Project ideas
2. Stock Market Project. 10% of your total grade + 5% extra credit to your total grade.
The purpose of the project is to teach students the value of investing in and understanding the stock
market. The project also teaches important lessons about the economy, mathematics, and financial
responsibility.
Using a hypothetical investment of $50,000 in the stock market, students will choose three publicly
traded companies to invest in; record the closing price of all three stocks on a worksheet every day for
six weeks; research the companies selected and summarize their primary business and financial results;
and prepare a final report showing how much their initial investment is worth on the final day; the gain
and loss on each stock and price of each stock at the end of the six weeks.
Stock quotes can be found online or in many local newspapers.
Students should keep a daily journal, notebook, or use Microsoft Excel to keep up with their stocks.
Students will learn to: read stock tables, explain the meaning of stock symbols, and how to read
percentage points.
Each student should invest in multiple stocks at once to prevent from losing all their money in one stock.
Throughout the project, students will be asked for updates in how their stocks are trending and have
they been affected by the economy.
WWW.finance.com
NASDAQ—National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations
WWW.nasdaq.com/screening NASDAQ website provides stock quotes and up-to-date stock market
summaries that students can use to keep track of their stock. They may also use Yahoo Finance, The
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Sense, and Forbes.
The figures under VOL. (volume) are the amounts of shared in the company that are bought and sold on
that day.
The figures under CLOSE are the prices of the stocks at the end of the day. Those are the amounts you
will pay for shares. (To change the fractional amounts to a decimal, divide the numerator by the
denominator and write the answer as a decimal.
The figures under CHG. are the amounts that the stock prices went up (+) or down (-) since the
beginning of the trading day.
Common stock is, well, common. When people are talking about stocks they are usually referring to this
type. In fact, the majority of stock issued is in this form. Common shares represent ownership in a
company and a claim (dividends) on a portion of profits. Investors get one vote per share to elect the
board members, who oversee the major decisions made by management.
Over the long term, common stock, by means of capital growth, yields higher returns than almost every
other investment. This higher return comes at a cost since common stocks entail the most risk. If a
company goes bankrupt and liquidates, the common shareholders will not receive money until the
creditors, bondholders and preferred shareholders are paid.
Preferred stock represents some degree of ownership in a company but usually doesn’t come with the
same voting rights. (This may vary depending on the company.) With preferred shares, investors are
usually guaranteed a fixed dividend forever. This is different than common stock, which has variable
dividends that are never guaranteed. Another advantage is that in the event of liquidation, preferred
shareholders are paid off before the common shareholder (but still after debt holders).
Some people consider preferred stock to be more like debt than equity. A good way to think kinds of
shares is to see them as being between bonds and common share
DEFINITIONS YOU MAY NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START.
NASDAQ –NATIONAL ASSOICIATION OF SECURTIES DEALERS AUTOMATED QUOTATIONS
WWW.nasdaq.com/screening
The figurers under VOL. (volume) are the amounts of shares in the company that were brought and sold
on that day.
The figures under CLOSE are the prices of the stocks at the end of the day. Those are the amounts you
will pay for shares. (To change the fractional amounts to a decimal, divide the numerator by the
denominator and write the answer as a decimal.)
The figures under Chg. are the amounts that the stock prices went up (+) or down (-) since the beginning
of the trading day.
Students need to have chart this or similar to this one to display characteristics of their invested
companies.
Additionally, I am asking each student to write a reflection on his or her experience on this project one-
two pages long.
Good luck and have fun.
Bonds, mutual funds, stocks
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