Answers to specific guidelines questions

Business

At first, my investment strategy entailed a balanced portfolio, culling from some conservative examples of traditional stocks such as American Express (AXP) and Citigroup (C) as well as Safeway (SWY), all of which I invested in substantially and purchased at least 500 shares of. However, hoping to earn more immediate dividends than these were paying and being fully willing to take some risks, I gradually started to add high-risk options into my portfolio. I purchased 1000 shares of Ballard Power (BLDP), which, because the company had been performing poorly were relatively inexpensive. After several days it was clear that Ballard Power and another energy company, JDS Uniphase, were both losing money. In fact, Ballard's poor performance made the financial news headlines, and I promptly sold most of my shares in those companies, keeping some on hold in the hopes that their value would increase in the future and make up for any lost money.

To make up for the investment gaps in my portfolio, I invested in a few other risky tech stocks: Chiron Corporation, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, Siebel Systems, and Sun Systems. I did this in the hopes of earning relatively quick dividend profits. I also purchased 1000 shares of Microsoft as a long-term tech stock investment, even though Microsoft stock has been dropping throughout the month.

Other high-risk stocks I added include Intermagnetics, JDS Uniphase, and Power Integrations. I selected many of these stocks because of the companies' reputation as being "green" businesses, in order to boost support of environmentally-conscious energy and technology companies. In the same vein, I invested in the Whole Foods Market. Even though many of these stocks were devalued over the first week, I elected to keep them in my portfolio in the hopes that the market would change. I also felt that ethical investing strategies are important to keep in mind when creating a portfolio.

While the numbers looked bleak, I did not want to change much about my investment strategy. In fact, I discovered an upstart company called Moller International, which has launched a prototype sky car that anyone interested in future technologies would have a hard time resisting. Moller ended up becoming the most profitable stock in my portfolio during the first week of investing, with a gain of over 10%. Throughout the month, Moller has continued to outperform any other stock in my portfolio, so my investment risk paid off. So far, my least performing stock was Zoltek, another energy company.

My overall investment strategy, I discovered, was more high-risk than I had initially thought. However, I did need to balance my portfolio with some more stalwart stocks, in order to ensure that I would not lose all of my investment capital. I bought 1000 more shares of Citigroup, 100 shares of Deutche Bank, and 1000 shares of Home Depot. Many of these companies have not been performing well recently, but they are good long-term investments.

Then, because Moller continued to perform well, I purchased 5000 more shares, which increased my immediate profit percentages considerably. If the stock starts to fall, I can always quickly sell. Based on my choices, I am hoping for a balance of immediate profit and gain, which will require a steady, constant vigil of the market. At the same time, I want to balance my investment strategy by making some smart longer-term investments that might pay off years or decades down the road.