Help a student Play the stock market " VIRTUALY "

isawlogs · February 09, 2009, 12:57:09 PM

I have a neice that is in colledge and she is taking accounting . This semester is all about the stock market and they need to buy stock .. they have 200,000 virtual dollards each and have a max of ten investements or compagnies to buy into . I know a few of you play the market . Would any of you care to virtualy play . She would like our help . If any info is missing I can easily call her and find out for you .
Kim thanks you

Radar67 · February 09, 2009, 01:50:20 PM

Have her buy pru (prudential financial) it is going up.

isawlogs · February 09, 2009, 06:13:04 PM

I talked to her a little this afternoon , what she needs to do is buy ... but needs to justify the action . the excersise is for them to learn how the market works ... and try hard at not loosing there shirt :P :D :D

So any info on the market would be greatly apreciated .

gunman63 · February 09, 2009, 06:40:14 PM

How long does she have to play the market, GM is very very low, can only go up, if she has a while to play, she will make some money, also oil stocks are good

isawlogs · February 09, 2009, 06:42:28 PM

She has three months to make it or break it . :D

Fla._Deadheader · February 09, 2009, 08:36:54 PM

I've been watching Valence (VLNC). It's a Battery company and is a good player in the Electric Vehicle market. It's a penny stock at around $1.90 a share. It has made some good contracts, lately and is up from $1.50 when I first started watching it, a month ago.

Radar67 · February 09, 2009, 08:49:45 PM

Prudential became public back in late 2001. They issued at $29.00 US per share. Up until the crash, the stock was steadily rising and topped out at a little over $100 per share. It has been up and down since the market started to fall. It went down to $12.00 and has been steady rising since. The analyst recommended hold until recently and now they recommend a moderate buy. It also pays a dividend to all the stock holders each year, .58¢ a share right now. It closed today a little over $30 a share, a 150% rise since it bottomed out mid November.

bmill · February 09, 2009, 10:25:51 PM

Since it's not "real" money, and she has to justify her actions, I'd advise going with either SWHC (Smith & Wesson) or RGR (Ruger). These are the only two publicly traded gun manufacturers I'm aware of. Gun sales are through the roof and both of these companies are beat down a bit. I would lean towards RGR as sales of their new Mini-14 Tactical are going great and they have the capacity to keep up with demand.

Tough to pick a stock that will go up in the next 2-3 months, but she can find plenty of data on gun sales to justify her selection. Most college teachers hate guns, so all the more reason to select a gun manufacturer! :D :D

Norm · February 10, 2009, 07:45:14 AM

I never give investment advice but since this is play money I'd suggest she not buy individual stocks but buy the exchange shares. Nasdaq is called QQQQ, S&P is SPDR. They trade just like normal shares and are quite liquid. With some research she can find many of these that track certain things.

Three months is too short of a time frame for anything other than what's called daytrading and it takes careful planning with quite a bit of experience to do so. You get the pleasure of sitting for six hours a day watching monitors while playing in a crooked card game.

Now if she really wants my advice I'd invest money in anything but the stock market right now. :D

Tom Sawyer · February 10, 2009, 08:44:57 AM

Quote from: gunman63 on February 09, 2009, 06:40:14 PM
GM is very very low, can only go up

Unless GM goes belly up ;D

isawlogs · February 10, 2009, 12:32:40 PM

Thanks Norm I will let her know . :D

She needs to buy from four different types of stock .. food/manifacturing/comunication/ect....
They know it aint long term but it is good that they at least look at the market and find out how it works . Better the screw up with virtual money then there own ;)

She is looking at the moment to get into no-name brand or house name brand of prepared food , maybe into walmart type store ... I told her to buy some Hydro shares here , some comunicationtype stock needs be looked at .
Going to go at this tonight with her on line , this could be as much fun for me as her . She is very concerned about this , they will be graded by how well they do . So I think we will stay away from GM and their conterparts for this time around . :D

Thanks to all , She will be looking into this thread this evening ( she is the cute long wavy haired blonde if you see her . ) ;D :D

Jeff · February 10, 2009, 12:39:25 PM

We did this in econ class when I was a senior in high school. We had 10,000 pretend dollars to use over 1 semester. I forget what I made, but I remember coming in 3rd in the class for pretend dollars earned. I also remember 3 stocks that I bought, but I dont remember if that was all I had was 3 or not.

Playboy
Sun Oil
Gulf Oil

That's definitely not a recommendation to buy those now. I'm just reminiscing.

ely · February 10, 2009, 04:17:11 PM

that funny stuff jeff,
mine was
playboy and seagrams
i smoked everyone else back in 83.

SPIKER · February 10, 2009, 08:06:19 PM

Hi Guys:

Not sure if she has a free trading play money account setup yet or not, there are several of them out there that let you play just like the real thing. As far as stocks go being able to justify any particular stock means doing some research on the company in question. looking over their financial fundamentals, if they pay a dividend, how much cash they have on hand ect. If she is wanting to play the bailout then certain stocks come to mind vers playing the safety stocks which are slow growth pays smaller dividends ect.

I would since it is a 3 month study, and play money, stay away form the power shares and spiders/XLFs & ETFs. do a little looking over some basic companies. that way she can justify her buying ABC/XYZ stock to her professor.

here would be my recommendations for 3 months. all as TRADES if there is a good bump then have her sell out and look for a different stock ect.

1. "FCX-pM" (Freeport Macmoran Pink sheets/preferred) (about 50 bucks now down some 60% from it's jun peak, pays good dividend and has lots of cash, with china starting to buy raw materials this is a good play.

2. Spring time, Farmers will be needing to buy fertilizer so "MON" (Monsanto mfg of fertilizer) pays a nice div, or POT (potash) but no div there.

3. "MDRX" pure Oboma play, they sell software to make on-line medical records and doctor prescription stuff.
they have been in the news as of late and the Pres like this company.

4. Final stock from limit of 4 would be a toss up, probably "WFC" (Wells Fargo Corp) with the bailout this just took a big hit and is down in last few weeks better than 15 points (bucks) well run company and will pull through ok but may take slightly longer than her 4 month time frame. "PRU" prudential financial is similar also took a large hit in last few months has moved very quickly would have to be watched as it has come up a good 10 points over last few weeks as such can move right back fast.

Oil is way down, and demand is worsting with this loss of jobs we have going so stay away form oil stocks for now if she wanted to go that direction then "MRO" or "COP" (Marathon and Conoco Philiups) would be my 2 choices. or maybe "CHK" or "FRO" Chesapeake Energy (Natural gas play and electrical energy) & Frontline Oil (tanker transport of oil)

small cap stock that moves quick and should be about ready for a bounce after the big hit today is "ASTE" (Astec Industries) which is a holding company which owns some 20~30 small heavy equipment manufactures/business. (I work for them in one of the small companies,) the stock has been having support in the 29~32 buck range for a while and has dropped back in just the last few days, it seems to move very fast up/down. it also is an Oboma play, I can't trade it in so Im staying away but if I could I
d be buying a bunch at the 25 mark where it is at now.

I should say I have stock in a few those I mentioned, I have a good number of shares in "FCX," (common stock) recently sold off my pink sheets the "FCX-pM"
I have a good bunch of "WFC" I picked up a bunch last week when it spiked down to 15.68 should have sold it yesterday afternoon :( back to 16 something from near 20.00)
I bought into MDRX at 6.50 sold out at 10.00, and bought back in at 8.00
FRO I have had for a few points up and back and up and back :( lol it seems to be trading in a band of 2~3 buck range for last few weks,
"CHK" I picked up a good bunch just after they announced some bad news, and has since going back up ~6 points.

Hope this helps her out some:

several good shows to watch are on CNBC from about 3 to 6 PM EST for helpful hints and daily updates.

she can actually trade real time free play money at (WALLSTREETSURVIVOR .com)

Mark

gunman63 · February 10, 2009, 09:05:12 PM

I dont beleive any of he 3 major car companys will go belly up, to many jobs at stake, but if they do your not out much, as any investment dont put all your money in one stock.

jeffreythree · February 11, 2009, 08:31:33 AM

I have one, maybe. EGY, Vaalco Energy out of Houston. They own the rights to drill in an old Shell field off the West African coast. Lots of production coming on line and their oil auction for a years production is in September. You know what oil prices were in September? The maybe is because it may be fully valued now. It was at 8.02 yesterday at close. I have owned it for 2 years.

SPIKER · February 11, 2009, 06:58:19 PM

jeferythree:
ya might want to take a look at selling that stock, it is at or near it's high for a good number of years back, (egy vallero energy that is.) take some profits if you can... it was up/down today

this Am stocks that I chose to post above
FCXpM closed yesterday 50.68, closed today at 51.33 (high today52.72)

WFC closed yesterday 16.35, closed today at 17.50 (high today 17.38)

MON closed yesterday 80.85, closed today at 80.13 (high today82.65) (this stock I don't own so I had not done the research on it and it showed a loss of 0.72.

MDRX closed yesterday 8.08, closed today at 8.31 (high today 8.48)

WFC closed yesterday16.35 closed today at 17.50 (high today17.58)

PRU closed yesterday 25.30, closed today at 25.90 (high today 26.98)

FRO closed yesterday 28.06, closed today at 27.85 (high today 28.70) (oil plunged and took oil stocks with it one reason to watch stocks and ability to MAKE $ day trading rather than loose it.)

CHK closed yesterday 17.99, closed today at 18.03 (high today 18.52) (made a large public offering mid day that force price down.)

finally COP closed yesterday 46.11, closed today at 45.96 (high today 46.96) bad news fire blew up at one of the nat gas plants in Texas at 2 PM same time oil prices were dropping, COP owns part of the burning plant...

all in all I did OK today.

Mark M