Do all of your work.
Keep up with the reading.
Give me a reason to give you a good grade.
This is a math class. However, this is an applied math class. There will be days when we do a lot of math. There will be days when it seems like we don't do much math at all. Keep in mind that there's more to math than operations and numbers. (Remember all those proofs in geometry?) Linear thinking is the process of following a series of causes and effects through a progression, like falling dominoes. That's exactly what a proof is and that's a lot of the kind of thinking employed by economists. There will be days when you will need to do more reading than you'd expect for a math class. We also have several simulations planned to put you in the middle of the action. You're excited, I'm excited, it's gonna be fantastic!!
The image to the left is a link to the course syllabus. Read this thoroughly. It has information about course content, the kind of work we will do, what is expected of you, assessments, availability of extra help, the breakdown of grading, PBAs, and other useful things.
Office Hours will be held E2, C2 and C3 in room 508 nextdoor to the classroom. If you can't come to those times, please make an appointment. Please bring questions with you and ready to go. "I'm stuck," isn't a question. "I tried this and I got lost at this step," is much better.
This is the most focused business newspaper in general circulation. Its editorial page is pro-business and generally politically conservative.
This is one of the best news publications in the world. It is pro-business, but generally politically neutral.
Businessweek is owned by the company that carries the name of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Its stated purpose is to remain politically neutral.
Investopedia is a great site for information about finance and econ in easy to understand terms.
This is the Old Grey Lady. In contrast to the Journal, its editorial page is generally liberal.
Planet Money is a great podcast published by NPR. They put out short episodes on wide variety of topics in economics and finance. We will be listening to this podcast here and there, but I encourage you to listen on your own, including the back episodes. The image to the left is a link, but there is also a link to their blog here.
To get you started, here are links to Episode #552: "Blockbusters, Bombs and the Price of Ticket" about the movies and Episode #485: "What's Your Major?" about college.
The first thing you should do is read the assignment page again. You may have questions. Ask. Then, please read the 02 Company Manifest page in your packet. This tells you a lot about what these companies are all about. Critical.
5/3 is here (not that you need the old one anymore).
5/9 is here. As of today, you should be trading in pen using the 7/15 price only.
Today's news report (this is a big one) is here.
6/3 Final prices are here.
Note: There will be one more set of price posted on Friday, 6/3. This will be it. You will need to bring the entire set of materials for the PBA project with you to class on Monday, June 6th with your final trades made. You do not have to close out your options. You do not have to sell all your assets and convert them to cash. (In fact, that might be a bad idea, but I'm not going to tell you why - I'm sure you can figure that out.) You should close all your shorts, though.
​Use this document to update share prices for the companies involved in our simulation. In blue are the real dates. In red are the dates you should use when you are making transactions. For example, if you choose to buy Araco on May 4th at the $36.50 price, the date you would enter on your Activity Log is 5/15. This page will be updated every day at the end of school.
Historical Charts can be found here. I recommend you look these over. There might be some good information in them.
Click here for the answer key to Problem Set 3.
Day 1: See Problem Set 1. This is not due in class next time we meet. This is our first problem set for the final. You will have class time to do this.
Day 2: Complete the Project Questions here. Also, see above for Thursday prices in the PBA project.
PBA: Make sure you're all done. See the big orange note above. Also, see the end of the prompt packet for the Reflection prompt. Be genuine. Be thorough.
Bond Project: See this file for the prices, including the final December 2018 prices. Question page 2 is here. On Monday, please bring your (stapled) activity page, your asset tracker, both completed, and Questions 1 and 2.
Day 4: Have a good weekend.
Day 1: Complete 11.08 here based on what you did in class today discounting Coupon bonds.
Day 2: Some reading tonight. Read this webpage and take any notes you need to solidify your understanding of the relationship between interest rates and bond prices. Then read this one, which discusses bond yields, and complete 11.09 here.
Day 3: Complete 11.11 here. Also, the last few pages of the presentation today are here.
Day 4 (weekend assignment): For the PBA project, we are one week away from finishing. Check the 5/20 prices above for updates. This weekend, try to complete your yellow and green sheets through 8/31 and 10/31. Be ready with any questions on Monday. Also, please complete up to page 4 of the Brooklyn Industries assignment. You can stop at the top of page 5: "Class X Bonds"..
Day 1: Complete 11.04 here. For the "Comparing Bonds" question on the back, US Treasuries are paying 2% annually.
Day 2: Complete 11.05 here. It should help with concepts.
Day 2: Welcome to your PBA. Read the PBA Central section above. This is going to be a little off the first day because we are one day ahead of the simulation, but you can make trades at the prices for 4/30 using the news you got in class today even though you can already see the 5/15 prices. Don't be ridiculous about it. Bring your packets with you on Thursday. There is a lot more to talk about.
Day 1: Watch this short video on compound interest tonight. It's a pretty important concept for the bond market. Some of you saw this in math class last year, but please watch it as a reminder anyway.
Day 2: Complete 11.01 about the basic of bonds here.
Day 3: Complete 11.02 about bond types here. Answer key is here.
Day 4: Complete 11.03 linked here over break. Please spread the word to your classmates to check this page.
Day 4 (weekend assignment): Please watch this video. First 7 minutes are about what happened. Last 4 minutes are about the government's response. Then please check your Beacon email and post at least one question on the shared document. When you open the link from the email, you will see a Word document. In order to add to it, please click "Edit Document" toward the upper right and choose "Edit In Word Online."
Day 1: Complete 10.03. If you were absent, it's here. The key is below for after you do your work.
Day 2: Complete 10.07 on Futures from class. Also, complete 10.08 on Forwards here.
Day 1: Complete 10.05 here. There is a 0.5% fee of total transaction value on purchases and sales of stock in this assignment.
Day 2: Listen to this podcast about trading in commodities. Please take notes. What did he do? What were the signals in the market to key him into this strategy? What long-lasting effects did this have?
Day 4: Please complete 10.06 from class today.
Day 2: Watch this video about call options and then complete 10.01 here.
Day 3 (weekend assignment): Watch this video about derivatives and complete 10.02 here.
Day 1: Please complete the 3 Your Turn problems from the notes page today and continue working on 9.09 from Friday. A new copy of 9.09 can be found here.
Day 2: Based on your notes today, complete 9.10 here.
Day 4: Opportunity on Monday. Also, please be prepared to turn in the assignments from 9.05 to 9.11.
If over the weekend you feel the need to have a refresher on short sales, stock dividends, margin accounts, etc. please keep in mind that YouTube and Investopedia are great source of information. On YouTube, the channel Wall St. Survivor is a good source. For example, their 2-minute tutorial on margin accounts is here. Investopedia has several videos that are well-narrated and use helpful animations.
Day 1: Complete 9.06 from class as best you can. You are looking for patterns. A partial answer key to get us up to as much as we've done in class is here.
Day 2: Complete 9.07 here. The first problem is broken down to give a step-by-step approach. Building toward fluency.
Day 3: Complete 9.08 here. You will need internet access.
Day 1: Complete 9.03 here. Partial answer key for 9.02 is here.
Day 2: 9.04 Portfolio Values is here. Please complete it by Day 3 this week.
Day 4: Click here to download and complete 9.05. The answer key is here. The answer key for 9.04 is here.
Day 1: Here is the correct .pdf for the Random Walk reading. Please read it by Thursday of this week. Take notes.
Day 2: Here is the link to 9.01 based on your stock quote.
Day 3 (weekend assignment): Assignment 9.02 is here. Also, go to this page and see what you can figure out from the list you see. What's happening? Write your conclusions in your notes.
Day 1: Watch this video about Technical Analysis. Watch it twice so you can take notes about the four main points they emphasize. Also, see the announcement about the trip above and bring your preference sheet to next class.
Day 2: Watch this video about Fundamental Analysis. Take notes as you did above.
Day 3 (weekend): Please read chapters 1 and 5 from A Random Walk Down Wall Street, linked here. I recommend reading in three chunks; read Chapter 1, which is short, then on a different day read Chapter 5 up to the break on p. 128 when he switches to Fundamental Analysis, then on a different day read the rest of Chapter 5. This will help you concentrate more on what you're reading in each section, keep the time-on-task more manageable, and keep you thinking about the material in a more spread out and consistent way rather than all at once. Please take notes.
This is the YouTube clip from Trading Places (excellent movie, btw) we watched today. We came in at 1:46.