For your investment portfolio, you will select three specific investments (e.g. companies for stock, mutual funds, bonds, banks for savings, or other investments) as described in the lesson. Based on your review of the lesson, you are now aware of the risk associated with each type of investment. To find specific examples of these types of investments to include in your portfolio, consider searching by type of investment and then narrowing your selection to a single investment such as a specific company or fund. Your portfolio must include ONE investment option for each level of risk: aggressive, moderate, and conservative. Organize your research by filling out a data sheet for each investment. Keep in mind that that the rates of return are unknown for some types of investments.
Note that a minimum required investment is a dollar amount needed to open the investment account. For stocks and bonds, this may simply be the current stock price or face value of the bond. Mutual funds, CDs, and some stocks will require a minimum purchase, such as an initial deposit of $500. This will vary by the investment and the entity offering it (the financial institution, investment brokerage, or the government).
Use these resources to help you find the following information:
Teen reading the financial section of the newspaper
Name of company or investment
Company details
Type of investment (ex: stock, CD, mutual fund, bond, etc.)
Risk level (high, moderate, or low)
Expected rate of return
Minimum required investment
Why are you interested in this investment? (Be sure to discuss statistics found in research and include at least five sentences.)
Stock tables can be a valuable resource for your research. Many websites update these daily and provide important criteria to investors. You can view this information in various formats in print or online, but all will report the same basic statistics. Learn more about how to read a stock table.
Step 2: Gather evidence
Collect visuals representing important information about your investments. Examples of visual evidence include screen captures of a website showing stock values for a given day, a scanned image of a newspaper stock table, etc. Evidence should show the date of publication as well as the source. You can also choose to create graphs illustrating the prices of your individual stocks over time and a graph of the overall portfolio value over time. Collect or create a minimum of three visuals, one for each investment.
