FINC 512 Fall 2014 – Trading Project Guidelines and Requirements
Students will use their Thinkorswim paper money accounts to trade stocks, options, futures, and forex
throughout the semester. The project will begin on Monday, September 8th and run through Friday,
December 5th. Each student may trade any stock that is priced over $3.00 per share. Before the end of
the semester, each student must complete at least four TA trades, four FA trades, four SA trades from
the basket of equities or indexes below. DO NOT TRADE BEFORE SEPTEMBER 8TH!
Basket of Instruments
Equities: AAPL – GOOG – NFLX – TWTR – NKE – MMM – JNJ – AMZN - CMG – MON – FB – P – GMCR – UA
Indexes: SPY – QQQ – DIA - IWM
Forex: EUR/USD – GBP/USD – AUD/USD – NZD/USD - USD/CHF – USD/CAD – USD/JPY – EUR/JPY
Futures: Gold (GC), Oil (CL), E-Mini S&P (ES), E-Mini Nasdaq (NQ)
Trading requirements
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Students may trade as many shares and as many times as they wish
Trade reports must correspond only to filled orders, not working orders
Any trade reports a student wishes to turn in must be submitted the following class (I will not
accept any late trade reports)
o i.e. a trade report from a trade that is filled on Tuesday, August 26th must be turned in
during class on Monday, September 8th (the next time we meet)
o i.e. a trade report from a trade that is filled on Thursday, September 18th must be turned
in during class on Monday, September 22nd
o …and so on
Students must complete a trade report during 7 different calendar weeks (each calendar week is
measured as Monday-Sunday)
Technical Analysis (TA), Fundamental Analysis (FA), & Statistical Analysis (SA)
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TA is trading based on the price movements, both past and projected, of a given stock
FA is trading based on the financial health of a given stock
o An easy way to look at this: if you’re trading based on price, that’s TA, if you’re trading
based on anything else, that’s FA
SA is trading based on statistical properties and probabilistic outcomes
You will learn how to perform each of these types of analysis and examples of strong analysis in
each will be either posted to the website, shown in class or on a YouTube video, or both
Options/Futures/Forex Requirements (each of these requires a trade report to be turned in with
analysis…it can be either TA or FA)
You are not permitted to trade options, futures, or forex until the green light is given in class. Once
these instruments are allowed, here are the minimum requirements:
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You must complete at least five roundtrip options trades using the stocks listed above in the
equities basket or the indexes basket
o You must complete at least three roundtrips using “advanced strategies”
 One of these advanced strategies must be associated with an earnings call
You must trade each futures contract at least once each before the semester is over
You must trade at least three different currency pairs (from the forex basket above) at least
once before the semester is over
Grading
80pts – Analysis (all of your turned in trade reports will be averaged to determine this number)
20pts - Performance
Your performance grade will be graded relative to how the overall market performs over the
course of the project. Our starting point will be the close of the S&P 500 Index on Friday,
September 5th, and our ending point will be the close of the S&P 500 Index on Friday, December
5th.
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Outperform the market by more than 3% = 20pts
Perform within +/- 3% of the market = 17pts
Underperform the market by more than 3% = 14pts
All positions must be exited prior to the close on Friday, December 5th.
Also, the top 3 performing individuals during the semester will receive a 10% boost for their
project scores, and points added to their final exam scores. The 1st place finisher will receive 3
points, 2nd place will receive 2 points, and 3rd place will receive 1 point. Any student that
outperforms me will receive 1 point on their final exam score. I will update the entire class on
a regular basis as to how each team ranks in performance.
Summary of Requirements
Number of Different Weeks Traded
7
TA, FA, SA
Minimum of 4 each from equities/indexes
Options (requires report)
5 RTs using equities basket + 3 Advanced (1 of
which must be earnings play)
Forex (requires report)
1 trade in 3 different pairs using forex basket
Futures (requires report)
1 trade each in GC, CL, ES, NQ
Trade Reports
Must be submitted in first class following the
filled order (late not accepted)
End of Project
All positions must be closed
Failure to meet any of the requirements results in a 3 point deduction on your project grade for
each failed requirement.