Sprinting+FDRs

=//Cover Sheet://=

=//The Sprinting FDR's//= =CSD_55_ZZ881=

Nathan R, Andrew W
=//Spreadsheet (10 points)://=
 * **Company Name** || **Stock Symbol (make it a hyperlink to research page)** || **Price per share when researched.** || **Briefly, why are you attracted to this stock?** || **Roughly, How many thousands of dollars to Invest? (Enter number)** || **How many stocks purchased?** || **Commission:** || **End of Game Price** || **Overall Profit/ Loss** ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Yum! Brands || [|YUM] || $28.10 || Comprised of many fast food joints, it seemed like a wise purchase in a bad economy. || $28,943 || 1030 || $578.86 || $34.87 || +$6,973.10 ||
 * Regal Entertainment Group || [|RGC] || $9.79 || It seemed to be going up fairly consistently, and stressed people tend to go to the movies. || $29,370 || 3000 || $587.40 || $13.84 || +$12,150.00 ||
 * Home Depot || [|HD] || $20.52 || Home Depot tends to be a fairly successful stock. || $19,555.56 || 953 || $391.11 || $26.31 || +$5,517.87 ||
 * Exxon Mobile Corp. || [|XOM] || $71.68 || We figured oil would be a wise investment since it is used so frequently. || $1,891.84 || 138 || $37.87 || $66.57 || -$705.18 ||
 * Total: ||  ||   ||   || $7,970.40 ||   || $1,595.24 ||   || $23,935.79 ||

=//Philosophy / Investing Strategy (10 points)://=


 * A mixture of** **social skeptic and good consumer, with just a dash of dumb luck thrown in for good measure.**

We chose stocks based on their current rate of growth/decay and their general relevance in the current economic environment. In our assessment, those companies which best reflect basic needs, vices, and distractions are more likely to retain a healthy market share during an economic downturn. As is consistently seen in all recessions/depressions. Our theory was that these companies would continue growth, or at least not decay at the same rate as their competitors.

=//Company Information (10 points)://=

1. We bought stock in Exxon Mobile (XOM). The address is in Irving, Texas. It's involved in exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, and they manufacture petroleum products and transport and sale crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. We invested in it because we figured everybody buys gas.

2. We bought stock in Home Depot (HD) whose address is in Atlanta, Georgia. They are warehouse-style stores that sell various building materials, and equipment for home improvements, lawns, and gardens. We thought that the need for a store like this would stay fairly consistent.

3. We bought stock in Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) whose address is in Knoxville, Tennessee. They operate theatres in the US with 6,801 screens. We know that movies have become a popular escape for those suffering in the bad economy, so we figured it would be a good investment.

4. We invested in YUM! Brands Inc. (YUM), whose address is in Louisville, Kentucky. They serve quick service food through five different restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's, and A&W). We figured cheap food would be appealing and successful in a bad economy.

=//Current Events and Your Investments (10 points)://=

1. [|YUM! Brands Article] While the dinner trade of KFC and Pizza Hut was down, Taco Bell's success remained fairly constant. Their future plans are to expand overseas, especially in China. While this doesn't affect the stock over the past few weeks, its conception is probably due to the lack of success recently. 2. [|Regal Entertainment Group article] While it didn't specifically mention Regal, this article made it clear that in spite of the recession, movie business is not hurting. In fact, box offices are working towards their first $10 billion year. Hollywood is releasing the typical "summer movies" earlier in the year, in an attempt to overcome the recession and pull moviegoers in. This has proved successful, and therefore been a great company to have stock in.

=//__Final Thoughts, Reflection, Feedback (10 points):__//=

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1. Re-evaluate your initial investment philosophy. Now that the game is completed, how did it work for you? What would you have tried to do differently? (Solid 1-paragraph assessing your strategy, 1 paragraph describing what you would try differently.)===== Overall we were fairly successful. Our initial philosophy was to go for companies that would not suffer greatly in a recession, and on the whole our picks were pretty practical. We looked at the overall stability of the stocks prior to our purchases, and while stocks are more or less unpredictable, we figured if ones remained at least decently steady within the past few months then they would be worthy and wise purchases. This ideal proved to be beneficial to us, and on the whole our purchases were good ones.

As far as changes to be made, there were only a couple I can think of. When Exxon was stumbling we went with the faith that soon it would pick up, when in actuality it never proved to really help that much. That being the case, it would have been wise to expect its fumble to be persistent and to invest in a more currently successful company—even Regal Entertainment Group which proved to be the most beneficial to us.

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The project was followed on a more-or-less weekly basis. With the economic instability our country has been experiencing the last year, our investments where unfortunately affected. Exon-mobile comes to mind once more, specifically the dive it took and continued to plateau at. The record profits reported previously in the news seem to have been a one-time spike.======

3. Project Reflection: What did you learn? What did you have troubles with? Anything that I can do as a teacher to make this project more helpful for you? (1 paragraph) We learned to check stocks daily or bi-daily, so that any negative fluctuations in the market can be noted of and accounted for. Difficulty wise, we had little trouble with the project aside from the natural variations and twitches in the market. As a teacher, a little more time in class for working on the project would perhaps be nice. I really like that a template for this report was provided, though. It really stream-lined things. = = = =

=__Initial Research:__=


 * **Company Name** || **Stock Symbol (make it a hyperlink to research page)** || **Price per share when researched.** || **Briefly, why are you attracted to this stock?** || **Roughly, How many thousands of dollars to Invest? (Enter number)** ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Yum! Brands || [|YUM] || $28.10 || Comprised of many fast food joints, it seemed like a wise purchase in a bad economy. || $28,943 ||
 * Regal Entertainment Group || [|RGC] || $9.79 || It seemed to be going up fairly consistently, and stressed people tend to go to the movies. || $29,370 ||
 * Home Depot || [|HD] || $20.52 || Home Depot tends to be a fairly successful stock. || $19,555.56 ||
 * Exxon Mobile Corp. || [|XOM] || $71.68 || We figured oil would be a wise investment since it is used so frequently. || $1,891.84 ||