Investments Essay -- essays papers

Investments INVESTMENT JOURNAL I started doing my research in the Microsoft Network using the Custom Search feature in the Stock Screener. Since I was looking for a conservative stock to start with, the first restriction I put was that the stock be a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I also wanted a Large-Cap company so I put the Market Cap to be above 5 billion dollars. Another restriction I added was that its P/E ratio be the lowest possible and that the EPS Year to Year be above 13%. After running the search I got 20 matches. The top three were Exxon, SBC Communications and American Express. After researching them a bit more I decided that Exxon would be a good option because it was a solid company that had a pretty stable history. After analyzing its fundamentals and taking into account the rising prices of gasoline, I decided Exxon would be a good long-term investment. I bought 115 shares of Exxon at $43.36! The second stock I am looking for is a value stock. I want to get a good solid company and buy it for a bargain. The research I did in the Stock Screener was based on the value strategy we learned in class. In the Stock Screener I entered the following restrictions: 1) Market Cap * $500,000,000 2) Return on Equity * Industry Average Return on Equity 3) Return on Assets * ROA 5 year Average 4) Price/Book Value * 1 5) P/E current * P/E current (Industry) 6) Debt to Equity Ratio * 1 7) Previous Day Closing Price near 52 week low I got 10 results and researched each individual company using the research wizard. The company that I liked the most was Loews because it seemed like a good company with strong fundamentals. The company primarily deals with insurance through publicly traded subsidiaries. Other holdings include tobacco, hotels(US and Canada) and watchmaker Boluva. Even though it has the characteristics of a value company its growth potential and estimates are very impressive. I bought 120 shares of Loews at $53.01. Now that I had value in my portfolio I decided to look for a good growth stock that had a positive momentum recently outperforming the market. I still am not sure I want to invest in a technology stock because of their volatility and risk. I used a similar screen to the O'Shaughnessy Growth screen. The screen was almost identical but with a couple of minor alterations. I d... ...ommendation I read in Business Week. It was recommended as a good technology stock that dealt with both equipment and medicine. The company is called Stryker’s Corp. and it basically makes surgical products such as drills, saws, rasps and mixers. Orthopedic implants (including artificial joints, spinal rods, screws, and bone cement) account for nearly 60% of sales. The fundamentals of the stock are very good and the technical analysis indicates it has been heavily oversold. The only negative I found in the stock analysis is that its P/E is higher than the industries and that the PEG is high also. Still I believe the company is going to do well in the near future because it has new products coming out and good numbers are expected. I bought 300 shares of SYK at $55.00. The next transaction I made was one that was very different from my other transactions. I based my transaction on a clearstation.com e-mail report that was sent to me recommending that I short NVDA. I went directly to the stockcharts.com and analyzed its chart. I decided to short the stock based on the information the chart provided (it was heavily overbought). I short-selled 100 shares of NVDA at $84.64.