Name : ______________________________
Due Date: _____________
A Stock Market Project
Stock Market Overview:
 Owning stock means owning a small piece of a company
 Stock prices move up and down every day because of people’s expectations about what is going to
happen to the company (how profitable it will be in the future).
 Stocks trade between 9:30am and 4:00pm every weekday.
 The closing price is the price of that stock at 4:00pm.
 Company news and industry news (news about the industry that the company is a part of) can greatly
affect the stock price.
Task:
1. Choose 5 stocks-You may choose any stock that you want. Below is a list of sample stocks
that you may want to choose from.
Sample Industries & Stocks:
Telecommunications: Nokia Corporation (Ticker: NOK)
Retail: Walmart Stores Inc. (Ticker: WMT)
Automobiles: General Motors Corporation (Ticker: GM)
Communictations: Verizon Communications (Ticker: VZ)
Media: America Online (Ticker: AOL)
Airlines: Continental Airlines Inc. (Ticker: CAL)
Computers: Dell Inc. (Ticker: DELL)
Computers: Microsoft Company (Ticker: MSFT)
2. Track the closing price of the stock you choose for 10 days (2 weeks)
Go to finance.yahoo.com and type in your company to get the closing price each day. This page also includes
information about your company (look at the links on the left of the screen). You may also use a newspaper
to find the closing price. You will be looking at the “Prev Close” and “Close” dollar amounts – See example
below:
3. Calculate the percentage change for each of the 10 days.
*Round to the nearset tenth*
Change in closing price
=
Starting closing price
You will find the percent change from Day 1 to Day 2, Day 2 to Day 3, Day 3 to Day 4, etc.
4. Make a table representing the percent change one day to the next: You may use the
computer but all work leading to the percent change must be shown for calculating the percent
change. (use a calculator) Here is an example:
Date
24-Oct-03
23-Oct-03
22-Oct-03
21-Oct-03
20-Oct-03
17-Oct-03
16-Oct-03
15-Oct-03
14-Oct-03
13-Oct-03
10-Oct-03
9-Oct-03
8-Oct-03
7-Oct-03
6-Oct-03
3-Oct-03
2-Oct-03
1-Oct-03
30-Sep-03
29-Sep-03
26-Sep-03
25-Sep-03
24-Sep-03
23-Sep-03
Closing Price
16.8
16.94
16.91
17.19
16.93
17
16.62
17.23
17.07
17.26
17.31
17.11
16.87
16.85
16.88
16.8
16.56
16.02
15.6
15.9
15.26
15.07
15.13
15.58
% Change
0.8%
-0.2%
1.7%
-1.5%
0.4%
-2.2%
3.7%
-0.9%
1.1%
0.3%
-1.2%
-1.4%
-0.1%
0.2%
-0.5%
-1.4%
-3.3%
-2.6%
1.9%
-4.0%
-1.2%
0.4%
3.0%
5. At the end of the 2 weeks, create a line graph of the stock prices. This graph should NOT be
computer generated. Choose an appropriate scale and interval. BE SURE TO INCLUDE A BREAK IF YOU
DO NOT BEGIN your graph ON ZERO!!! Here’s an example: (you will do it by hand)
Closing Price
17.5
17
16.5
16
Closing Price
9/
23
9/ / 03
25
9/ / 03
27
9/ / 03
29
10 / 03
/1
10 / 03
/3
10 / 03
/5
10 / 03
/7
10 / 03
/
10 9/ 0
/1 3
10 1 /0
/1 3
10 3 /0
/1 3
10 5 /0
/1 3
10 7 /0
/1 3
10 9 /0
/2 3
10 1 /0
/2 3
3/
03
15.5
15
14.5
14
13.5
6: Informational Essay:
Write an essay describing your stock and its performance
Introduction:
Include a short description about your stocks.
Include what type of stocks they are and how we use them in our lives.
Body Paragraphs:
1. What was your biggest gainer?
2. What was your biggest loser?
3. Did you make money overall or did you lose money?
4. Which stock in your portfolio had very little change?
5. What was your most unpredictable stock?
6. What was the determining factor when you purchased stock? What made you buy a certain stock?
Calculations must be used as evidence in your statements. For example, if you say that your stock
increased the most on October 14, include the actual change as evidence.
Conclusion:
Wrap everything up and explain what you learned in this project.
Project Format:
Make sure your name and class appear on EVERY page:
Page 1 – Cover with Project Title/Stock Name/Your Name/Class
Page 2 - table representing your closing price and percent change one day to the next with all calculations
Page 3 – Line Graph that shows closing prices
Page 4 – Essay (should be at least one page – typed 12- point font- Times New Roman)