With what's going on in Europe

It might be prudent to go ahead and take our profits on the morrow.

Well, it's been a couple of months

But we just checked on INTC, and it's up to 25.05!

25.05 x 400 shares = $10,020.00
+ the $1,221 in cash = $11,241.00.  Just $759 away from being able to buy on margin.

Markets down

Well, the Dow lost over 200 points today; the only company that saw an increase in its share price today was Walmart.  INTC is down to $20 and some change.  We will wait this out for a week or two before dumping INTC and looking for something else, but to be honest, there probably isn't much worth buying right now.

INTC $20.62

Going long on INTC

09/19/2011: Bought 400 shares of INTC @ 21.93. $8772.00 + $7 commission = $8779.00
INTC (400 shares) $8772.00, Cash $1221.00

INTC over AXP

INTC chart

Scanning the stock chart for INTC, it looks pretty good.  The stock went higher today on heavier than normal volume.

Re: Stock Charts

We have decided to dispense with making a "weekly price" stock chart for any of the stocks.  It is too cumbersome, and we have discovered the wonders of technical analysis charts that are available on http://finance.yahoo.com

For instruction on what all the stock chart jargon means, we have been working through the course at www.babypips.com, which is a forex (foreign exchange--trading the money of different nations) information website.  We have just reached 5th grade.

Real quick: AXP looks like a buy

Looking at the chart, it looks like AXP may have a break out (cup with a handle pattern, etc.).  On Monday, if it's still strong, this may be our first purchase.

Dow drops 300+

on a Friday, no less.  It's almost as if something happened the previous evening to scare investors....

Movie about floor traders

and how they are dealing with the advent of computerized trading (warning: foul language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYtBgo92MOM&feature=related

Only three stocks up today; no trades at this time

CAT, JNJ, and PFE were the only three companies that saw an increase in share price today.  We will wait another week and see if conditions are a little better before making our first trade.

It's not lookin' good:

Symbol	Name	Last Trade	Change	Volume
AA	Alcoa Inc. Common Stock	12.04 Sep 2	0.45 (3.60%)	17,958,934
AXP	American Express Company Common	48.51 Sep 2	0.99 (2.00%)	8,755,573
BA	Boeing Company (The) Common Sto	64.03 Sep 2	2.02 (3.06%)	4,735,530
BAC	Bank of America Corporation Com	7.25 Sep 2	0.66 (8.34%)	305,988,590
CAT	Caterpillar, Inc. Common Stock	85.38 Sep 2	3.17 (3.58%)	11,952,119
CSCO	Cisco Systems, Inc.	15.41 Sep 2	0.41 (2.59%)	55,499,617
CVX	Chevron Corporation Common Stoc	96.41 Sep 2	2.11 (2.14%)	8,978,196
DD	E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Com	46.76 Sep 2	1.06 (2.22%)	6,994,807
DIS	Walt Disney Company (The) Commo	32.46 Sep 2	0.92 (2.76%)	9,145,736
GE	General Electric Company Common	15.76 Sep 2	0.44 (2.72%)	61,748,844
HD	Home Depot, Inc. (The) Common S	32.18 Sep 2	0.75 (2.28%)	12,278,395
HPQ	Hewlett-Packard Company Common	24.34 Sep 2	1.33 (5.18%)	18,738,765
IBM	International Business Machines	166.98 Sep 2	3.35 (1.97%)	4,979,011
INTC	Intel Corporation	19.64 Sep 2	0.35 (1.75%)	42,807,570
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson Common Stock	64.07 Sep 2	1.26 (1.93%)	13,713,987
JPM	JP Morgan Chase & Co. Common St	34.63 Sep 2	1.67 (4.60%)	41,677,229
KFT	Kraft Foods Inc. Common Stock	34.27 Sep 2	0.54 (1.55%)	8,571,787
KO	Coca-Cola Company (The) Common	69.74 Sep 2	0.71 (1.01%)	8,765,529
MCD	McDonald's Corporation Common S	89.09 Sep 2	0.98 (1.09%)	5,250,780
MMM	3M Company Common Stock	79.35 Sep 2	2.26 (2.77%)	4,391,281
MRK	Merck & Company, Inc. Common St	32.37 Sep 2	0.53 (1.61%)	13,373,610
MSFT	Microsoft Corporation	25.80 Sep 2	0.41 (1.56%)	43,897,065
PFE	Pfizer, Inc. Common Stock	18.46 Sep 2	0.45 (2.38%)	35,057,181
PG	Procter & Gamble Company (The)	62.55 Sep 2	0.71 (1.12%)	8,817,358
T	AT&T Inc.	28.05 Sep 2	0.22 (0.78%)	26,462,863
TRV	The Travelers Companies, Inc. C	48.87 Sep 2	1.34 (2.67%)	4,410,018
UTX	United Technologies Corporation	71.04 Sep 2	2.01 (2.75%)	4,838,630
VZ	Verizon Communications Inc. Com	35.56 Sep 2	0.32 (0.89%)	13,663,063
WMT	Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Common St	52.03 Sep 2	0.62 (1.18%)	10,809,445
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corporation Common	72.14 Sep 2	1.35 (1.84%)	21,071,830

Re: Stock Charts

We just finished doing quite a bit of work creating weekly price charts for each company.  Unfortunately, we are not able, at this time, to post the charts to this page, because Lotus, while superior to MS Works, still apparently has limitations of its own.  We can export charts to a pdf file, but all that exports is the out line of the chart; the plot points for some reason do not export.  We will continue working on the problem, when we have time.

A change in the rules

Doing my stock charts, we realized that it would probably behoove us to change the trading day from Friday to Monday (or the following Tuesday, if Monday is a holiday).  The website we're using for research can get us the weekly prices, but it gives us the price on the Monday of each week instead of the Friday pricing that we thought the website would produce.
In addition, since we're not using real money, we don't have to make the trade during market hours.  We'll just use the closing price on Monday.

Working on the spreadsheet

We've downloaded IBM's Lotus Symphony (it's freeware!), because MS Works is suboptimal.  Working on inputting the weekly prices for each of the Dow Components.  Hopefully, we'll be able create some weekly price charts.

The DJIA Chart

Some Headlines for 08/30/2011

According to the rules, the only research we are allowed are the headlines.

[video] After Bruising August, Brace for September [3.3 min]at MarketWatch (Tue, Aug 30)
Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks score mild win for third straight riseat MarketWatch (Tue, Aug 30)
Wall Street gains as Fed minutes boost stimulus betsReuters (Tue, Aug 30)
U.S. Equities Will Outperform Global Peers: Bespoke’s HickeyBreakout (Tue, Aug 30)

The Dow 30

Here is a link to the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  During this phase of the mtbinvestor experiment, we will be limited to investing in these companies, per the rules.

Today's date is 08/30/2011

Symbol	Name	Last Trade	Change	Volume
AA	Alcoa Inc. Common Stock	12.36 Aug 30	0.06 (0.48%)	23,907,016
AXP	American Express Company Common	48.66 Aug 30	0.11 (0.23%)	7,460,397
BA	Boeing Company (The) Common Sto	66.03 Aug 30	1.43 (2.21%)	6,984,939
BAC	Bank of America Corporation Com	8.12 Aug 30	0.27 (3.22%)	297,220,344
CAT	Caterpillar, Inc. Common Stock	89.83 Aug 30	1.68 (1.91%)	9,856,909
CSCO	Cisco Systems, Inc.	15.63 Aug 30	0.11 (0.70%)	51,036,757
CVX	Chevron Corporation Common Stoc	98.40 Aug 30	0.34 (0.34%)	9,202,440
DD	E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Com	48.22 Aug 30	0.72 (1.52%)	8,498,527
DIS	Walt Disney Company (The) Commo	33.58 Aug 30	0.42 (1.27%)	14,060,037
GE	General Electric Company Common	16.12 Aug 30	0.08 (0.50%)	48,565,087
HD	Home Depot, Inc. (The) Common S	33.57 Aug 30	0.17 (0.50%)	16,123,358
HPQ	Hewlett-Packard Company Common	26.05 Aug 30	0.07 (0.27%)	23,413,098
IBM	International Business Machines	172.51 Aug 30	0.11 (0.06%)	4,478,665
INTC	Intel Corporation	20.24 Aug 30	0.06 (0.27%)	39,102,044
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson Common Stock	65.77 Aug 30	0.09 (0.14%)	11,182,942
JPM	JP Morgan Chase & Co. Common St	37.06 Aug 30	0.58 (1.54%)	28,826,266
KFT	Kraft Foods Inc. Common Stock	34.71 Aug 30	0.14 (0.40%)	8,939,083
KO	Coca-Cola Company (The) Common	69.86 Aug 30	0.13 (0.19%)	15,840,693
MCD	McDonald's Corporation Common S	90.78 Aug 30	0.60 (0.67%)	6,311,784
MMM	3M Company Common Stock	82.07 Aug 30	0.03 (0.04%)	3,734,193
MRK	Merck & Company, Inc. Common St	32.70 Aug 30	0.24 (0.72%)	12,799,634
MSFT	Microsoft Corporation	26.23 Aug 30	0.39 (1.51%)	57,341,367
PFE	Pfizer, Inc. Common Stock	18.88 Aug 30	0.00 (0.00%)	44,134,708
PG	Procter & Gamble Company (The)	63.50 Aug 30	0.41 (0.65%)	9,182,105
T	AT&T Inc.	29.62 Aug 30	0.36 (1.23%)	22,641,717
TRV	The Travelers Companies, Inc. C	50.21 Aug 30	0.54 (1.06%)	4,167,907
UTX	United Technologies Corporation	73.76 Aug 30	0.11 (0.15%)	5,516,470
VZ	Verizon Communications Inc. Com	36.31 Aug 30	0.17 (0.47%)	13,111,081
WMT	Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Common St	52.82 Aug 30	0.37 (0.70%)	13,484,133
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corporation Common	73.91 Aug 30	0.21 (0.28%)	22,440,397