Today, January 31, the last day of what has been a very long, very cold month, is more notably the birthday of Franz Schubert–January 31,1797. He gave the world the Unfinished Symphony, 8 other symphonies, chamber music, solo piano music, and liturgical music. Enjoy, as I did this morning, Pavarotti singing Schubert’s Ave Maria .
STRATFOR Global Intelligence has published a Somali Piracy: 2011 Annual Update. STRATFOR’s 2011 pirate report adds salient background to my previous pirate blog.
It seems as though the Somali Piracy business has also suffered a recession. They have hijacked fewer ships (31 vs 49), their area for hijackings has decreased (around the edges), and countermeasures have increased (ship crews retreating to safe rooms until help arrives, ships carrying 4-man teams of armed guards, the Convoy Escort Programme, LTD).
As part of their class work for the fall 2011 Stock Market Game program, the winning team in the Middle School Division , Team ZZ113, from Ms. O’Leary’s class at Gruening Middle School created a Power Point presentation about their portfolio. It recaps their portfolio and its performance, their strategy for choosing stocks, a short explanation of 3 of their 6 holdings, and their conclusion about their investment strategy. Take a minute to view their nine-slide presentation.
I am proud of Ms. O’Leary’s teacher-student work during the Stock Market Game program time throughout the fall semester and these students’ learnings.
The national Stock Market Game program is an interactive, interdisciplinary educational program that enhances core curriculum—math, reading, writing, economics, social studies, personal finance, research and technology. More directly, it gives 5th through 12th grade students an opportunity to put into practice personal finance, economic and market concepts as they use the Internet to study how financial markets work, research stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, enter trades, manage their accounts, follow their portfolios, and check their state rankings. They create and manage a $100,000 portfolio for 15 weeks each semester. As part of the guidelines students must hold 5 different investments; any stock they purchase must be priced at more than $5.00 a share; they must buy at least 100 shares; the total purchase price of their bond, stock, or mutual fund may not exceed 30 percent of the value of their portfolio. The winning portfolio is determined by the portfolio’s performance compared with the S&P 500 Index.
The High School Division portfolio winning team for fall semester 2011 is Team ZZ36 in Ms. Melanie Sugita’s economics class at South Anchorage High School. The team’s portfolio out performed the S&P 500 Index by 10.92 percent. The team followed the buy & hold approach; their main holdings were Apple and Tesla Motors. Congratulations to Team ZZ36 on their portfolio management.
The Middle School Division portfolio winning team for fall semester 2011 is Team ZZ113 in Ms. Michelle O’Leary’s class at Gruening Middle School in Eagle River. Their portfolio underperformed the S&P 500 Index by only 1.48 percent. Their portfolio included Boeing, Apple, WalMart, VF Corp, Nike, and Starbucks. Their portfolio management philosophy was also a buy & hold approach. They cut their losses by selling Costco, Coca-Cola and Dollar General. Congratulations to Team ZZ36. Team ZZ36 prepared a Power Point presentation concerning their portfolio work. I will share it later; it deserves its own blog post.
The Elementary School Division portfolio winning team is Team ZZ70 in Ms. Likka McCauley’s class at Baxter Elementary School. Their portfolio out performed the S&P 500 Index by 3.71percent. Their portfolio consisted on 11 stocks; their most successful stocks were DemandTec (up 59 percent) and Google (up 21 percent). Their approach was also a buy & hold portfolio. Congratulations to Team ZZ70.
I am truly proud of these students and teachers. Many thanks to all Stock Market Game teachers in Alaska for teaching your students market, economic, and personal finance concepts. There is nothing like hands-on-learning to bring understanding to these ideas and concepts. The Alaska Council on Economic Education brings the Stock Market Game to teachers throughout Alaska.
The U.S. Navy rescued 13 Iranians held hostage by Somalia pirates.
The flip side of this rescue was that it decreased the revenue the pirates would have otherwise obtained for eventually returning the hostages. Therefore, those Somalis who might have invested in this pirate company probably listed on the Somalia Pirate Exchange lost money today as the price of this stock undoubtedly tumbled.
The Somalia pirate exchange, the Harardheere Stock Exchange (“HSE”), opened for business in 2009 in Harardheere, Somalia, about 250 miles northeast of Mogadishu. It operates 24 hours a day. Pirate groups of a certain size register to trade on the exchange. Currently the exchange lists 73 entities. Individual investors donate weapons or pay cash to buy shares of one or more of the registered groups. Thus, pirate groups can raise money and weapons for expeditions and local investors can share in the profit—receive dividends—if the expedition is successful. Just as in the usual corporate world, not all pirate groups are successful. Currently however, the pirate business is up; in the first quarter of 2011 there were 97 attacks off the coast of Somalia, which is a 177 percent increase over first quarter of 2010. Wired has a fascinating (excellent graphics), non-typical economic analysis of the Somali pirate business.
Yes, middle school and high school students can identify quality, high-performing stocks. The following was compiled by the New York office of the Stock Market Game program—the best performing stocks from student portfolios nationwide during fall semester 2011 (as of the end of Nov—the game ended Dec. 16th):
Company Ticker 9/6/2011 11/21/2011 Increase
5. Build-A-Bear Workshop BBW 5.31 7.92 49%
4. Aéropostale, Inc. ARO 10.39 15.76 52%
3. Commercial Vehicle Group CVGI 6.31 9.66 53%
2. American Dental Partners ADPI 10.01 18.65 86%
1. Pharmasset, Inc. VRUS 70.53 134.14 91%
5. Build-A-Bear Workshop: At Build-A-Bear Workshop, their mission is to bring the teddy bear to life. Located mainly in malls, the company’s stores allow kids to design their own teddy bears and other stuffed animals complete with clothing, shoes, and a multitude of accessories. Customers can build bears online, too.
4. Aéropostale, Inc.: A mall-based, specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories, principally targeting 14 to 17 year-old young women and men through its Aéropostale stores and 7 to 12 year-old kids through its P.S. from Aéropostale stores.
3. Commercial Vehicle Group: A leading supplier of fully integrated system solutions for the global commercial vehicle market, including the heavy-duty truck market, the construction and agriculture markets and the specialty and military transportation markets.
2. American Dental Partners: Helping dentists focus on drilling (and not billing) is the mission of the company. It provides management and support services for the growing group practice segment of the dental care industry. Through long-term service agreements, the company manages about 25 general and specialty dental practice groups operating some 275 dental facilities in more than 20 states, mainly in the eastern and midwestern part of the US.
1. Pharmasset, Inc.: A clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing novel drugs to treat viral infections. Its primary focus is on the development of oral therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (“HCV”). Congrats to the SMG students who uncovered its potential!