C.R.E.A.M.

A final remark…

Considering we lost almost $8,000, our success in the SMG was not what we had hoped.  We did our best to determine when to buy and sell and what to buy and sell, but our results were not good.  We started out doing very well, but as time went on, we kept losing money and couldn’t find a stock that would bring us enough gain to make up for our lost ground.  We definitely learned a lot about how to buy and sell stocks and the consequences that come from waiting to sell or selling quickly, but we are very glad that the money wasn’t real because of our overall losses.  

Where we are and where we are going…

Our game hasn’t really changed from what it was in the beginning. We thought that if we took big risks then we would get big rewards. From this point on, we are going to put a large amount of our stocks in a safe stock like Coke and then put some money into other stocks and make some more risks. 

Rick Perry tax plan

• people choose between a 20% flat tax or the current system on an individual basis
• people would simply choose the plan for themselves that would require them to pay less taxes, so many cuts in spending would be necessary to avoid huge deficits
• this would help upper-income people by eliminating taxes on social security benefits, estates, dividends, and capital gains

How our stocks are currently doing…

We currently have 1,000 shares of GLW and 1,600 shares of ARRS.  We’ve been playing it rather conservatively for now, but we’re looking to maybe buy a few more stocks within the next few days.  

GLW has risen quite a bit since we first invested in it, and today it is up +0.41.

ARRS had been rising up until Tuesday, when it started going back down.  Today it is down -0.26.  

We’re going to hang onto these stocks for now and decide as a group over the next few days whether we want to invest more or sell some of the shares we already have.  

Questions we have about the stock market

• Who decides stock prices?
• Is there a way to predict whether a stock will rise after it completely tanks? 
• What kind of stocks are safest to invest in?

3 things we understand about the stock market

• buying stock is risky because after you buy a stock at a given price, you don’t know whether the price will go up or down, so you could lose money when you sell it.  
• buying stock is the same as buying equity in a company, which means that when you buy a stock you own a portion of the company.
• the Dow is an average of thirty stocks to reflect the trends of the entire stock market.

Sad Woman on (a) Trading Floor

How does investing contribute to the free enterprise system?

First, let’s get define a few words before we tackle this question…

• investing: expend money hoping that you will gain a profit
• free enterprise: an economic system where private businesses operate by competition and have little state control. 

Okay, investing contributes to the free enterprise system by giving companies capital which helps the them grow their companies. 

STOCKS

what are some good ones to invest in right now?