During the past couple months I have learned a lot about stocks. Like what to invest in, how to record the money I have lost or gained, what a stock actually is, how to buy a stock, how to sell a stock, how many shares I should buy on a certain stock, what a share is, and a lot more. I feel like I’ve learned so much and am ready to buy an actual stock! I know I still have a lot more to learn about stocks, shares, and bonds, but for now I’ll settle for what I know.

                The companies I selected for my portfolio are Macy’s Inc. Nike Inc. and McDonald’s corp. The companies I have selected all have one thing in common: I know and have been to them all. The reason I picked Macy’s for one of my stocks was because I’ve been and shopped there. I’ve heard about it and I know about it. Also, I was interested on how they were doing and I thought it was going to be a good time to invest because of the holidays. The reason I picked Nike for one of my stocks was because I love Nike! I’ve been to it and all my shoes are Nike. I really wanted to know how they were doing and why they were going down, if Nike wasn’t doing well. Finally, the reason I picked McDonald’s was because I’ve eaten there and seen a lot of people eat there too. I wanted to know how popular it was, to see if the stock was going up. I also wanted to know-since all of the commercials- how they were doing.

                Now that I’ve researched my stocks and watched the stock market, here were a couple of things I would have changed about my stocks. For Macy’s: I would have invested less because during the holidays- especially Christmas- but it fell afterward. If I invested less I wouldn’t have lost so much. For Nike: I would have invested more because Nike did really well all the way. If I invested more in the stock, I would have made more money. For McDonalds: I wouldn’t have changed anything because it stayed to a steady pace. I did well with it until the end when it lost money.

                My advice to people who are interested in investing in the stock market is to invest and choose wisely. My advice for Macy’s is that I wouldn’t buy it if you think it would be high on a holiday. If I heard this advice before I wouldn’t have chosen Macy’s, because I did invest in this stock for that reason. My advice for Nike is to view all your options. I give this advice because, for me, I didn’t view all my options such as the graph on how the stock has done during the month. It would have given me a chance to see if I wanted to invest in this and how much I would have wanted to invested in it. My advice for McDonald’s is that I wouldn’t have done it. Although I wouldn’t have changed anything I did, it was just nerve wrecking when the stock just kept going down.

                I’ve had a fun time doing this Stock Market Project and I would definitely remember it if I was ever going to buy a stock in real life. I think this was a good experience and a stressful one at that as well. It was fun to see how much your stock has gain, but the total opposite to see how much your stock has lost. For me, I know I could have done better, but it was a fun time.