Analyzing Stocktrak: Pros and Cons

This sample essay on Stocktrak provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

When our investments class first started I knew very little about stocks, mutual funds and options but with every class that I took I started to understand exactly what each meant. This became very important in my research of companies to choose for stocks, mutual funds and options. I took a few things into consideration: the economy, the time of season, and the products the company is best known for; also from the companies chosen I look at their three month six month and one year overlook.

This gave me a few companies to research to decide which would be best. The first bulk of stock that was purchased was with Akamai Technologies, which mainly specialize in speeding up a company’s websites by using their (Akamai) high speed network to increase download speed.

Two of their biggest clients are Best Buy and Sony, which really set me in the “green” for my decision not to mention the fact that the company earned $860 million in revenue and $145. 9 in net income in 2009. From a technical standpoint, I discovered Akamai’s internet traffic footprint is large.

The company operates the worlds largest distributed computing network with more than 20,000 servers in 1,000 networks across 71 countries those estimates are excellent. The company showed promise which leads me to buy a substantial amount of stock for my first purchase.

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The companies I decided to invest in next were Best Buy and Nike, Best Buy is now known as the electronic store powerhouse now that it’s fierce rival Circuit City filled bankruptcy (which now sells refurbished electronics online) Best Buy now has very few competitors.

Stock-trak

I looked for positive trends within the company and to my surprise the company’s trend was looking at an upward trend; which led me to buy the stock within this company. Nike was a very difficult decision for me mainly because I worked for Nikes’ powerhouse seller Footlocker. From my stay with the company I witnessed the company cut several lines of their signature shoes in efforts of saving a dead product.

One of Nikes biggest co brand includes the Jordan brand which is a powerhouse in athletic wear. Nikes trend did not show as much promise as best buy but I was optimistic that sales would soar with their company do to simple fact that the holiday season was around the corner. This decision had me buy 100 shares of stock with Nike also. The transactions were a major risk when selecting these companies due to the fact that retail stores are not a guaranteed success from what the market trend showed.

For three weeks straight I tracked a positive trend with both companies which led me to believe I made an excellent choice for choosing both companies; then a negative trend became constant and I had no choice but to sell my stock in efforts of restoring the money lost. With retail a failure in my past purchase I decided to jump into a Financial Institution (AIG) in which I looked at the Bloomberg report to see exactly how the company is doing.

The Bloomberg report showed that AIG took a huge dip in February their stock was selling for less than $25 a share but made a drastic turnaround and by October the company’s stock was for $40 a share. With this information I felt that the company was rising back to a stable status and this gave me the evidence needed to buy 200 shares of the companies stock. AIG showed me great promise but AIG and Goldman Sacs fell under scrutiny within the media and as a result their stock daily which led me to sell half of my stock.

In my efforts to find something different I found Uranium Resources INC which showed great promise. Uranium Resources, Inc founded in 1977 deals with exploration, development, and mining of uranium with sites in South Texas and New Mexico that utilize nuclear power to generate electricity. The company reported a $0. 04 loss in the third quarter of 2009 but has seen positive trends thereafter. When I purchased the stock for the company it had only seen $0. 01 gain for the trading period but since then the company has had great success these few months; and have greatly impacted my portfolio.

I also decided to take my money and invest in biotechnology and I found AVI Biopharmaceutical INC. This company specializes in the discovery and development of therapeutic products based on antisense and cancer immunotherapy technology. Their studies help to improve human deterioration of muscles functions. This company was just what I needed to expand in my search for new stock and up and coming technology. I purchased the stock at $1. 84 at which I was very surprised because the company was doing so well in the market at the time.

I did manage to sell 50 shares of the company’s stock but I still have shares within this company. I also did some research on Mutual funds in which I followed some of the bigger names and viewed their trend in the market which lead me to Fidelity, FMI, TCW and Yacktman. In my research I found that these four companies were doing very well and consistently showing positive trend with only a few minor negative trends. This led me to believe that these companies would be a secure investment and would hold its value for the remainder of our class duration.

Over a months time I discovered that three of the four Funds where suffering daily. In which I had no choice but to sell two of the mutual funds in doing this it freed up space and allowed my portfolio to show an upward trend. When deciding to pick options I looked at my best stocks and decided to open an option on them which included clean energy’s and Google. Clean energy was a risk and it has not shown me anything promising over the past two weeks which leads me to believe that I may have to sell my options in clean energy.

Google has done nothing but impress me over the weeks with its positive trends I am considering opening up more options with Google. In conclusion I have had great success when choosing stocks but I’ve also had my share of down falls. My ranking in the class never stayed in a consistent position which kept me active in the market in efforts to find a stable position. By opening up my portfolio and buying clean energy fuel, gold, and bio technology my portfolio has seen a number of positive trends; but this was very difficult mainly because neither was a guaranteed success but they did open opportunities for other stock options.