This project is placed towards the end of the Investing unit, after each student has already begun to place a few trades. Ideally you will also have organized students into Teams as well.
From this point of the class onwards, students will continue to be managing their portfolio as a project in the background (just as they continue to progress in the Budget Game), but we will be dedicating less in-class time to the project. The purpose of the Investing Strategy Document is to have your teams: Define the overall objectives of the Team Portfolio. This could be something as simple as ‘maximize total returns’, or more nuanced, like ‘build a portfolio representing at least 6 different sectors that outperforms the S&P 500’.
- This objective statement will be referred to in later projects for students to reflect on how their portfolio evolved compared to the original objectives.
- Define the roles of each team member. While each student will be placing trades in his or her portfolio, they may have different individual objectives (for example, one student may focus on healthcare and financial stocks for their research, while another student focuses on ETFs and mutual funds)
- Each student should also examine the portfolio they have built from the trades they placed since the start of the project until now. Do they believe that their original trades are in line with their new strategy, or will they need to sell off many holdings and start over?
- And finally, the team should create an estimate of how many total trades they expect to place per week to fulfill their investment objectives.
Grading Rubric
| Needs Improvement (1) | Meets Expectations (2) | Exceeds Expectations (3) | Total Score | |
| Completeness | Not all questions have been answered. | All questions have an answer, but some responses may lack full detail. | All questions are fully and completely answered. | |
| Creativity | The objectives and goals of individual team members are not very well defined. | The overall objectives of the team, and the role of each team member is present, but the roles of each team member are not very well connected to the group’s overall objective. | The overall objective is well-defined with specific goals or milestones in place. The role of each individual team member is also well defined and connected to how it relates to the overall strategy. | |
| Insight | Little to no analysis is presented on how the team’s trades so far fit into their new objective statement. | Students present an analysis of their previous trades considering their new objective statement, but activities of students so far do not factor into team roles. | The objective statement and team roles show a basis both in topics covered in class, and the trades students have made so far have a clear connection to the roles established for each team member. | |
| Style and Presentation | Answers are disorganized and difficult to follow. Numerous spelling/grammar errors. | Answers can be understood easily with minimal spelling/grammar errors. | Answers are creatively presented in an easy-to-understand format with no spelling or grammar errors |
Student Packet
Download and distribute the student packet for this activity by clicking the button below!
Teacher Introduction Webinars
Portfolio Diversification Presentation
Creating and Managing Assignments
Why use stock market games?