Budgeting Assignment
Overview
Starting the week of Sepember 1st, you will be tracking your income and expenses into your own
ClearCheckbook account. Please enter your expenses in the following default categories in
ClearCheckbook:
Housing
Supermarkets and Grocery Stores
Gasoline and Automotive
General Merchandise (retail purchases from places such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc.)
Restaurants and Bars
Miscellaneous
Details
Go to ClearCheckbook and click on the Register Now link
Create a username and password
Click the Project Code link below the fields for your username, password, and e-mail address and enter the
following: CSR342
After submitting your request, you will receive an e-mail from ClearCheckbook.com confirming your registration
and providing a link to setup your account. Follow the instructions to create your own personalized spending
categories and accounts
Each time you have an expense or make a deposit/payment, record the transaction via the website
If you don’t enter the project code, you will not be able to view the average spending of the class, which you will
need for the budget report
You should try to display your transactions as accurate as possible so it can help you keep track of your
actual expenses. The goal of his report is for students to realize their actual expenditures so it can help
you change “bad habits”.
Note: When you live in the dorm you still encounter expenses for housing and food. Calculate those
expenses on per monthly basis.
At the end of the semester, you will submit your assignment on Blackboard Learn in the assessments
folder.
Report Questions
(You are required to answer all questions/bullet points)
ClearCheckbook Spending Patterns and Graphs
By looking at representations of your spending over the past 3 months, comment on your general
spending pattern. Do you see room for improvement and, if so, which areas? Justify your answers.
Provide a pie chart detailing your spending of each month.
Look at your expenses over the past three months. Are your income sources sufficient to manage your
expenses?
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Individual versus Class Spending
Include ClearCheckbook line graphs that compare your spending to the class average. Briefly discuss
the pattern you have observed for each spending category.
Projected Budget for May
Create a budget for May and describe it in great detail.
Create a calendar and bar graph for May of your projected budget, planning when you will spend each
of the five categories. (Housing, groceries, general merchandise, gas, & restaurants/bars).
Name your budget amount per week; explain why you chose this number and how you will manage
this on a week-by-week basis.
Describe two specific action plans you are going to initiate in order to stay within your budget.
There is no page length requirement, but do try to be succinct with your writing.
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Investing Assignment
Overview
This exercise has been designed to expose you to the world of investing and trading. To that end, you’
ll
learn about and use trading rules and strategies which you’
ll use to invest in the stock market. You are not
expected to put any of your own money on the line! The grades that you will receive for this exercise will
not be based on how much you profited or lost during the exercise. Your grade will come from report
that you will write based on the transactions that you have made.
Details
Begin trading activities the week of 8 September.
Each individual will be allotted $16,000 in the MarketWatch game.
After you register your account and enter the game, you’
ll be able to invest this money in any way that
you see fit; as long as it falls within the guidelines that we set for this assignment. Each trade you make
will be charged a flat $9.95 commission fee. Keep this mind when you choose your trading strategy.
Investing Assignment Report
The first step is to look through chapter 7 of the textbook and pick a core strategy. Are you going to be an
Investor or a Trader? Your decision here will influence the actions you take and the paper you’
ll write at
the end of the semester.
You’
re allotted $16,000 that you will need to divide evenly between four investment areas (outlined
below). Make sure you keep track of the prices at which you buy and sell shares, the tickers of your
various securities, quantities of your transactions, etc.
The Four Investment Areas:
Momentum (or Gainers):
The idea behind a momentum strategy is to find stocks/mutual funds/ETFs that are experiencing
substantial increases in price and buying shares of them to try and profit from the upward trend.
Contrarian (or Losers):
The idea behind the contrarian strategy is that “today’
s loser could be tomorrow’
s winner.”You need to
find a stock/mutual fund/ETF that has essentially fallen as low as it can go. You do this with hope that
after you buy the stock it will start an upward trend which will result in large profit.
Fund
The idea behind the fund strategy is to invest in a specific mutual or index fund, as then your returns are
the same as of a market of your choosing.
Note: You must do your own research and select a suitable mutual, market, or index fund. Wal-Mart is NOT a
market fund. It is a company with stocks. Funds are carefully bundled collections of stocks. If you pick a stock
for your fund strategy, you will receive 0 points for this section.
Own Strategy
You can invest $4,000 in anything you want in the game. Just be sure to explain what you pick and why
you invested in it.
Submit your assignment on Blackboard Learn under the assessments section.
Times New Roman , double spaced, normal 1-inch margins
There is no page length requirement, but do try to be succinct with your writing.
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The two parts of your paper:
Part 1: Investments: Investing in both individual stocks, mutual funds
and/or ETFs
Declare which strategy–investing or trading–you decided to utilize throughout the course of this project.
Why did you choose that strategy? How did your choices follow (or betray) the rules found in chapter 7
for your chosen strategy? Explain how you did or didn’
t follow these rule.
Which stocks/mutual funds/ETFs did you choose for the momentum section of your portfolio? Why did
you choose these investments over others in the market? Explain your answer.
Which stocks/mutual funds/ETFs did you choose for the contrarian section of your portfolio? Why did
you choose these over other losers in the market? Explain your answer.
Which mutual funds/index funds/ETFs did you choose for the this section of your portfolio? Why did you
choose these over others in the market? Explain your answer.
How did you decide what to buy for your own strategy? Please provide a brief explanation for your
answer.
Part 2: Profits/Losses
Show the following information for each stock/mutual fund/ ETF purchased in a simple table like this
one:
Momentum Contrarian Fund Your Own
Ticker
Number of shares
purchased
Price purchased
Closing1 or sold price
Commission Fees
Profit per share2
Gain on investment3
1 Closing
2 Profit
price means the price of your security at the time you write your paper.
per share=(Closing price)-(price purchased)
IClosing priceM-Iprice purchasedM
3 Gain
on investment=
Iprice purchasedM
Based on your return calculations, which strategy offered the highest returns: your strategy or one of the
required strategies (momentum, contrarian or fund approach)? By how much?