Reference no: EM132444149

MFE 6230 - Portfolio Theory - Ohio University

Project Part - Compiling securities data

In project part 1, you will collect some demographic information about a set of companies. Pick some companies that you are curious about; you will be working with these companies all semester. Don't spend a lot of time trying to pick companies that you think are "good investments". To some extent, your analysis over the next few months will be more interesting if they are not necessarily good investments.

Pick Eleven (no more, no less) Stocks

The companies must have the following two characteristics:

- They have been trading since at least 2012

We will need at least 5 years of data to do some of our analysis. Although it is possible and oftentimes necessary to analyze stocks with less data, we don't want to be bothered with that unnecessary complication this semester.

- They are US based

US based securities have the most readily available data. We offer an entire course on international finance that discusses many of the particular nuances of international economics and investing.

My suggestion would be to pick eleven stocks from the S&P 500. You can find S&P 500 constituent lists on the web. Additionally, try to think of a theme for the securities you pick. I picked a stock from one of each of the GICS sectors, but that's kind of boring. Feel free to do something outlandish like stocks whose names rhyme, stocks whose ticker symbols are words, stocks that spell out an acronym for something, etc. Have fun with this. You won't be graded on the quality of your choices (or the creativity of your theme).

Collect Demographic Data

Create a table labeled: "Table 1: Portfolio Companies" that provides the following data for your stocks:

- Ticker - This is the symbol used to trade a company's stock
- Company Name - Try to use a full, official, company name and not an abbreviation.
- Market Value (000) - present this in thousands
- Headquarters - city in state of company incorporation
- Date of First Trade - The date the security first started trading publically
- Economic Sector - I used GICS Sectors in my example

Also, provide a description of each of your chosen companies. If you paraphrase or "borrow" a description off of the internet or a company annual report, etc., please provide a footnoted reference. See the example in Blackboard for guidance.