Assignment:
Final Paper: Stock Portfolio
For this course, you will create a stock portfolio of five stocks you select and submit a Final Paper on your analysis of your stock portfolio in Week 5. You will start working on your Final Paper during Week 1 and closely monitor the performance of your stocks to inform your Final Paper in Week 5. During Week 1, you will conduct research in the Walden Library and on the Internet to find information about stock investing and select your five stocks.
Submit by Day 7, a 250- to 350-word summary that includes the following:
• A summary of the importance of stock performance in attracting investment capital for companies.
• Guidelines that you used when making stock investment decisions.
• A brief summary of your investment objective for each of the five stocks that you select for your portfolio in Week 1. There are three major stock investment objectives.
• A description of the five stocks you selected based on these stock investment guidelines and investment objectives and that you think have significant growth potential in the short term.
• A summary of the reasons and supporting information regarding why you believe each of these stocks will achieve your investment objectives.
You may wish to adopt an investment strategy of aggressive growth, balanced/mixed growth, or stability/conservative choices. Be sure to clearly document your investment objective for each of your five stocks.
You must document the price of your stocks at the time you select them as well as review each one in your "portfolio" and document the closing price every Friday.
Then, use information on the importance of stock performance in attracting investment capital for companies, the guidelines for making stock investment decisions, your investment objectives for your stocks, and the stock performance data as the basis for your Final
Learning Resources
This page contains the Learning Resources for this week. Be sure to scroll down the page to see all of this week's assigned Learning Resources.
Required Resources
Readings
• Frank, R. H., & Bernanke, B. S. (2010). Principles of microeconomics, brief edition (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
"Thinking Like an Economist"
introduces the concept of scarcity and presents the unavoidable fact that our needs and wants are unlimited and that the resources available to satisfy them are limited. The chapter also explains that, in an environment of scarcity, making choices on the basis of a comparison of costs and benefits is a useful approach to decision making.
Focus on the inputs to the process of comparing costs and benefits. In addition, review the appendix, "Working with Equations, Graphs, and Tables." This appendix provides a review of some of the mathematical skills you need to use in this course.
Media
• Kahn Academy. (2014k). Marginal utility [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics/choices-opp-cost-tutorial/marginal-utility-tutorial/v/marginal-utility
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 12 minutes.
• Kahn Academy. (2014e). Equalizing marginal utility per dollar spent [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics/choices-opp-cost-tutorial/marginal-utility-tutorial/v/equalizing-marginal-utility-per-dollar-spent
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 8 minutes.
Optional Resources
• Frank, R. H., & Bernanke, B. S. (2011). Principles of microeconomics, brief edition (2nd ed.) [Supplemental material]. Retrieved from https://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0077316770/student_view0/index.html