Fi 312 - Trading Game Report

Investment Approach

There were several investment methods that we strategized to execute with this portfolio. We wanted to ensure that it was a well diversified portfolio which would signify that we would have a decent return. We included several stocks, a few mutual funds and a bond to diversify our portfolio which has a high risk factor but the mutual funds and bond give it a decent amount of cushion. We started investing in well known companies like Apple, Nike, Facebook and Disney which have a history of increasing stock prices and high returns on their investment. Specifically, with Apple, with the release of the new iPhone 6s and the all new revamped iPad Pro and the high accolades both devices received, we thought it would be the ample time to invest in Apple stock. Then we continued to research into other stocks and decide to purchase a large quantity of shares of Google stock. After researching the Google and its returns and trends we notice that it has consistently had an upward trending price and positive returns. Another upward trending stock was Microsoft, we notice they also like Google have a high return consistently month after month and therefore we wanted to invest most of our funds into Microsoft which in turn we ended up purchasing 2000 shares of the company’s stock. We also ended up selling 1000 because the price of their stock kept increasing and this coincided with every investors strategy of buy low and sell high for a large capital profit.  After investing in some pretty “stable” stocks we decided to became a little risky with some of the investments we made. We invested a small quantity into the cyclical retail market by investing in Nordstrom but after reviewing some of their earnings for the quarter we decided to sell those shares before the stock plummeted substantially.

In terms of the mutual funds we invested in, we only invested in three mutual funds and these were invested in because one of the group members has a personal tie to some of these mutual funds and has seen high returns with the money she has put into the mutual funds. Therefore, as a group we invested in the Janus Mutual Fund which has given people moderate returns on their investment after doing research on the fund, Vanguard Fund which also dependent on the type of fund you invest in you will receive decent returns and Yacktam Fund which is simply one of the most popular mutual funds to invest in today which has increasingly high returns.