Final Virtual Stock Exchange Report – DUE 3 April
A 3-page, double-spaced paper about your Virtual Stock Exchange experience will be due at the end of the semester. Please address the following:
• Which positions exceeded your expectations? What conditions caused this?
• Which positions underperformed for you? What factors created the performance gap?
• What are the key things you learned from your Virtual Stock Exchange experience?
• How will your Virtual Stock Exchange experience influence your personal investing in the future?
• Benchmark Analysis: An alternative to the active portfolio management strategy that
you will follow by trading the securities for the project is the strategy of following market indexes (passive portfolio strategy). The easiest way to follow this strategy is to invest into Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that track various market indexes and are traded throughout the day, just like a stock. Keep a daily record of closing prices of three ETFs:
(1) Nasdaq 100 Index Tracking Stock (NDX) (2) Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index
(3) Standard & Poor’s Depository Receipts (SPY) that tracks Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Stock Price Index.
You can obtain the historical and actual data for the ETF’s closing prices on https://finance.yahoo.com/lookup . For the final report, you will have to compare your portfolio returns to passive investment strategies of investing in these ETFs.
On a graph compare the dynamics of the portfolio with the three ETF’s (mentioned above). For the portfolio and each ETF compute holding period returns over the whole trading period. What strategy seems to perform. better? Is it consistent with the market efficiency? Explain.
Guidelines for IN-PERSON group presentation for Project 2
• The group presentation for Project 2 is an IN-PERSON presentation. Attendance for this session is mandatory. The In-person presentation will take place on Thursday, April 3, 2025, from 11.30 am – 2.30 pm.
• Each group MUST make a presentation to be eligible to receive a grade. Students / groups may not re-weigh any of the components of Project 2.
• A group will be given 7 (+1) = 8 minutes to present your learnings from Project 2. I will inform. you when 7 minutes are over. You will have to stop after the 8th minute.
• The presentation will also have a Microsoft PPT which discusses all findings of Project 2. Details of presentations can include the points in the Report but is not limited to the same. If your group has something you would like to add, please do so.
• All group members must be present for the presentation. However, it is not necessary for all members to present.
• The presentation file (PPT) is due the night before the presentations. Please upload into Assignments tab on Western Brightspace. Only one member of the group needs to upload the PPT onto Western Brightspace.
• Please ensure that your presentation is engaging and interesting – remember, it is up to you to capture the interest of the audience.