Ever since I was a teenager, I've had a strange fascination with the stock market. It was in a junior high economics class that I had my first experience with the stock market. We had to research and select a certain number of stocks – and track them over the course of the trimester. It was amazing to me that a person could actually own a part of a company!
It wasn't until my early twenties while at my first “real” job that I opened up an online trading account and bought my first official shares. One stock I invested in was a handheld device manufacturer (known as a PDA) called Palm – and the other was a maker of “perfectly glazed”, melt-in-your-mouth doughnuts that traded under the stock symbol KDD (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts).
They both fared pretty well – and it gave me a good taste of what to look for when selecting stocks.
Since that time, I haven't really dabbled in the stock market much – besides with my 401k at work – which is a lot more hands-off and “safe”. 401k's come with fees and are essentially something that a person can do themselves.
Buying stocks isn't as hard as it may seem – and with the Internet and online trading accounts – it has become even easier. We're hoping that this stock picking challenge might give you a taste for investing and that it's something you can do too (if you aren't already).
The Stock Picking Challenge
Charlie and I thought it would be fun to hold this challenge over the course of a month. Beginning today – we are going to show you the stocks that we have selected. We'll be using a new online trading tool called GoldBean. Founded by Jane Barratt, the service helps make investing online easy by analyzing your spending history and financial profile to suggest stocks that you are already supporting through your purchases. It also helps to educate people about what's going on in the market and companies. It's goal is to help empower folks to become self-directed investors.
GoldBean also provides a neat tool where you can select stocks that you are interested in and follow them for a period of time before making a financial commitment to them. This is what we'll use to keep track of our picks during the challenge.
So how is this going to work?
- Charlie and I will select a total of 5 stocks to follow for the course of a month.
- After the month is over, we will evaluate these stocks to see who has the highest percentage gains.
Easy peasy.
Our picks
So without further ado, here is our selections for the month. The highest percentage gain of any one of the five stocks in our picks, will be the winner. Please, feel free to play along and select your own stock(s) to follow over the month. And, feel free to sign-up at GoldBean to track it and get more information about the different stocks. GoldBean has a neat rating system that shows you whether a stock is a BUY, HOLD or SELL.
We'll be using the closing price of the stocks on 11/10 and 12/9 to begin and end the Challenge. Prices in (parenthesis) are the purchase price at the start of the competition.
Aaron's stocks
Keurig Green Mountain ($50.04)
Corning ($18.78)
Jardin ($48.85)
Frontier Communications ($4.74)
Timken Co. ($31.90)
Charlie's stocks
VMWare ($60.44)
LifeVantage Corp ($8.54)
Apple ($116.77)
Union Pacific ($84.84)
Volkswagen ($25.82)
Win a annual membership to GoldBean and more
Please, feel free to follow along with us and participate for a chance to win a annual membership for GoldBean (a $50 value) plus a $10 Amazon electronic gift card. All you have to do is comment below with a selection of 1 stock that you wish to follow over the course of the month. Check back in next month and see how you've done! Everyone who comments will be entered into the drawing. One entry per person please. A winner will be notified shortly after the contest.
Here's to the best picker!
9 Comments
Since I don’t have one..I will select Keurig Green Mountain stock. Hopefully I can get one for my Dec birthday or for Christmas! Thanks!
I’ll go with IZEA, which I own in “real life” and I think could be a huge long-term winner. They are positioned to greatly benefit from ad dollars being shifted to sponsored social.
The one stock I want to follow is: DOW FILMTEC
Berkshire Hathaway Inc Cl B
Is my pick. Hopefully it does well on the short term
Don’t let all the red discourage you guys! :) The market has been down for at least a week it seems.
I saw earlier today that Kroger purchased a small grocery chain. Obviously, I’m not sure if that will mean anything as far as stocks are concerned, but the biggest grocery chain making an acquisition just before the holidays certainly will make it interesting to watch over the next few months!
Thanks Ruser – a bit of a blood bath today! :)
Would definitely be APPLE, especially with the Holiday season upon us and their new generation of devices being released.
GMCR: Keurig Green Mountain Coffee
My stocks are:
1) TCX which is the symbol for Tucows.
2) ONVO which is the symbol for ORGANOVO HLDGS INC.
3) CB which is the symbol for Chubb.
4) MMP which is the symbol for MAGELLAN MIDSTREAM HLF PARTNERS LTD PARTNERSHIP
5) GMCR which is the symbol for KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIJOB INC