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= Math in the Real World - Investing  = This is an adaptation of a project by [|Money Instructor - Teaching Stock Market Simulation]

** DIRECTIONS: **
This is a semester-long project intended for high school Algebra I or II students. The goal of the project is to teach students about the stock market and incorporate their knowledge of using formulas and creating graphs in a real-world situation. Furthermore, students will also learn and understand basic investing principles, current events, the basics of how the economy works, money management skills, basic math and reading comprehension, writing skills, etc.

 Teaching Notes:
The students will be given approximately 20-30 min per week in class to work on this project (more or less, depending on what stage of the project they are in and availability of classroom resources). If they do not complete the week's assignment in class, they will be responsible for completing it for homework. This project is currently designed for students to work in pairs; however, this project can be completed in groups or individually depending on school resources. The introductory information (week 0) will be read by students as homework to gain a foundation for the project.

** Week 0: Introductory Information **
Students will learn what is a stock, and be able to look up basic stock market information. [|What is a Stock?] [|Reading a Stock Market Table]

__Project Guidelines__
> > > [|Excel Template] List of Student Journal Pages [|NASDAQ Stock Market] [|NYSE - New York Stock Exchange] > >
 * Each pair begins with $10,000. With this money, the pair must spend at least $9,500 on stocks (including commissions). The remainder may be kept in the pair's checking account.
 * Each pair must invest in 5-7 stocks. You should make sure to create a diversified portfolio (i.e., do not pick stocks from 5 computer/internet companies). Additionally, you will be required to journal why you chose your stocks. Students are encouraged to research their stocks.
 * A 3% commission is to be paid for every stock transaction (buying or selling a stock).
 * Each pair should keep a journal of their activities and thoughts, and a transaction history of all buys and sells. Students are allowed to create a blog or wiki space for their journal and link it to the page listed below. In addition, the pair is responsible for keeping track of the current portfolio's market value (plus the cash in the checking account). The pairs should use Google excel template below to keep track of the stock information.
 * During the last week (as determined by the instructor) students will reflect on their initial stock decisions in their journal. They will conclude the project by determining if they could have redistributed their money among the companies they chose to yield a greater net gain. Students will use their excel file as a medium for the discovery and then list their conclusions on their journal.

Finished projects include the following:

 * 1) At least one journal entry per week with a minimum of 3-5 sentences (well-developed paragraph). Some journal entries (particularly the last one) will need to be longer. Their journal entries should answer the questions listed above as well as any other questions given by the teacher in class.
 * 2) A completed excel sheet. Students are required to enter **formulas** whenever math is involved in order to demonstrate their understanding.
 * 3) A graph for each stock showing the weekly gains and losses. The x-axis and y-axis should be clearly labeled and the graph should be sized so that the data is visible and easy to read. Students should also create an additional graph that includes the performance of all their stocks on a single graph. This will be useful when you are comparing the performance of each stock against one another. The graphs should be created in excel. Each pair should include a link to their graphs at the end of their journal.
 * 4) An analysis/reflection of how well their stocks did over the 18 weeks as a whole and what they learned from this experience. Students should incorporate their graphs into this section (what does the graph tell you by looking at it? How is the graph with all of the lines useful in your analysis?). Be prepared to explain to another student how to read the information displayed on the graphs. Students should also figure out if they could have distributed their money across the 5-7 stocks differently in order to yield a higher net gain. This information should also be included in their final journal entry.

__**Choosing Companies**__
For choosing stocks, I recommend that the pairs choose companies with products or services you are familiar with. This may include companies that your families or friends work for, or are familiar with. This will help make the learning process more interesting and understandable. The teacher will begin the exercise by picking some of the stocks chosen by the students to create an example "portfolio". Choose 5 stocks and list their name and stock ticker on the board (use a computer to get the stock information). List the closing price as well. Then ask the students how much of each stock they should purchase. Total the amounts and see how close it comes to the $10000 budgeted. Then ask what should be done to get over $9500 but under $10000. Then either have them complete this exercise individually, or do it as a group. Students should also read the information in the following link to help with the choosing process. __[|Choosing which company's stock to invest in.]__

Students should fill in their own stock portfolio transaction form, including calculating the transactions. Students should keep track of their investments once a week in the excel file and journal the experience on their wiki space. If students come across any interesting news articles, they should link to them in their journal. The students and teacher will discuss the formulas they will need for this project on week 2 as well as how to enter the formulas into the excel spreadsheet. Afterwards, students will be responsible for maintaining the documents and journal. The teacher will regularly check the progress of each pair and will deduct points if pairs fail to record data and write in their journal weekly.

 Weeks 5 onward: Graphs
Beginning week 5, students should create a scatter plot graph that demonstrates their gains and losses with each stock (1 graph per stock). Students should update the graph weekly to include the new information. (Teacher will demonstrate to students how to create a scatter plot graph in excel on week 5).


 * Bonus activity for Algebra II students:** determine the algebraic equation for the graph that would best fit the scatter plot for each stock. 2 pts bonus for each equation found.

[|Buying shares of stock.]  [|Monitoring and reporting stock portfolio] [|Understanding the Math behind Investing Losses]

** Week 18: Wrapping up the Project **
After entering in their final data for week 18, students should make sure that their table is complete and they have a complete graph representing each stock's gains and losses. Students should create a final graph that contains the weekly gains/losses of each stock on a single graph. (Teacher will explain how to do this in class) Students should journal about their results as well as answering the following question - Keeping with the initial requirements of the project (5-7 stocks, up to $10,000 to spend), how could you have invested in each stock differently in order to end with a higher net gain? Use your excel spreadsheet to test your hypotheses and then report the distribution that yields the highest net gain.

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