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STOCK REPORT: Due Tuesday, April 20 in Class 85 points Three Page Minimum, Single Spaced with 2 spaces between paragraphs Paper Copies Only! You will lose 3 points per day for every day your essay is late. INSTRUCTIONS The Stock Report is your second and last required written report of the semester. The report is required and worth 85 Course Points. Your report is due on Tuesday, April 20, and should be turned in as a printed paper copy in the lecture on that day. Points will be deducted if it is turned in late. The report should be a minimum of three pages, single-spaced, with two spaces between paragraphs. Please use the following steps to select the stock and gather information for the report: 1) First, go to the OWL assignment named "Choose Stock Here for Stock Report." There you will find the list of stocks from which you may choose for this assignment . Click on the name of the stock you would like. Individual stocks are allocated on a “first come, first serve” basis, and once a stock has been chosen by someone, it will no longer appear on the list of stocks. You must choose a stock listed in the table. You can only choose one stock. Once you have chosen a stock, you cannot change it. When you return to the OWL assignment again, you will see only the stock you have chosen. You should choose your stock no later than 3:30 pm, Tuesday, February 17. 2) To find out information about your stock over both recent weeks and the next several weeks, go to http://Excite.com (or a browser of your choice). On the left hand side there is a box labeled “My Stocks”, which lists the daily averages of the three major stock indexes. Right under it is a “Get Quotes” box. Enter the Symbol of your stock here and click on “GO”. There you will find a table with the current (or closing) price of the stock, some basic information on the stock as well as a chart which shows how the price has changed over the year. Under the chart, click on “1 yr” and you will get an enlarged version of the chart. Then click on “Profile” on the left-hand side of the page to get a brief description of the company. Next click on “News” to obtain recent news reports about the company. Big companies have lots of news reports, small companies fewer reports. 3) Your assignment is to explain how the price of the stock has changed from January 16, 2004 to April 2, 2004. The closing price for January 16 is already in the Stock Table in OWL. To find the final price for your stock, be sure to check Excite on Friday, April 2, Saturday, April 3, or Sunday, April 4. You can also check The New York Times or The Boston Globe on Saturday for the closing price. Follow the price of the chosen stock and the factors that affect it through the news reports and analyst's evaluations (Click on “Analyst Ratings”). Then write a report on what caused the price changes of the stock over this time period. The important part of this assignment is to analyze the price changes in the stock over time, not to pick the "best" stock. Therefore, you may choose the stock in any way you like. Once you have chosen the stock, there is usually a company web site that you may go to find out more about the company (Google.com is a good search engine for finding company websites). I suggest you check on the stock at least weekly. You will also want to write down the price at the end of each week (Friday's closing price). The maximum of 85 course points for this assignment will be based on the quality of your report and not on what happens to the price of the stock. One Student-One Stock. --In order to have the class cover as many stocks as possible and to insure that each student becomes the only expert on a particular stock, each stock can be selected by only one student. Stock choices will be confirmed on a "first come, first serve" basis.
Writing Your Report. The US Stock Markets provide examples of some of the most perfect competitive models in existence. Millions of shares of each stock are traded each trading day by individuals, corporations, investment companies and governments. Millions of sellers interact with millions of buyers to determine the price through supply and demand. By studying a particular stock for a period of weeks, the student has an opportunity to see the various types of forces at play, which help set supply and demand for a particular stock. The student is being asked to identify and analyze these forces. The information for your report will be gathered from copyrighted material and therefore it will be important for you to identify the sources in your report (see Academic Honesty on this website). It is important that you take the following approach: List as references all material you have consulted. Most of this will probably be through Internet links, but the source such as New York Times or Associated Press can be identified. List them in alphabetical order with a number in front of each one and then you can refer in your written report to the references by number, and pages (e.g. [3, pp. 1-2]). Be sure and put quotations around all material you are copying directly and make sure you provide a reference for those sources that you are paraphrasing. The report does not need to be long. It can be only three pages, but it needs to summarize the forces that have been at play in changing the stock's price. These forces can originate from within the company, from competing companies or from the market and the economy as a whole. It is important that you provide such identification. A one-paragraph description of the company at the beginning is O.K., but don't just provide a PR description of the company as your whole report and don’t go on and on paraphrasing the Company’s own publicity. Remember that it is about market forces that affect the price of the stock.
Put the following information at the top of the report:
First Name, Last Name Email address Phone number 8-Digit Student ID Number Full Name of Company Stock Symbol for Company
I hope you find doing this project a valuable learning experience. - Professor Norm Aitken |
