Posts Tagged ‘imaginary money’

Oh man, this is gonna be ugly. UGLY. Let’s see how we’re doing.

Closing Price: $3.90

Holdings Value: $3,900.00

Loss: 71.13%

I’m down $9,610.00. Painful.

Painful painful. I’m glad this is imaginary money.

Let’s peek at our stock, shall we?

Closing Price: $17.30

Holdings Value: $17,300.00

Gain: 28.5%

I’m up $3,790.00. Awww yeah.

Uh oh.

Closing Price: $14.00

Holdings Value: $14,000.00

down 5.21%

I’m still up $490.00, but I’m not buying lunch tomorrow—you’ll have to fend for yourself.

Look at that! I’m up!

Closing Price: $14.77

up 9.33%

Holdings Value: $14,770.00

I’m up $1260.00 from my original “investment”.

I’ll buy lunch.

A buddy recently started an email conversation about Apple—how they’re floating around the $200 mark, how they were $7 not so long ago, and how he’s kicking himself for not buying then.

Me, I don’t fret too much over couldabeens. There’s no way to know everything. Sometimes opportunities slip through your fingers, and sometimes you don’t even know there were opportunities without the benefit of hindsight.

I did find the question What’s the next magic $7 stock? interesting. If I knew the answer with certainty, I would be a very sought-after person, and would probably sitting on a huge portfolio already. But I don’t. And I’m not.

It is fun, however, to play with make-believe money for the sake of an exercise. So, think of this as Stock Market Club just like we did in junior high.

I’ve spent the last 3+ years working with student loan companies in one capacity or another. I have no inside information and am not an investment or finance person. All I’m working off of is limited knowledge, a little work experience, a little common sense and the freedom of imaginary money.

Today is Day 1 of Stock Market Fun.  We’ll pretend I bought 1,000 shares of First Marblehead (FMD)—a company I’ve heard of through working in the student loan industry, and have seen their marketing partners advertise heavily in mass media channels (the ubiquitous Astrive commercials come immediately to mind). I chose them because (in my insight or ignorance) I see how far stock for FMD and other companies like it have gone down. The subprime crisis has smacked down lenders, and while FMD is in the student loan industry, I surmise that they are feeling the effects. They’re lending to students (private loans—not goverment subsidized or sponsored), which is potentially less risky than lending for homes to people that can’t afford them. But I would imagine student lending has a whole other set of risks and problems. My hunch is that it’s at a low or near-low, and they will rebound over time.

Buy low, sell high, right?

The closing price today for First Marblehead was $13.51, so my imaginary holdings value is $13,510.00.

I’ll track this stock from time to time and see how my “purchase” is going. Come back to see!