Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The DJIA Chart

Chart forDow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI)

Some Headlines for 08/30/2011

    According to the rules, the only research we are allowed are the headlines.

    [video] After Bruising August, Brace for September [3.3 min]at MarketWatch (Tue, Aug 30)
    Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks score mild win for third straight riseat MarketWatch (Tue, Aug 30)
    Wall Street gains as Fed minutes boost stimulus betsReuters (Tue, Aug 30)
    U.S. Equities Will Outperform Global Peers: Bespoke’s HickeyBreakout (Tue, Aug 30)

    The Dow 30

    Here is a link to the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  During this phase of the mtbinvestor experiment, we will be limited to investing in these companies, per the rules.

    Today's date is 08/30/2011

    Symbol Name Last Trade Change Volume
    AA Alcoa Inc. Common Stock 12.36 Aug 30 Down 0.06 (0.48%) 23,907,016
    AXP American Express Company Common 48.66 Aug 30 Up 0.11 (0.23%) 7,460,397
    BA Boeing Company (The) Common Sto 66.03 Aug 30 Up 1.43 (2.21%) 6,984,939
    BAC Bank of America Corporation Com 8.12 Aug 30 Down 0.27 (3.22%) 297,220,344
    CAT Caterpillar, Inc. Common Stock 89.83 Aug 30 Up 1.68 (1.91%) 9,856,909
    CSCO Cisco Systems, Inc. 15.63 Aug 30 Down 0.11 (0.70%) 51,036,757
    CVX Chevron Corporation Common Stoc 98.40 Aug 30 Down 0.34 (0.34%) 9,202,440
    DD E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Com 48.22 Aug 30 Up 0.72 (1.52%) 8,498,527
    DIS Walt Disney Company (The) Commo 33.58 Aug 30 Up 0.42 (1.27%) 14,060,037
    GE General Electric Company Common 16.12 Aug 30 Up 0.08 (0.50%) 48,565,087
    HD Home Depot, Inc. (The) Common S 33.57 Aug 30 Down 0.17 (0.50%) 16,123,358
    HPQ Hewlett-Packard Company Common 26.05 Aug 30 Down 0.07 (0.27%) 23,413,098
    IBM International Business Machines 172.51 Aug 30 Down 0.11 (0.06%) 4,478,665
    INTC Intel Corporation 20.24 Aug 30 Down 0.06 (0.27%) 39,102,044
    JNJ Johnson & Johnson Common Stock 65.77 Aug 30 Down 0.09 (0.14%) 11,182,942
    JPM JP Morgan Chase & Co. Common St 37.06 Aug 30 Down 0.58 (1.54%) 28,826,266
    KFT Kraft Foods Inc. Common Stock 34.71 Aug 30 Up 0.14 (0.40%) 8,939,083
    KO Coca-Cola Company (The) Common 69.86 Aug 30 Up 0.13 (0.19%) 15,840,693
    MCD McDonald's Corporation Common S 90.78 Aug 30 Up 0.60 (0.67%) 6,311,784
    MMM 3M Company Common Stock 82.07 Aug 30 Down 0.03 (0.04%) 3,734,193
    MRK Merck & Company, Inc. Common St 32.70 Aug 30 Up 0.24 (0.72%) 12,799,634
    MSFT Microsoft Corporation 26.23 Aug 30 Up 0.39 (1.51%) 57,341,367
    PFE Pfizer, Inc. Common Stock 18.88 Aug 30 0.00 (0.00%) 44,134,708
    PG Procter & Gamble Company (The) 63.50 Aug 30 Up 0.41 (0.65%) 9,182,105
    T AT&T Inc. 29.62 Aug 30 Up 0.36 (1.23%) 22,641,717
    TRV The Travelers Companies, Inc. C 50.21 Aug 30 Down 0.54 (1.06%) 4,167,907
    UTX United Technologies Corporation 73.76 Aug 30 Down 0.11 (0.15%) 5,516,470
    VZ Verizon Communications Inc. Com 36.31 Aug 30 Up 0.17 (0.47%) 13,111,081
    WMT Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Common St 52.82 Aug 30 Down 0.37 (0.70%) 13,484,133
    XOM Exxon Mobil Corporation Common 73.91 Aug 30 Down 0.21 (0.28%) 22,440,397

    Background Information

    In the mid-1980's a software company called Blue Chip Software published a line of financial simulation games written by one Jim Zuber.  The names of these games were Millionaire, Tycoon, Baron, and Squire.  The game's original covers looked like leather portfolios (see here) and advertisements that ran in computing magazines read along the lines of "The Henderson Family made $500,000 in the stock market, then lost $1 million in real estate".  Catchy.
    Anyway, the point of each of the games was to take a small amount of money and relay it into $1 million.  Millionaire was the stock market game, Tycoon was commodities trading, Baron was real estate investing, and Squire included everything from the first three games, plus IRAs and such.

    The purpose of this blog is to record an attempt to replicate the goal of the games: to begin with $10,000 and turn it into $1 million in the space of a year (unfortunately, we will not be using real money, not having the necessary $10 grand available).  We will begin the experiment focusing on the theme of the first game, Millionaire, which is a stock market simulation.  Rules of the blog are found in the menu to the right.