Economics 104
Stock Portfolio Assignment
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In this class you are required to build a portfolio of at least 4 common
stocks and, using Yahoo's excellent portfolio management feature, you
will monitor the performance of these stocks and some stock indexes, and some
equity mutual funds throughout the course of the semester
Part 1 .. getting familiar with the program
Follow these steps to complete this assignment.
- First, visit Yahoo's site for
stock quotations and portfolio management at finance.yahoo.com to get used to how
the site works. Sign up at Yahoo's site as a guest member, which will
require you to choose a name and password. This is free and easy, so take
care of it. After you have your password, ask for quotations for a couple
of stocks. To do this, enter the name of the company in the box for Get
Quotes at the top of the page and choose the symbol from the drop-down
options.. For example, find the symbol for Walt Disney Corporation (DIS).
Use the symbol to retrieve the stock quote. Peruse the resulting page to
see what information it offers. Click on the chart to get an interactive
chart.
- After you have looked up a
couple of quotes, find the link on the page that will allow you to build
your own portfolio (you must be signed in). Select that. Here you will
build a trial portfolio of a couple of stocks plus an index just so you can
see how it works. Select a New Portfolio When asked about
the type of portfolio select Track a Symbol Watch List. This
portfolio eventually will be deleted and replaced with your real
portfolio, so don't worry about mistakes. Give your portfolio a name and follow
the instructions on the page and select at least two companies (you will
need to know their symbols, which can be looked up on this page .. if in
doubt, use Disney's DIS and IBM). Also select at least one index (like the
Dow Jones Industrial Averages). Before you submit your portfolio choice,
make sure on step 3 that, when asked to provide the default view for the
portfolio, choose the detailed and not the basic (default)
report. Submit your portfolio and take a look at it. Pretty amazing, isn't
it. Look at all of the data you get.
- Over the next few days, go
back daily if possible and find your portfolio and get your briefing.
There it all is, updated every day! Peruse your document when you have an
hour or so to become familiar with what information is available. We'll
talk about what some of these statistics mean in class.
Go to Part 2.
Return to Course Assignments page.