Economics Homework Help

This is the first of three stock journal assignments you will complete during this course. Save your assignment templates from this assignment and update them for the assignments in Weeks 8 and 10.

For this assignment, use the two provided templates:

1. In one template, enter your chosen companies, the share prices, and the number of shares you will be purchasing, given your budget of $25,000.
2. In the other template, write your rationale/summary.

Download both templates. Then, complete, save, and upload both templates at the same time to Blackboard when submitting your work.

Note: Watch the Excel tutorial videos linked in this week to learn how to use Excel before attempting the assignment. You can use the template provided, or you may create your own template based on the one provided.

Scenario

Capital markets and the ability to raise funds for corporate uses are essential to the U.S. economic system. For this assignment, imagine you have $25,000 to invest in U.S. companies. You are buying used stock.

You are investing, or buying, the stock because you believe the three companies you choose will make money and pay you a dividend in cash. Each share of stock you buy entitles you to any dividend declared and a vote at the annual stockholders’ meeting.

The stocks you choose also give you the ability to earn your money back by selling the stock. Of course, investing in stocks is risky, and there is the possibility that the stock you buy will be worth less when you want your money back. The company is not obligated to give you any of your money back. You will only get your money back if another investor wants to buy your stock.

Instructions

Using the above scenario and the resources listed below, complete the following directions for your Week 3 Stock Journal entry:

1. Use your knowledge and experience to select three publicly traded U.S. companies.
   • Make sure you are practicing good diversification. Diversification means you are not selecting three companies from the same industry. For example, you would not want to choose Target, Walmart, and Sam’s Club because they sell the same types of products. A better choice would be Amazon, Uber, and Kroger, because they sell different products and services.
   • You may wish to visit Statistics, Surveys and Government Resources to find such companies. For stock price information, you may use the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Yahoo! Finance, or The Wall Street Journal.
2. Determine how you will divide $25,000 across the three companies (for example, $10,000 in Company 1, $10,000 in Company 2, and $5,000 in Company 3).
   • Decide the amount you are investing in each company. You need not provide any analysis to justify your decisions.
3. Provide a reason for picking each company.
   • For example, you might invest in Ford because that company gets a lot of your money, and you hear that Ford is doing well and will continue to do well.
4. Identify the number of shares you are buying and the price of the shares you are buying for each company.
   • Once you decide the companies and the amount you will invest in each company, determine how many shares you can buy. For example, if Company 1 is selling for $42.16, then you may buy $10,000/$42.16, or 237.19 shares. But you cannot buy a part of a share, so you decide to buy either 237 or 238. In this example, you buy 237 shares at $42.16 per share, investing $9,991.92. You will not be able to buy exactly $10,000, or $5,000, or $25,000, but it will be relatively close.
5. Go to the Strayer University Research page to locate and incorporate at least two quality sources into this assignment.
6. Submit the two following documents at the same time for your journal assignment submission. Note that you will update your template in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. Save the template after you have entered your figures so that your selected stocks growth or decline can be tracked.
   • Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Project Excel Template [XLSX].
     • Note: The above Excel template has been provided for your use for the stock journal assignment. Notice that there are directions for your work in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. When submitting your assignment for each week, you may use the provided Excel template above, your own Excel template that you create, or a Word document that you create as long as it communicates the requested information.
     • Note: Some cells in the Excel template are locked to prevent the formulas from being disturbed. The cells you need to complete this assignment are not locked. You may create your own templates, however, it is recommended that you use the templates provided. 
   • Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Writing Assignment Template [DOC] with your rationale.

week 8

This is the second of three stock journal assignments that you will complete during this course. For this assignment, add your work for Week 8 to your previous work from Week 3, following the instructions and using the provided templates below.

• In the Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Project Excel Template 1 [XLSX] template you began in Week 3, enter your chosen companies, the share prices, and the number of shares you will be purchasing given your budget of $25K.
  • Note: The above Excel template has been provided for your use for the stock journal assignment. You will notice that there are directions for your work in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. When submitting your assignment for each week, you may use the provided Excel template above, your own Excel template that you create or a Word document that you create as long as it communicates the requested information.
  • Note: There are locked cells in the Excel template. The cells have been locked to prevent the formulas from being disturbed. The cells that you will need to use to complete this assignment are not locked. You may create your own templates, however it is recommended that you use the templates provided.
• In the Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Writing Assignment Template [DOC] template you began in Week 3, write your rationale/summary.

Download both templates. Then, complete, save, and submit both templates at the same time to Blackboard.

Note: Watch the Excel tutorial videos to learn how to use Excel before attempting the assignment. You can use the template provided, or you may create your own template based on the one provided.

INSTRUCTIONS

For this week‘s portion of the assignment, complete the following:

1. Record the current price of the stock for each company you selected in Week 3’s Stock Journal.
   • You may use any price during this week (for example, day one price, the opening, the low, the high, the close, or any price you find when you check it during the day).
   • Use the MS Excel spreadsheet or MS Word document to put your Week 3 and Week 8 stock prices side-by-side, to show your comparison.
2. Determine the current value of your total investment.
   • Do not make any changes to your investment at this time.
   • Calculate your new total (earnings or losses) based on the number of shares and the new price per share, for each company.
3. Provide your assessment of your investments after evaluating the results of your current investments. This is the information you will include in your word document template.
   • Consider the following as you provide your assessment:
     • How would you evaluate the results of your current investment?
     • Why do you believe the stock increased, decreased, or remained static?
     • Are you upset because your investment is worth less than $25,000?
     • Are you happy with the result and the trend?
4. Go to Strayer library’s search page to locate and incorporate at least two quality sources into this assignment.
5. Submit two documents for your journal assignment submission by uploading both documents at the same time to the assignment submission area. Note that you will update your template in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. Save the template after you have entered your figures so that your selected stocks’ growth or decline can be tracked.
   • Completed Excel template with Week 3 and Week 8 complete.
   • Completed Word document template with your rationale with Week 3 and Week 8 complete.

week 10

This week, you will find out if you have made money on your original (pretend) investments or if you will need to find a side job to recoup your losses.

This is the last of the three stock journal assignments you will complete during this course. For this assignment, you will add your work for Week 10 to your previous work from Weeks 3 and 8, following the instructions below. Two templates have been provided for your use.

• The Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Project Excel Template 1 [XLSX] you began in Week 3 is where you will enter your chosen companies, the share prices, and the number of shares you will be purchasing given your budget of $25K.
  • Note: The above Excel template has been provided for your use for the stock journal assignment. You will notice that there are directions for your work in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. When submitting your assignment for each week, you may use the provided Excel template above, your own Excel template that you create or a Word document that you create as long as it communicates the requested information.
  • Note: There are locked cells in the Excel template. The cells have been locked to prevent the formulas from being disturbed. The cells that you will need to use to complete this assignment are not locked. You may create your own templates, however it is recommended that you use the templates provided.
• The Weeks 3, 8, and 10 Stock Journal Writing Assignment Template [DOC] you began in Week 3 is where you will write your rationale/summary.

Download both templates. Then, complete, save, and upload both templates at the same time to Blackboard when submitting your work.

Note: Watch the Excel tutorial videos to learn how to use Excel before attempting the assignment. You can use the template provided or you may create your own template based on the one provided.

INSTRUCTIONS

For Week 10, review your investment for the last time and complete the following:

1. Record the current price of the stock for each company you selected in Week 3’s Stock Journal.
   • You may use any price during this week (for example, day one price, the opening, the low, the high, the close, or any price you find when you check it during the day). Use the MS Excel spreadsheet or MS Word document to put your Week 10 stock prices side by side, so that you can compare them with Weeks 3 and 8.
2. Determine the total value of your investment.
3. Provide your final opinion or assessment of your investments and type your opinion or assessment into your Word document template.
   • Consider the following questions as you provide your assessment:
     • Did you make money or lose money?
     • What were your results?
     • Based on hindsight, what you would do differently?
4. Discuss what you learned from this assignment and how this assignment could help you in the future. Include this information in your Word document template as well.
5. Go to the Strayer library search page to locate and incorporate at least two quality sources into this assignment.
   • For stock price information, you may use the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Yahoo! finance, or The Wall Street Journal Online.
6. Submit two documents for your journal assignment submission by uploading both documents at the same time to the assignment submission area. Note that you will update your template in Weeks 3, 8, and 10. Save the template after you have entered your figures so that your selected stocks growth or decline can be tracked.
   • Completed Excel template with Week 3, 8, and 10 complete.
   • Completed Word document template with your rationale with Week 3, 8, and 10 complete