments that blend together to supply a return in which one can use for whatever is preferred. Over the course of the current semester, my finance class and I have been working on our own personal portfolios via an online investment strategy game called StockTrak. This investment simulation gives an enjoyable way for students to learn how to effectively invest capital into financial assets. Each student was granted one million dollars at the beginning of the investment period in which they can devote towards assets such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, and many other resources in order to maximize their return. Going into this project, I tried to come up with a plan on what my overall goal would be. I decided that I planned on investing in stocks that would offer a greater return in the long run. Letting my stocks continuously grow over many years could have potentially yielded a sufficient return in the long-run. This kind of investing would work well for a retirement fund, which is what I decided my ultimate goal would be. I would plan on using my investment income to support my retired life, or if I was lucky enough, to use to fund my children’s education or any other large future expenditure. Personally I am very risk averse and don’t do well with the...
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...Clarkson University Professor: Susan Young FN 475 Portfolio Management Stock Simulation: Spring 2010 Visit the web page at http://v2.stocktrak.com/public/members/registrationstudents.aspx?p=ClarksonU-FN475-Sp10 to activate and pay for your account online with a credit card. The fee for the service is $28.95. [Or, you may mail the Registration Form attached to the trading rules form along with your check to STOCK-TRAK] Stocktrak.com Project Trading Rules: http://www.stocktrak.com/public/content/tradingrules.aspx Each student will run a $1,000,000 portfolio. Trading accounts will be active on Wednesday, January 27h and end on Wednesday April 14th (11 weeks total). PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU REGISTER BEFORE FRIDAY JANUARY 22ND TO ENSURE YOU ARE ABLE TO ACCESS THE SYSTEM. Each student is to assume the role of hedge fund manager and to design and execute an appropriate strategy to maximize the portfolio’s return over the eleven (11) week investment horizon. The clients of the fund have specified capital appreciation as the main investment objective and have no short-term cash needs. Your challenge will be to design and execute an investment strategy that satisfies the client over the 11 week investment period. Your grade for this project is based on several factors as outlined on page three. Each student will be responsible for articulating the investment objective, formulating an appropriate investment strategy to meet the objectives, conducting the necessary...
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...StockTrak Project Summary 1. I chose to passively manage my portfolio for a number of reasons. The first reason was in order to minimize trading costs and therefore increase overall real return of my portfolio. The second reason was that finding mispriced securities is a hard task to undertake, and therefore would increase the volatility of your returns. Since I don’t have previous trading experience, I would be taking a risk by trying to outperform the market. For that reason, I decided to passively hold the indexed portfolio. My third reason for choosing a passive management style was that the current state of the market is very volatile. Even experts from top banks have had a hard time correctly predicting the future outlook on equities. Another big reason I chose to passively manage my portfolio is that capital gains taxes are drastically lowered using this strategy. By holding securities for long periods of times, you decrease the capital gains taxes owed when you sell the securities. For active managers, high capital gains tax on sold securities is a big cost to consider. I wanted to avoid this issue and factored it into my decision to be a passive portfolio manager. 2. My final tracking error was .74%. This tracking error shows a fairly close relationship between the returns of my portfolio and the S&P 500 index. This tracking error was consistent with the initial optimization objective of closely modeling the returns of the S&P 500 as indicated by the...
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...Finance 363 Stocktrak Final Report Group 10 Cody Norton, Nick Turner, Shane Siel The stocktrak simulation was very informative. It was interesting to watch the markets with something on the line. My group was in the top 3 much of the semester. Right around the end of the simulation we fell out of the top 3 and finished in the 10th position. We could have tried to change our investment strategy in order to chase the top spot, but in the end we stayed true to our objective. Objective and Strategy Our objective is one that most would consider boring. I would describe myself as a long-term investor. When I actually begin to invest real money in the stock market, I will invest in sound companies that pay a decent dividend. Although the stocktrak simulation took place over a relatively short period of time, we still invested with a long-term horizon in mind. That long-term horizon will produce smaller short-term gains. Our portfolio was constructed with a buy and hold mentality. We tried to avoid being swayed by our emotions and the short-term fads of investors. It was hard to avoid investing in accordance with the predictions of the markets gurus, but in the end I believe our investments were safer because of it. The buy and hold mentality allows us to overlook negative short-term returns with the understanding that the returns will normalize in the long-term. We spread our cash out among a variety of investment vehicles. We planned on placing our funds in...
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...Investment Principles and Analysis Trinity University FNCE 3352 Spring 2010 INSTRUCTOR: Carl M. Hubbard, Ph.D., CFA Office: CGC N3l6; phone 999-7283, carl.hubbard@trinity.edu OFFICE HOURS: 9:30 – 11:30 MW; 2:30 – 4:00 TTh; Other times available by appointment. TEXTBOOK: Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, and Alan J. Marcus. Essentials of Investments, 7th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. CALCULATOR: Texas Instruments BAII Plus Calculator COURSE OBJECTIVES The learning objectives for students in this course are: (l) improve your understanding of financial securities and markets, (2) develop the ability to analyze investment companies, common stocks, and bonds for investment decisions, (3) understand how options are valued and how option contracts are used in hedging and speculating, (4) understand how to apply security analysis techniques in relatively efficient capital markets, and (5) gain practical experience in trading securities. The prerequisite for this course is the completion of FNCE 3301 with a grade of C- or better. REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE 1. Complete the assigned readings and problems. 2. Attend and participate in each class meeting. 3. Complete the security analysis project. 4. Complete the three examinations as scheduled. READING AND PROBLEM ASSIGNMENTS The reading and problem assignments are designed to achieve the goals of the course and are to be completed in preparation for the discussion of that...
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...companies that I personally like and use on a daily basis, like Costco and Target. My father has worked at CSX for years and I have an edge on getting information about the company from him (public of course). When it came to choosing more risky investments, I used Yahoo Finance and Google Finance as my tools to spot them. I choose poor performing stocks to buy and hope for a good turn around. It proved successful with Education Management. However for other stocks like Sequans, it performed very poorly. I was basically gambling on whether they would bounce back. I soon realized it is not so simple to trade in the markets from day to day. There really is no strategy on how to make money fast. Without considering the limitations of Stocktrak, I know I would be crushed in real life. I learn best from doing it firsthand and this project taught me a lot about investing and how risky it really can be if you’re simply trying to make a buck. Weekly Transactions Transaction Entry Date Entry Price Exit Date Exit Price Target (TGT) 14-Sep $51.31 7-Dec $53.65 CSX Corp. (CSX) 14-Sep $20.22 7-Dec $21.77 Costco (COST) 14-Sep $80.90 7-Dec $87.66 Johnson (JCI)...
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...Investment Principles and Analysis Trinity University FNCE 3352 Spring 2010 INSTRUCTOR: Carl M. Hubbard, Ph.D., CFA Office: CGC N3l6; phone 999-7283, carl.hubbard@trinity.edu OFFICE HOURS: 9:30 – 11:30 MW; 2:30 – 4:00 TTh; Other times available by appointment. TEXTBOOK: Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, and Alan J. Marcus. Essentials of Investments, 7th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. CALCULATOR: Texas Instruments BAII Plus Calculator COURSE OBJECTIVES The learning objectives for students in this course are: (l) improve your understanding of financial securities and markets, (2) develop the ability to analyze investment companies, common stocks, and bonds for investment decisions, (3) understand how options are valued and how option contracts are used in hedging and speculating, (4) understand how to apply security analysis techniques in relatively efficient capital markets, and (5) gain practical experience in trading securities. The prerequisite for this course is the completion of FNCE 3301 with a grade of C- or better. REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE 1. Complete the assigned readings and problems. 2. Attend and participate in each class meeting. 3. Complete the security analysis project. 4. Complete the three examinations as scheduled. READING AND PROBLEM ASSIGNMENTS The reading and problem assignments are designed to achieve the goals of the course and are to be completed in preparation...
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...When first embarking on the Stocktrak site I must admit I had very little experience with investing of any real kind. I was an amateur and I thought it would be a fun way to learn a little bit about the market and myself in how I might approach looking at investing and the kind of approach I would take. From the start I took a rather conservative approach to the entire thing. I roughly made about one trade a week and even didn’t make a trade in a week at all. Granted in a market that’s down a bit to maximize my earnings that might not have been the best approaches as the market didn’t not vary a whole lot, at least for what I had invested in, but I will get to that later. As far as what I hoped to get as a rough expected return was about 5-10%. I was hoping to make some money within the game but also not expecting huge profits based on the current financial climate and the amount of trading and effort put in for my more conservative portfolio. That return I was hoping to realize in the 10-week holding period but looking at it now with a change in the climate in future months it might be more realizable in an annualized holding period. Some constraints that I took into consideration while doing this project are not very severe and don’t entail a whole lot. When I took this project on I didn’t particularly see the 10 weeks as the final see all. I did not go and put all 500,000 directly into the market even though I used most of it. It was more long term probably closer to a...
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...Stock Trak-Report Investment Analysis I Executive Summary This report will describe examine the various strategies that were undertaken to successfully complete the Stocktrak simulation. Firstly, an analysis of the US and Chinese markets will be given as they are crucial markets that play a big role in the worldwide economy. Due to the fact that the US economy has been going through a recession, a working knowledge of this economic was crucial to our success. Our initial strategy revolved around timing trades based on daily market performance and expectations using daily market news and reports. While this strategy was successful to an extent, our group soon focused on diversifying our portfolio, not just through the quantity of equity held, but also by using correlations between firms. Our group began investing in many technology firms as well as some communications firms and futures. An industry analysis of these industries will be given as most of our stocks were held in these areas. Since there are technological advances almost daily, we felt the technology industry could be very promising. The automotive industry was also important due to Toyota’s recall and we quickly learned just how volatile the futures market could be. Portfolio statistics will also be given and a comparison of the NASDAQ Composite Index and our portfolio will be given. In the end, our final strategy consisted of diversifying our portfolio, using daily market news and expectations and by paying...
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...Executive Summary With the unpredictable markets that have occurred in the past few months there truly was no need to go to any amusement park because no ride could take you on as many bumps, twist and drops that this economy has taken us investors on. The Stock-Trac Simulation was a great educational tool which gives beginners in the online trading world basic knowledge and tools to help succeed in the “world’s largest casino”. Today’s world is globalized and what makes a smart investor is someone who knows all about the different and diverse markets and companies of the world. For this assignment we had to invest in different companies and exchanges from all around the globe. Since we were new to investing, this project seemed to be a little overwhelming at first glance and we knew we needed some assistance in researching domestic and international markets. By using Yahoo Finance and Google Finance, we got the help and resources needed to create a diversified portfolio investing in bonds, futures, and stocks. Everyday as we would do our research on certain stocks and other investments, we continued to notice frightening downward trends in world exchanges from NYSE to Shanghai Stock Exchange. We knew before we began trading that there was high volatility in today’s market and it seemed to be causing unpredictable changes in price. These trends were causing havoc on the markets and many companies ending up going bankrupt or were on their last life line. Since this was a short...
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...------------------------------------------------- Portfolio Composition The Money Team designed this portfolio September 27th, 2013 with the plan to invest mainly in large cap and high growth U.S equities. All equities were purchased on that date with the intention to hold them until December 6th, 2013. The primary goal of this portfolio was to maximize growth and value of the portfolio through an active investment strategy. This portfolio was concentrated in large cap U.S equities and domestic mutual funds. There was a blend of small cap growth stocks, which were selected based on potential for large growth. This decision was in line with our primary goal of maximizing growth. The portfolio is highly focused in the technology sector in order to capitalize on advance in the short-term. The portfolio is tailored to an investor with high-risk tolerance. The Money Team held on to its U.S equities throughout the course of the time horizon. The only changes The Money Team made to its portfolio during the time horizon was selling underperforming bonds. Below is the holding period return data for each of The Money Team’s assets: Company Name | QTY | Currency | Price Paid | Last Price | Profit/Loss (local curr) | P/L % | 3-D Systems Corp (Delaware) | 100 | USD | $55.96 | $75.38 | $1,942.00 | 34.70 | Rite Aid Corp | 1000 | USD | $4.59 | $5.75 | $1,160.00 | 25.27 | Virtus Investment Partners Inc | 100 | USD | $168.00 | $202.04 | $3,404.00 | 20.26 | Nokia...
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