2008 Economic Crisis (PowerPoint presentation)
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
May 7, 2012
Last meeting of the year:
- Did a quick review of what we have covered over the past semester
- Took a look at multiple hedge fund outlooks
- Discussed where we want to take this organization over the coming years
- Looking to bring in guest speakers, as well as plan a trip to the NYSE
ABLE Investments Total Return Fund
- Planning to start a fund over the coming summer
- Picking 10 stocks (2 companies from 5 sectors) give reason for picking them, update their progress every week or two
- Great way to get members involved with picking companies
Next Year
- Looking to add one or two individuals to our E-Board (analysts)
- If you want to get in contact with Karl, Mike, or Dan this summer with any questions or suggestions just email us:
- Kbauer44@gmail.com
- Mike.rogers26@gmail.com
- Danzimon@gmail.com
To all of you in the organization, good luck with finals over the next two weeks. Have a great summer and again if you want to get in contact with any of us just email us. We are always here to help you improve your trading abilities.
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
April 2, 2012
Verizon (VZ)
- Has a very high P/E ratio compared to its sector
- Is working to make an online movie streaming service
- Working with Redbox (Coinstar) to compete with Netflix’s service
- Group researching Verizon judged them to be a buy (38.52)
Exxon Mobil (XOM)
- Has angered the Iraqi government, due to their announcement that they may sign an oil contract with northern region of Kurdistan, which is at odds with the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad
- Company says that it is much easier to deal with the Kurds, while the Iraqi federal government is demanding a higher percentage of the income they would make from drilling operations in the south
- Has a strong P/E ratio in comparison to the industry
- The group researching Exxon judged it to be a buy at (87.07)
Parabolic SAR
- Is a great outlay to use while trading
- Showed how it can be used to carry out short selling positions
Short Selling
- Discussed what short selling actually is, how you actually borrow the shares and then the trader believes that they will be able to purchase the shares at a lower price at a later date
- The difference between the price the shares were borrowed at and the price they are later purchased at is your profit/loss
- Short selling is a very risky style of trading
- Showed how you could use the Parabolic SAR to help determine when to short a stock
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
March 26, 2012
Lionsgate Entertainment
- Is one of the best performing stocks year-to-date
- Has just recently acquired Summit Entertainment (makers of Twilight)
- Just released their latest film, The Hunger Games, cost them $80 million to produce and they grossed $150 million over its opening weekend
- Look for their stock to continue to be strong they have the deal for the remaining films for the Hunger Games trilogy
Bernanke’s Speech
- Helped the markets to climb nearly 1.5%
- We discussed the possibility of QE 3 and how that would affect the stock market, commodities, interest rates, and the US dollar
Review
- Went through and review the different overlays and indicators we have been using over the semester
- Bollinger Bands, Williams %R, MACD, CMF, support and resistance, as well as a golden cross
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
March 19, 2012
Bank Stress Test
- All but 4 passed (Citi, Metlife, Ally Financial, and SunTrust)
- Test is run to see how strong banks are and if they would be able to survive a recession worse than that of 2008
- This is the 3rd one, implemented by Basel III
Goldman Sachs
- Executive Greg Smith wrote, “And I can honestly say that the environment (at Goldman) is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.”
- Said that managers would refer to customers as muppets
- This news hurt Goldman greatly causing nearly $3 billion in capital to exit the company hurting it’s share price
- Goes to show what one letter from a respected individual can do to a company
Apple
- Launched a 1.8% dividend ($2.65/share a year)
- Did not cause a large jump since this action had been anticipated
- Many still worry whether Cook can continue in Job’s footsteps creating new and innovative products
- Apple relies on new product sales revenue, and has a very small percentage of sales from recurring sales (people are not going to buy the same IPad twice)
Wells Fargo Group Presents
- Record earnings
- One of the best ratings from the recent stress test
- Trying to grow internationally, since only 2% of business is international
- Has a strong ADX
- Group considers it a strong Hold
Bollinger Bands
- Dotted line is the average price
- Bottom line (indicates oversold or perhaps a weak company)
- Top line or above the dotted line (indicates overbought or the possibility of a strong positive run)
Watch List (Chosen on December 13, 2011)
1) P 2) TNAV 3) CELL 4) FARM 5) ITIC 6) SYX 7) AFG 8) FRPT 9) AMSF
10) MOV 11) COH 12) RTLX 13) VLGEA 14) CLD 15) WHG 16) BBW
17) FSCI 18) SNPS 19) MRK 20) FRD 21) KS 22) AEZS 23) SIRI 24) YGE
25) DNDN (short) 26) AKS 27) AMD
TEAMS
Energy(Team Awesome)
- Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE)
o Exxon Mobil (XOM)-Andrew Deluca, Achumboro Ataande, Vertis McMillan
Financial(Team Mangos)
- Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF)
o Wells Fargo (WFC)-Michael Marinelli, Nick Randone, Jason Ho
Healthcare(Team BEATZ)
- Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV)
o Pfizer (PFE)-
Industrial(Team Dirty Sanchez)
- Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI)
o Caterpillar (CAT)-Ralph Carucci, MacKenzie Miller, Ryan Heller, James Schiaffo
Materials(WOLVERINES)
- Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLB)
o Freeport-McMoran (FCX)-James McVey, Anthony Balzano, Matt Bertucci, Dylan Ferber
Technology(Diabolic Doves)
- Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK)
o Apple Inc (AAPL)-Emma Bigley, Ryan Stern
Telecommunication(Team America)
- SPDR S&P Telecom ETF (XTL)
o Verizon Wireless (VZ)-Casey Olszewski, Wes, Russ Archer, Neema
Utilities(WARRIORS)_
- Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU)
o Dominion Resources Inc (D)- Cristian Pozo, Johnny Rodriguez, Jose Asiatico.
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
March 5, 2012
SWOT Analysis
- Each group carried out an analysis of their particular company.
- Two groups presented and the rest will do so at upcoming meetings
- SWOT stands for:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
Technical Analysis (Indicators and Outlays)
- Indicators
- Williams Percent R (periods where a company is oversold or overbought)
- CMF (Chaikin Money Flow)
- Outlays
- Bollinger Bands (briefly touched on them, but will go more in depth in upcoming meeting)
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2012
From the end of the recession till now:
- Covered the reasons for the strong up trends of equities over the years since the financial crisis
- Falling unemployment numbers
- Low valuations of many stocks after the crisis
- Worries over Europe have pushed many into the American markets for safety
- Extremely low interest rate
- Confidence in the US over other countries (August 2011 great example)
Groups:
- Set up groups that will each evaluate a single sector of the markets (technology, financial, industrial, etc.)
- Will be charged with studying a stock from the sector and be ready to talk about it each week
- Look up news
- Decide between: Buy, Sell, & Hold each week (forecasting)
Investopedia:
- The game will open for trading at 9:30am on February 28th
- Covered how to make trades
- Discussed why diversification is so important when constructing a portfolio
- Can place at most 30%of your money into a single company in the game
Technicals:
- Reiterated how to read support and resistance
- Covered using the MACD indicator
- Cup and handle pattern
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2012
- Covered the entire 2008 financial crisis
- Credit Default Swaps
- “Too Big To Fail”
- Mortgage Foreclosures
- Bailouts and Bankruptcies
- For information take a look at the PowerPoint that is posted
- If you are interested read: The Big Short, By Michael Lewis, covers the entire crisis and gives wonderful explanations
- Technical Analysis
- Use Stockcharts.com
- Covered how to use Flash view
- Went over support and resistance
- Brief explanation on how to use a wedge and why it is important
- Briefly discussed Technical Breakouts (also known as gap up/gap down)
- Joining the Investopedia Game
- Go to Investopedia.com and register for an account
- Then go to simulator, and go to join a game
- Game’s name is ABLE Investments 2012, sign up we will most likely begin trading next week
If you have any questions please just email us, or talk to us at the Monday meeting or Tuesday meeting.
ABLE Investments
Meeting Minutes
February 13, 2012
Sectors
- 12 sectors in the markets, can easily be found on Google Finance
- Easiest way to break the markets up into groups of similar companies
- Many investors use Sector Rotation to trade since not all areas of the economy do well at the same time
- Many ETFs can be traded based on sector
- SPDR ETFs are some of the most popular ones
Chart Reading
- 50 and 200 day moving averages are helpful in reading the direction of a stock
- Golden Cross: seeing the short term average cross the longer run average
- It is a useful tool in analyzing charts, but you should still use other indicators to support it
Stock Screeners
- A tool that investors and traders can use to filter stocks based on user-defined parameters
- There are free ones that can be used (Google Finance and Yahoo Finance)
To Late To Invest?
- Dow Jones at 3 year high
- Nasdaq near 3,000
- S&P 500 hit its technical level (1350)
Positives Negatives
- Valuations of stocks are still low – Low interest rates
- Golden Cross for the Dow and S&P – Negative news from the European Union
- Good earnings coming out
- Lower unemployment numbers (8.3%)
- IPOs coming out (Facebook)
ABLE Investment
Meeting Minutes
February 6, 2012
Went through a quick synapse of what information we will be covering this semester.
- Technical Analysis (charts, indicators, breakouts, etc.)
- Fundamental Analysis (P/E Ratios, Dividend Yields, Beta values)
Went over which news we would be following the most
- EU Financial Crisis
- Interest Rates
- Sanctions on Iran
- Company Earnings
We will be setting up a simulated investment competition using Invetopedia.com, to allow members to put into practice what they have learned.
Sites we will be using throughout the semester:
- Barcharts.com
- Stockcharts.com
- CNBC.com
- Bloomberg.com
- Google finance
- Yahoo finance
ABLE Investments Minutes
December 5, 2011
Last meeting of the semester
Europe
- Talked about the threat by S&P to lower 15 EU countries’ credit ratings
- Everything is riding on the upcoming EU summit on Friday
- Looked at Italy’s proposed bailout to help the country survive
Analyzed the charts of stocks:
1) Ford
2) Home Depot
3) Wells Fargo
4) AK Steel
5) And others
Took ideas from members on what improvements we could make for next semester. If you have any questions or any ideas for next semester just send an email to able.ua@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you all next semester and have a great break!
ABLE Investments Minutes
November 28, 2011
Europe
- IMF reportedly considering a bailout fund for Italy, went over what this could mean for Italy and the EU
- Discussed floundering bond sales by European banks
- Haven’t raised enough to cover the amount due to investors at the year’s end
- Talked about the EU possibly capping possible bond yields
U.S.
- Discussed the Super Committee and the possible outcomes of them failing
- Look at statements by Fitch (rating agency)
- Talking about downgrading the US credit rating if we don’t make debt cuts (probably at least $2 trillion)
- Showed how politics played a major role in the Super Committee not succeeding
Black Friday
- Biggest shopping day of the year
- Looked at great sales date (sales up 16% compared to last year)
- Best Buy (BBY) was considered the big winner on Friday for sales
Cyber Monday
- Biggest shopping day on the internet
- Is considered Amazon’s (Amzn) biggest day of sales each year
- Occurs on the Monday after Black Friday
ABLE Investments
Minutes For November 14, 2011
Europe
- Discussed the removals of both the Italian PM and the Greek PM
- Looked at the jump in interest rates on Italian Treasury Notes and what effects they can have on their economy
- Looked at why Italy would be to large to bail out (10th largest GDP in the world)
- Talked about the effects of a country like Italy dropping out of the EU
Berkshire Hathaway
- Quarterly info came (can see what they have been purchasing)
- Intel
- IBM
- Bank of America
- Visa (used to own MasterCard)
- They tend to shy away from technology companies
Group Work
Company Earnings
Tuesday
- Home Depot (HD)
- Wal-Mart (WMT)
Wednesday
- Tyco (TYC)
- Kraft (KFT)
Thursday
- Salesforce.com (CRM)
Friday
- Heinz (HNZ)
ABLE Investments
Minutes for November 7, 2011
-Split up into two groups to evaluate the positives and negatives aspects of the Groupon (GRPN) IPO
- Positives:
1) Many people want to purchase shares of the company
2) Was able to raise over 500 million from its IPO which will be used to expand business
- Negatives:
1) Has yet to turn a profit
2) Has a simple business plan that is easy to reproduce
3) Co-Founder likely to leave the company
4) Marketing expenses are enormous, without much current growth from that marketing
Made predictions on where we see the stock heading.
-Discussed Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in the markets
- Looked at their $5 Billion purchase of preferred stock in Bank of America (BAC)
-Barnes and Noble
Will be releasing their first tablet to compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire
Planned to be released late next week when the Kindle Fire will also be released
Priced at $249
Discussed what market share this new tablet could take
Will mainly compete against Amazon, and not Apple’s Ipad 2
ABLE Investments Minutes
October 24, 2011
High Frequency Trading
- 70% of trading is no longer done by people, done by super computers using algorithms
- allows for more liquidity in the markets, but can also led to higher volatility in a stock’s price
- Flash Crash: May 6, 2010, was caused by a computer error led to the DOW dropping 9% in 15 minutes
- http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7368460n, link to the 60 minutes video that was shown
IPOs
- Discussed the importance of the Linkedin and the Renren IPOs
- Looked at the upcoming Groupon IPO which will be coming on November 4th and what can be expected
- Looked at the reasons a company will have an IPO, their goal is to increase investment in the company to help them grow
- Talked about the possible Facebook IPO and when that might and why they are not in a rush to IPO
ABLE Investments Minutes
October 17, 2011
Analyzing Stocks
Went over different indicators to be used when looking at a stock’s chrt
- MACD
- RSI
Talked about oversold and overbought times and what effect these statuses might have on the value of the stock over the next few weeks
Discussed the importance of a P/E ratio
Had members go through and find 2 stocks whose P/E ratios were below their sector averages
Europe
Took a look at what we could expect to see from the upcoming EU summit
- 5 point plan
Discussed the strength of the major European banks
- ways to raise capital (issuing common stock and bonds, increasing retained earnings)
- look at the positives and negatives of these ideas
Commodities
Value of gold and where it will go over the rest of the year
Discussed different ways to get into commodities
- ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)
- Coins and bars (bullions)
Gold dropped in September due to investors and countries taking profits, to cover losses from other investments like stocks
5/2
I would like to thank everyone who actively participated this semester in ABLE Investments. We covered a lot of beneficial material, which I hope will benefit everyone in their future endeavors. I offer any assistance to anyone looking for more information/advice over the summer. My number is 914-906-7021… send me a text. I look forward to the growth of ABLE Investments next semester along with hopefully being financed by the Business School very soon. The future looks bright for our club. Again, thank you and have a wonderful summer! Good luck on finals!
4/25
Tomorrow we will be meeting in LC 25, at 7:30pm. We will be talking about the May sell-off effect, along with the potential commodity bubble, and the future of the U.S currency. Please remember to bring your laptops. Hope to see everyone there. Thanks.
P.S – If any member wants to earn a BestBuy gift card, come prepared to discuss your favorite stock and a quick 5 minute analysis.
4/11
Our next meeting will be this Tuesday 7:30pm, in LC 25. We will be discussing the ending of QE2 and the current standings of our Investopedia trading stimulator game. Prizes will be awarded. Please do not forget to bring your laptops. Hope to see everyone there. Thanks!
4/5
Tonight’s meeting is cancelled due to the jiu-jitsu event.
3/15
Meeting tomorrow 7:30pm in LC 25. Please remember to sit with your groups.(if you have not yet been put into a group no worries you can still join any one) One of the major topics we will be discussing is the massive earthquake that hit Japan, and how it will effect the markets. Hope to see everyone there!
3/3
GROUPS in no specific order.
The Chinese Man Plus 2, The Office, Team Squirtle, RNF, Purple Cobras, The Tripod, Money Hungry
Please remember your groups, because they cannot be changed. (any members that were not able to attend last weeks meeting are still required to join a group.)
p.s. – Group leaders… Remember to check/update your Investopedia account.
Good luck to all groups. I will be posting rankings soon!
2/28
Hope everyone had a great and relaxing break! We will be meeting in LC 25 tomorrow at 7:30pm. Please do not forget to bring your laptop.
Some things we will be discussing:
Several ways to buy stocks on brokerage account, possible Wallstreet Warrior episode analysis, oil price surges from Libyan opposition and Gadhafi rule; effect on commodity prices.
2/14
ABLE Investments will be held in LC25, 7:30pm this week. Please remember to organize your group by tomorrow’s meeting. Try to limit your group to 5 people. Do not forget to bring your laptops. We will be going over economic events and introduction to Investopedia.
2/7
Our first ABLE Investments meeting for the second semester will be this Tuesday, February 8th at 7:30pm in LC 25. Hope to see everyone there.
12/1
ABLE Investments meeting this Thursday 7:30pm LC 22. Please read the emails that went out!! A lot of analyzing this week and please read up on the news especially the developments that wikileak.org has revealed. Interesting material on many fronts.
11/16
We saw the Dow trade intraday below 11,000, its lowest level in a month, as concerns mount over a slowdown in China and European sovereign debt. In our next meeting I believe it is important to go over the causes and effects that foreign nations have on our economy.
*As of now LC 22 is not available for this Thursday. Please keep checking your emails to find out new location.
Next meeting Thursday, November 11th @ 7:15pm LC 22
Members who attended last week, please come to see if you won the DJIA Index prediction challenge. Prizes will be awarded.
Here are a list of websites we are currently using to help us better understand trading methods and equity markets.
www.Investopedia.com
www.Stockcharts.com
www.Googlefinance.com
www.Bloomberg.com
www.Barchart.com
