Posted: May 19th, 2015

FIN650;Portfolio Management

FIN650;Portfolio Management

FINAL PAPER

Please answer the following questions relating to your experience managing a $1 million portfolio on Stocktrak.
•    While the primary objective of this fund competition was “maximize your return”, there are other parameters you should have considered.
o    What was your own specific rate of return or range objective?
o    What was your risk level (beta) objective or range during the 10 week investment period?
o    What was your investment style? Technical? Fundamental? Some mix of the two?
o    What was your asset class allocation mix/matrix (% in ETFs, % in equities, % in bonds, etc.)?
?    Did you include all or some of the following types of investments available on Stocktrak: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, spots, futures and futures options, ETFs?
o    Did Your strategy incorporate the use of all order types including market, limit and stop orders?
o    Did you trade on any international exchanges? No
•    What media did you use to stay informed about market-impacting events?
o    Newspapers (WSJ, Financial Times, Barron’s etc.)?
o    Business TV?
o    Radio?
o    Magazines?
o    Websites?
o    Bloomberg?
o    Morningstar?
o    ValueLine?
•    Did you keep some kind of trade log? i.e. a record of the rationale for each trade decision that you make during the simulation?
•    What index or indexes did you benchmark your portfolio against? How was your relative performance vs. the index?
•    Expand upon how you went from defining your initial investment objectives to  designing and executing the trading strategies (including modifications during the semester) necessary to reach your investment goals. Some questions to consider include:
o    Do you feel the selections you made and the investment strategies you took were appropriate given the investment objectives and target risk/return goals that you selected?
o    What specific steps did you take during the semester to attempt to adjust your portfolio to better achieve your target? How successful were these steps?
o    Did you learn anything about short-term trading? Market timing? Trading on news? Economic indicators?
•    Consider the investments in your portfolio.
o    What were your five best performing investments in your portfolio?
o    What were your five worst performing investments in your portfolio?
•    If you had to do it all over again, would you change your investment objectives and strategy in any way?
o     If not, why?
o    If yes, how?

•    What is your candid review of the Stocktrak program? Was it helpful overall? Was it lacking something? Would you recommend Stocktrak to a student learning the basics of portfolio management?

•    Do you have one topic you were hoping to cover that we did not discuss in class?