Welcome Back OIG!!
Our first meeting of the spring 2010 semester (held on Jan 25, 2010) went Great!! It was so wonderful to see everyone and to hear that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing break! Now we’re back and ready to get to business! 🙂
A few updates, for those who weren’t at the meeting (we missed you! but no worries, come join us next week!):
**OIG has relocated to a cooler, hipper, more exciting hot spot (or shall I say trading floor -seeing as that’s what we’ll be doing next week!): TAYLOR HALL, SECOND FLOOR, 1ST ROOM ON THE RIGHT! 0
**Next week = FANTASY STOCK LEAGUE! Join us as we will each be creating our own simulated stock portfolio! **This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of managing an investment portfolio and an inside look into the wonderful world of Trading!
**Spring semester field trip, somewhere in Philadelphia!! We welcome and encourage any and all ideas of places you’d be interested in going, seeing, learning more about, etc..
-Some options/ideas we’ve thought upon thus far: *a trip to Wharton, perhaps to speak with a professor/expert in the field of Finance.. *a trip to a private equity firm, hedge fund, Susquehanna prop trading firm, etc. Have an idea? Let us know!!
**We also took a look at our portfolio, which is doing quite well ladies! Woot! *In the last 6 months (and in fact, the last 2 years even), OIG has beat the S&P by a whopping 11% !!! That’s incredible. Total Warren Buffett status :).
-We are looking to update our portfolio, and buy/sell new stocks ! So, be sure to keep updated on the current state of the economy, what’s hot to buy, what’s not, which industries we should invest in, etc, etc.! A lot is going on in the news, this week especially (Obama’s State of the Union, annual earnings reports due, a lot of pertinent info coming out Friday, etc — so be alert and aware, as now’s the time when we can easily win or lose money, depending on whether or not we pay attention to whats going on)!
**We should start looking towards trading commodities (natural resources such as gold, oil), particularly known as the wise thing to invest in during bad market times.
**News in the housing market: Stocks weakened Wednesday following the release of data showing an unexpected drop in sales of new homes (11% decline in mortgage applications, despite extremely low interest rates). http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100127-710266.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
**On a more exciting note: Apple presents the new iPad tablet! Shares of Apple stock rose 2.9% in anticipation of the announcement, lifting Nasdaq up by nearly 1 percent (.8 percent) (..say goodbye to paper..and say hello to an increase in profit for OIG!)
**Thoughts on what to do with CREE?? To sell or to hold?
-News from Jan 19: Cree’s fiscal second-quarter profit tripled as the semiconductor and light-emitting-diode company continued to benefit from surging demand for LEDs. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100119-713763.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
-Most recent news: The HB LED market will be strongly affected by demand from the LCD backlight market, and this demand will create shortages of both LEDs as well as their manufacturing equipment that will continue well into 2013. http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/880052288.html
**For those of you watched Obama’s State of the Union tonight… can anyone guess the one thing he repeated most during his speech?? that’s right folks… CLEAN ENERGY!!!!!
GOOD NEWS UPDATE! *U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will keep interest rates near zero! http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2719486720100127
**A quite interesting tie together: a news article discussing Apple’s plans to create a solar-powered ipod! http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/420052242.html
**Another interesting find: Google has applied to become an electricity marketer, which gives the search company the authority to buy and sell bulk power at market prices. http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/530051853.html
It’s been quite a tumultuous week on both Wall Street and the Main Street…I’m curious to hear your opinions on the recent events of the economy. For one, where do you see the future of our economy/markets, in the next 6 months or so? Which industries do you think will prove to be successful? Keep updated ladies, and keep researching for new stocks! We look forward to hearing your opinions and ideas! Feel free to comment on the blog, email us, or bring your ideas/stocks/suggestions to meetings! We always love to hear what you have to say 🙂