Investing in the Stock Market

Investing In The Stock Market

Congratulations!

When you got home from school yesterday, your mom handed you a letter from your uncle's lawyer. It read:

"You have just inherited $10,000 dollars from your Uncle Bob's will. Since he had no children, he decided he would let you have his inheritance. However, as you know he was a stock investor and wanted you to follow in his footsteps. Therefore, in order to claim your investment, you need to follow a few guidelines:

You need to invest the money in the stock market.

You need to keep this money invested for at least five years."

The Task

Your Uncle Bob wanted you to invest in at least three different companies, but no more than six companies.

You will need to investigate as many companies as you like and then invest your money in their stocks. When you are done with your investing, you need to create a stock portfolio. This will be your proof to Uncle Bob's lawyer that you have followed all of his final wishes to you.

Questions

You think, Wow! I have an opportunity to invest in all these companies, but I don't know a thing about the stock market.

1) How does the stock market work?

2) What are the rules of the stock market?

3) Why do the stocks go up and down?

4) What is a stock?

5) How will I buy and sell my stocks?

6) How will I keep track of my stocks?

Here are some companies Uncle Bob thought you might be interested in investing in:

AT&T Corporation

IBM

Apple Computers, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Dell Computer Corporatio

Microsoft Corporation

Coca Cola

Ben & Jerry's Homemade

General Mills, Inc.

Hershey Foods Corp.

Kellogg Company

Starbucks Corporation

The Walt Disney Company

Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Now that you have chosen companies in which you will be investing in, you need to record them in your stock portfolio.

Resources

Uncle Bob's lawyer also included in the letter,

"Just in case you want to learn more about it, here are some places you can go."

What is the history of the stock market?
What is a mutual fund?
What are some of the different types of stocks?
Glossary of stock related terms.

Advise
1) While you are researching the stocks, you should find out, and record, in your portfolio:
how many shares of each stock you are buying
the ticker symbol of the company
the cost per share of the stock
what stock exchange are they in? (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, etc.)
the net cost (amount of shares x amount each share costs)
sample portfolio
*Don't forget to come back to this site after checking out the company profiles (by pressing the back button on the top left side of the page)

Conclusion
When you have finished creating your stock portfolio, you will be able to keep track of your stocks either in the newspaper, or by the links from this page. Think about why people invest in the stock market. Does everyone make money investing in stocks? Why or why not?
Now that you are finished, give a copy of your stock portfolio to Uncle Bob's lawyer