Nathan Miller

 

Playing the Stock Market

 

Title and Introduction:

 

Playing the Stock Market:

    Students have just won the lottery and have $30,000 that they would like to invest in the stock market.  The student need to pick at least 5 different stocks to invest in, and will have to track the progress of the stocks for three weeks. In the end they will have to graph the charts of the stocks by hand, figure out how much money was won or lost, create a graph of each stock in Excel, and create a short PowerPoint showing each stock and highlighting the highs and lows.

 

Subject: Mathematics (Algebra, Algebra 2)

 

Topic: Multiplication, rounding, creating charts

 

Objectives: Students will have to round answers to the nearest hundredth, create charts, graph data, and use Excel and PowerPoint.

 

Procedures:

 

Day One (Monday):

 

1. The student will be introduced to the unit by telling them that they have just won the lottery, and had to split it between all of them, so they each get $30,000 dollars.  Because they are so stock market savvy, they have decided to invest all of it into the stock market.  Newspapers with the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq should be passed out to the students so that they can pick out their stocks.  They must pick at least 5 stocks, but they can split up the money however they would like to.  The students can pick more than 5 stocks, but they should know that the more stocks they pick the more work they will have to do in the end.  They cannot invest in more then 10 stocks.

 

2. Students must create chart so that they can keep track of change of their stock, the current value of their stock, and the dollar value that they have invested in that stock.  Here is a 3 day sample of the data collection for the stocks.  Since this is the first day that they will have these stocks, they need to make sure that they record how many of each stock they are buying and how much each is worth.  The total of their stocks must not exceed $30,000, and any below that amount will be stored in their “bank”, which will come into play later.

 

3. The students must understand that there will be 5-10 minutes at the beginning of each class to look at the newspaper and gather the needed information for their stocks, but ultimately it is their responsibility to acquire all the information for their stocks, even on the weekends. 

 

Day Two – Day Six (Tuesday – Sunday):

1. Students should keep their stocks updated with the current stock price and their invested money in each stock within their chart.

 

Day Seven (Monday):

1. Every Monday the students will all go to the computer lab.  On this day the students will update their Excel file and have the chance to sell their current stocks to buy other ones.

 

Creating their Excel File

1. Open Microsoft Excel

 

2. The students will type in their chart that they’ve been creating and put it into an Excel spreadsheet.  Start with the dates on the top row.

 

3. Add the names of the stocks to the first column. (Again, there should be at least 5 stocks per student.)

 

4.  Plug in all of the data for the past week in the chart.  I encourage the students to not use formulas to figure out all of the products used.  This will encourage the use of more math skills on their own.

 

5. Once students have entered all of the information for their stocks, they have the option to sell 1 of their stocks and buy another stock.  If they do this they will have to create a new row with their new stock and its current value, and continue to monitor it’s performance instead of the stock that they have sold off.

 

6.  If a stock gets sold, its current value must be calculated and added to the “bank”, which has all money not used in the initial purchase.  This is then the amount of money which can be used to buy a new stock.

 

7. Make sure that all students save their work before they leave the class.

 

Day Eight – Day Thirteen (Tuesday – Sunday):

 

1. Continue to monitor the stocks on paper.

 

Day Fourteen (Monday):

 

1. Students will again go to the compute lab to enter data for the last week. 

 

2. Students should open up their Excel file which they had started last Monday, and continue to do the same data entering as they were before.

 

3. Students have another opportunity to sell one stock and buy one stock to replace it.  If they choose to do this then they will have to created a new row for the new stock, and discontinue monitoring the stock which has been sold.  Again, the total invested value of the sold stock should be calculated and added to the “bank” to see how much money is available for the newly bought stock.

 

Day Fifteen – Day Twenty (Tuesday – Sunday):

 

1. Continue to monitor the stocks on paper.

 

Day Twenty-One (Monday):

 

1. As on past Mondays, students will enter the computer lab and enter their final data collection for their stocks.  There will be no buying or selling of stocks because this is the last day for the collection of data.

 

2.  Students should add a column at the end of the data figuring up the total gain or loss of their stock, and the amount of money they gained or lost on that stock.  These figures should be added or subtracted to determine the total amount gained or lost by the student over the three week period.

 

Sample Completed Data in Excel

 

Day Twenty-Two – Day Twenty-Five (Tuesday – Friday)

 

1. Students must first take each of the stocks which they collected data for in Excel and create a graph of that particular graph.  Line graphs seem to be best suited for the stocks, but whatever the students think convey the data correctly can be used.

 

Creating a Graph in Excel

1. Start by Highlighting the line of the stock you’d like to graph, then go to Insert : Graph.  This opens up the Graph Wizard.

 

2. Choose what graph you think would represent your data the best. And hit Next.

 

3. Check out all of the tabs to see if you can make the graphs look any better.

 

4. On the final screen, choose the option to create the graph as a graphic in a sheet, just make it on that is empty.

 

A Sample Excel Worksheet with graphs

 

2. After students get finished with their graphs, they will start on their PowerPoint presentation.  This is not to be a real elaborate presentation, just enough to show the class how much they gained or lost during the few weeks that this went on.

 

Creating a PowerPoint Presentation

 

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint.

 

2. Create a Title page which has your name on it.

 

3. To add a slide go to Insert : New Slide.

 

4. To insert your graphs from Excel, just copy and paste them from Excel to Powerpoint.

 

Sample PowerPoint Presentation

 

3. On Friday the students will present their PowerPoint presentations in class.  Each should only take 5 minutes.  Hopefully the students are looking to see who made or lost the most money, being active listeners.

 

Evaluation:

 

100 pts Total

 

Materials: