The Great Stock Showdown

 By Marc Feala

“Buy low, sell high”, is a familiar statement by people who don’t understand stocks.  This is a very general term and is more of a mantra than a style of trading stocks.  My friend always likes stocks with big dividends because their gains are “locked in”, meaning, they will always pay the dividend.  Then there are those people who claim no money can ever be made by those investing in stocks. 

The stock market is like a vast sea, filled with wining stocks, losing stocks, and stocks that seem to go nowhere.  If you’re like me, you had no idea how to get into stocks.  I had very little knowledge of the stock market, other than I knew one existed and it was located in New York City.  What I lacked in knowledge I made up with enormous passion to be successful and make money.

If I could have started over again, I would have created a group of stocks I liked based on the little knowledge I had possessed.  This site is devoted to the financial education of all people.  In order to educate you about stocks, MLC Ticker has prepared a stock competition, between Professor Tom Adamson’s Financial Management class at Midland Lutheran College and the staff of MLC Ticker.  Each entity has compiled a portfolio of 20 stocks that will be tracked until the end of November.  The portfolio with the biggest return at the end of the challenge will receive two dozen donuts.  There is a lot at stake. 

The bulk of this competition will be devoted to highlighting the risks of the stock market and educating how some of these risks can be avoided.  “If people were as competitive and paid as much attention to stocks as they do sports, their education on the subject would be superior”, says Adamson.  Use “The Great Stock Showdown” to initiate or further your education on this sometimes confusing arena that is the stock market.

Here are the stocks for the MLC Ticker’s portfolio, The MLC Ticker Global 20: Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI), Apple Inc. (AAPL), International Game Technology (IGT), Nike Inc. (NKE), Google (GOOG), Union Pacific (UNP), Halliburton Company (HAL), Wells Fargo Corporation (WFC), Costco Wholesale (COST), Pepsico Inc (PEP), JC Penney Holdings (JCP), Research In Motion Limited (RIMM), China Mobile Limited (CHL), Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), Yamana Gold (AUY), XTO Energy Inc (XTO), Nastech Pharmaceutical (NSTK), Deere Co (DE), Alliant Technical Systems Inc (ATK), and BASF (BAS.DE).

Here are the stocks for Professor Adamson’s portfolio, MLC Impact 20:

Verizon (VZ), 3M Corporation (MMM), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Disney (DIS), General Motors (GM), Citi Group (C), Home Depot (HD), Coca-Cola (KO), Merck (MRK), AT&T (T), General Electric (GE), Alcoa (AA), Pfizer (PFE), Honeywell (HON), IBM (IBM), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Caterpillar (CAT), Nike Inc. (NKE), American Express (APX), and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

With so much information to be learned and fun to be had, this is a competition you don’t want to miss.