The Final Day!

Well, here we are; my penultimate day of trading has come to a close and my final opportunity to make money is tomorrow. This week has certainly been the busiest so far. Since monday, I have bought three additional stocks and sold one. Here is a recap of how the numbers looked:

ADSK: Bought on monday at $47.73, closed today at $47.82. Contrary to what I expected, the stock did not build over the week. Despite a huge announcement of 3D printing advancements on wednesday, the stock did not do much at all. However, tomorrow is the big day and I am hoping for big things. I am glad I have at least gained a little money on this stock and I am very excited to see what will happen tomorrow, my fingers are certainly crossed.

CSCO: Bought on tuesday, I am trying to gather up as many >$50 tech stocks as possible and cisco is known for being a profitable stock. After watching CNBC and seeing the hosts rave about it as a high performing stock, I decided to buy one share at $22.97. From tuesday until today, the stock actually performed quite well. However, with my history of having a stock do well, then plummet, I decided to sell today at $23.84. I am glad I have won on at least one stock and I think I got out at the right time.

SYMC: Bought yesterday @ $21.32. Again, another solid looking tech company. There are not many good tech companies with prices around the $20 mark, but Symantec is a very well respected company and is incredibly solid with its $16 billion market cap. Again, with SYMC, all the research I conducted indicated a lot of profitability and is considered a 5 star stock by S&P capital IQ. I really think I am on to something with these large tech companies with low asking prices.

GE: Good old GE, what don't they make? No seriously.... What don't they make? I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with a line of pillows. Anyway, Another huge tech company with a cheaper stock. Bought one share this morning at $26.63.


With this many tech companies now in my portfolio, one HAS to do well. I will be utterly devastated if this little plan I have going on does not work out for me.

Final Week!

Well, I'm starting this week with a clean slate. I sold AFOP on friday and I am still reeling from the loss after it looked so promising. After a lot of research, I decided to buy one share of Autodesk today. I bought one share for $47.73 and I am really hoping it will due as well as I think. Although I tried to promise myself not buy on a whim, I pretty much did that just for this stock. As I was scrolling through the TDAmeritrade home page I saw a few articles on Autodesk and that it will report it's earnings on friday. Although I am early to the party, I am really hoping that this will pay off. Being that Autodesk is a tech company, I have pretty high expectations. With the tech industry booming, I am sure that the Q1 results will be to my advantage. The reason I bought the stock so early in the week is that I think the stock will pick up steam throughout the week then boom on friday whenever the results are announced. There have been numerous reports about ADSK being projected as a top stock for 2014 so hopefully this will pay off well.

This Week's Plan

Still dealing with the failure that is my invest in AFOP, I truly need to finish on a high note. As I previously mentioned, I am almost glad that I have had such bad luck because I really believe it is teaching me a valuable lesson on the uncertainty of the stock market. As far as this week goes,  I have compiled a list of 7 stocks and I will watch them closely as soon as the market opens tomorrow so that I can get a good idea as to how the will grow/decay. I plan on buying 2-3 of these stocks depending on how their projections look. This is essentially my plan from last week, but I will be far more vigilant and will sell as soon as possible at the first warning. I will try to accumulate as many daily gains as possible and hopefully those will add up so that I am looking at actually making a profit, let alone $117. As I research these 7 companies tomorrow, I will also look for any news about them so that I can get further understanding as to what might cause a change in the stock's price. This is my last week of trading so I plan on being in high gear until the very last transaction. While this project has not made me any money, it has certainly been fun and I cannot wait to compile all of my numbers and make the graphs to represent the data.

Things Are Not Working Out...

Well, AFOP is currently at $17.51. Since I bought the stock, it lost 12% in value and I really do not think I am going to get the $117 I wanted. Unless a miracle occurs in the next week I really think this project will turn out to be a failure. However, while the valuation of my account is going down, my knowledge of the stock market is going up. Everyday I learn something new. While I do feel defeated, I am not giving up. I still have a full week and I really hope something miraculous occurs. I will work up a plan for sunday's blog and hopefully start getting some money. This project has totally defeated the hubris I carried that picking stocks was easy. While I still do want to get involved with stocks as part of my career, I will do so with far more respect for those who were able to make money "easily."

AFOP Looks to Be a Loser

Purchase price: $19.70, today's close: $18.47.

The stock which I thought would perform the best for me has turned out to loose the most. I think this truly shows the volatility of the stock market and how it really is hard to predict where the prices will go. As I mentioned before, everything I have read on the stock says to buy heavy, but that really is not working out too well for me earnings. These numbers are really disheartening and I think I should be more cautious with my spending. It truly is funny how, in comparison with my other account, when I actually knew what I was doing, I did far worse than when I had no idea what was going on and I invested blindly. Being that all of these sites do recommend that I retain my AFOP stock, I guess I will hold onto it for a little while longer and try to wait out the storm. I will do some additional research tonight and tomorrow and hopefully get a good list of $10-30 stocks to buy to diversify my portfolio in hopes of gains. I hope this current drought will just be a blip on the radar and hopefully the money will start to come in soon!

The Plan For the Week

For the coming week, I plan on making multiple trades a day. Now that I know that a stock can fluctuate so much, I will try to only buy a stock when advertised on TV for that day. Additionally, I will try to keep from buying stocks more than $30.00 as I said on friday, this diversification allows for(hopefully) greater growth in a variety of stocks. I will also try to spend more time watching CNBC and reading the Wall Street Journal to get a better understanding of what is causing the stocks to go up. This will help to show if a growth will be ephemeral or more long term. I believe that this week will be the most involved on my part and I will try to refrain from sitting back and letting the stocks do whatever they do. I am really excited to see how this approach will be different from the way I have been trading in weeks past. I am rather disappointed that the only change that has occurred in two full weeks of trading has been a few cents, but hopefully, with the time I have left I can start making some real money.

This Week's Changes

As mentioned in my last blog, I sold both PFG and MSFT. I sold MSFT for 40.00 even, giving me a $0.33 loss and I sold PFG for $46.65, giving me a $0.22 gain. AFOP ended today at $20.17 which shows a $0.47 gain since when I bought it. Therefore, I have not even made a dollar after two weeks of trading. I believe that I need to change the way I trade. Instead of holding stocks for periods of time such as 3-5 days, I think I need to get into moment-moment trading. I really doubt I will be able to make much more if I keep trading the way I am. Furthermore, I think smaller stocks will be the way to go from now on. The smallest stock I bought has shown the most growth of anything and having diversification in my portfolio allows for the possibility of further growth. I may actually buy a second share of AFOP, because every trading forum recommends it as an great stock to own. I will continue with with CNBC watching, and Wall Street Journal reading to influence my choices, but I will try now to not keep a stock for more than two days.

I've Made Some Money!

I still hold my investments from last friday and I plan on selling MSFT and PFG tomorrow, as they haven't been showing as much growth as I thought they would by now. Today, I made a purchase of another stock AFOP, a fiber-optics company(random, right?) for $19.22. In one day, it climbed up $0.53, a large gain for such little time. All the research I have done on this company shows a resounding "Buy! Buy! Buy!"from various news outlets and I look forward to its future growth. I have gone a little over my $100 limit, but I believe AFOP will prove to be a worthwhile investment. As for my other investments, MSFT ended today at $40 on the nose, a $0.33 loss from where I bought it. PFG ended the day at $46.50, a whole $0.07 above where I bought it. I am going to try to sell as soon as the markets open tomorrow, because I believe that will be when I can get the best price for both. Once I sell the stocks and get the money to reinvest, I will buy the Wall Street Journal and watch CNBC and look for which stock(s) look enticing to buy. I may not actually buy tomorrow so that I can have the weekend to do my research and look at companies that show prospect for the coming week.

So far my total gain is at $0.27, I have quite a ways to go to reach my $117 goal.... But I am certainly not giving up hope.

This Week's Plan

I really believe the best way for me to be making money throughout these coming weeks will be for me to be watching a lot more CNBC. Since my book did not give me specific tips for trading, I think the best course of action to compensate for this will be to watch CNBC for hot stocks and what they believe will show profit in the coming weeks. If I spend 15 or so minutes, two times a day, watching CNBC, and writing down a list of what thy think will perform well, then doing my own research on those stocks, I think I will be able to be successful. I really hope the markets have an upward trajectory tomorrow because I am ready to start making some profit. As I said yesterday, I plan on holding my stocks for a few more days and see how they do. I think that since they both reported growth in Q1, their stocks will rise soon. Since I have some time in the coming few days watching my stocks, I also plan to watch interviews of what people did to beat the market. I think that these will be the tips that I can take from in the coming weeks. Although it is a big task to accomplish, I am sure I will be able to find some commonalities between those who were able to find their way into profits.

First Day Results!

Well, it has begun!
Yesterday I made my first investment and I am officially... well... losing money.
The first two stocks I bought were Principal Financial Group (PFG), and Microsoft (MSFT). I bought one share of PFG for $46.43 and it ended yesterday at $46.42. Certainly not the biggest loss, but a loss nonetheless. I will keep this stock for a few more days to see how it performs. The reason I bought this stock was because on CNBC, their Q1 earnings looked very promising and the stock jumped $2 overnight from thursday into friday. From this point on, I plan on watching CNBC everyday at around 10:00 to see what stocks are looking promising an hour into trading. I plan on day trading which is essentially only owning stocks for a few days at a time and gaining quick profits. While this does have the potential to gain a lot of money quickly, there is an even bigger potential to lose money if you do not pay attention, but my motto is, no risk, no reward. The second stock I bought was MSFT for $40.33 which ended yesterday at $39.91. Again, not the biggest loss, but money is money. I will also keep this stock for a few more days because I have faith in its growth due to their impressive Q1 results. Therefore, my total investment so far was $86.76 and is now at $86.33 after one day. These numbers are certainly not disheartening and I look forward to continue my investments throughout the week. This weekend I will do some more research and I plan on finding a cheaper stock around $15 so that I can get my whole $100 invested. I will watch the markets early monday and determine then how much longer I should hold my two investments. I am really excited that I have finally begun trading and I really look forward to seeing the numbers as the days continue.

Changes and Delays

Well, I said I was not going to do it in my mid-term presentation, but alas, I feel compelled to change around my schedule a little bit. My original plan was to begin my investments this morning, but a few things got in the way, and I certainly did not want to feel rushed. My new plan is to begin my investments friday morning. I have still not yet compiled everything from the book, and I really want to make sure everything is perfect before I start investing my money. Additionally, with tonight and tomorrow night, I will be able to search for youtube clips about the author and try to dig up anything else not mentioned in this book. I believe this will give me much better footing for my investments than where I am now. 

To be honest, this project was really not as easy as I originally thought. I thought I would be able to breeze through the book, compile all the tips in an hour then begin my investments the next day. As great a plan as that was, it just did not come to fruition. The book was much harder to get through, the tips were and still are hard to compile due to the abundance of them, and I don't have the exact stocks picked out. I believe that with these next two days, I will be able to accomplish everything I hope and get my investments started as planned. While the investments wont be in as long as I wanted, there will still be 3 solid weeks to gain(hopefully!) some money. 

I feel as though I am now starting from step one all over again, but I know that this time I will be much more successful in my planning. I believe that, for the most part,  the hard part is over and I can now enjoy the project as much as I want to. 

For now, time to get to work!

Progress

One of my biggest weaknesses when it comes reading is my abhorrence of text books and factual reading. Being given numbers and told what they mean is in absolute torture and I can never bring myself to put much effort into such types of reading. However, with this book, things seem different. Instead of being utterly stultified, I am curious. Instead of trying to get through the reading in as short time as possible, I am pacing myself, trying to absorb all of the information at hand. I am so glad I challenged myself to read a text-book like book for my project. While I was afraid I would be bored half to death, I knew I would hopefully attain a lot of information along the way, and it has certainly paid off. I think that since this book as about one of my true passions with investment, I am able to put a lot more care into the reading.
Unfortunately, there are a lot less tips than I thought there would be in terms of what companies, how long to hold investments, etc. However, the factual knowledge about the stock market that I am learning is certainly making up for this. I feel like I can start to think a lot smarter as an investor and I thoroughly look forward to beginning my investments. Hopefully I am not working off of hubris and I will actually be able to make the profit I want. I have had my own money in the stock market for about four years now, and while I have made money along the way, I did so out of pure luck. I am excited to compare my long term profits to my short term profits and see if they are at all similar. I hope all of this knowledge I am gaining will be able to help me manage my personal account and I will no longer have to make decisions solely based off of what I thought would do well. I think the best thing I am getting out of this reading is knowledge that I will be able to keep with me for the rest of my life, I am excited to continue investing for as long as I can. I have always been incredibly interested in this adult version of gambling and I am very excited to see how my newfound knowledge will impact my future investments.  

Gotta Love Computer Problems!

Well, after a day of trying over and over again to post from my computer, I have given up and resorted to using my handy dandy iPhone. Hopefully my issues will resolve themselves so that this  process will be a lot less tedious than it is now.

I am starting to make really good progress in the book and I am certainly learning a lot more than I expected. Being that the book is so factual, I am starting to doubt if I will meet my deadline of finishing the book on monday. The book is actually quite a bit different than what I thought. Instead of being only about tips to apply to the stock market, the book is more of a manual with countless facts and tips included. I will write again tomorrow on my progress in the book and see where I can begin my investments. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more eventful than today.

The Final Show

Well, this is it. The last hoo-rah of senior english. Luckily for me, I get to do this project on whatever I wanted. To me, being given total control over a project is both a blessing and a curse; while it is great to pursue a passion of mine, I tend to get overwhelmed at first because I am unable to narrow my focus. However, with my plan set in stone(at least for the time being) I hope that this project will truly be a successful one. 

I have always had a passion for business and anything relating to this subject is able to pique my interest. I am also interested in psychology and understanding why humans do the things they do. Thus, I felt as though the best way to combine these two interests was through creating a project about "get rich quick" books and their effectivity. The book I have chosen is Think Smart, Act Fast, Get Rich and I am incredibly excited to see what lies ahead for me. While I am not expecting to be told step by step how to invest my money, I am hoping that I will at least be given plenty of tips as to how I should trade wisely. I start the reading tomorrow,(because my Amazon shipment is late) and I hope to get a good majority of the reading done over the weekend so that I can begin my investments as soon as possible. I have been watching the markets recently and things are looking pretty shaky for me, so I hope that things will even out before my investments begin. I am very excited to be able to do a project relating to the stock market and I hope that I am able to gain a lot of knowledge that will help me in future endeavors.

Start Amount: $100

Assumed Finish Amount: $118