Introduction

One of my courses this semester is Economics 139, "Principles of Investment". The instructor is Marty Kropelnicki, who also happens to be a VP and CFO of The California Water Service Group, so he's got some "cred" ;)

A pretty major part of our grade and, more importantly, our learning experience, is our portfolio investment project. From the assignment: "Imagine that you have just received $100,000 to invest. It can be either your money, or money that you are being trusted to invest for a client."

The main guidelines are that we are to select a portfolio of investments and track them over the course of the semester. The actual handout contains a sheet where we are to record each transaction, including details such as date, cost, brokerage fees and net gain or loss. I assume that we turn in the sheet at the end of the semester with an analysis of our investments, and so on.

Judging by the fact that the assignment sheet looks typewritten, and photocopied, and that there are only 16 lines for investment transactions for the three-month long semester, I suspect this original assignment is a bit dated. So, I'm updating it to the 21st Century. I'm going to use a Blog as my investment diary, and CNN/Money's free portfolio tracking service as my transaction log.
Some specifics:

• We are to select investments with a "ready market". So, no comodities, precious metals, coins, real estate, etc.
  
• We are NOT allowed to include futures or options in our portfolio
  
• The original assignment had a stipulation that you must purchase at least one of each of:
  
  
  • OTC Common Stock
    
  • Major Market Common Stock
    
  • American Depository Receipt
    
  • Preferred Stock
    
  • Closed-end Investment Company
    
  • Mutual Fund
  
  
• Luckily the last requirement was waived, so we can buy and sell what we wish.
  
• We are NOT allowed to purchase "Penny Stocks", and all our stocks need to be listed on NYSE or NASDAQ. Finally...
  
• Our final grade does not depend on the performance of our portfolio. Obviously, since the only thing we hand in is our report at the end of the semester, it's too easy to simply "invest with hindsight", picking the winners over the past three months.

I started my investment diary in a word-processing document, but realized last night that it would be perfect for a blog. So, my first few entries are all dated today, but were originally written on the date in their titles.