Waterside Investment Advisors, Inc.

801/ 802

McNulty

PROBLEM

When people invest their money into different stocks, they are taking a risk. They are betting that a company will continue to grow and make a profit. When the company does well, the investor does well; similarly, when a company does bad, the investor loses money.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock market reached its lowest point in quite a few years. Since then, people have become extremely worried about their money and many people have been apprehensive about investing their money in stocks.

TASK

You will analyze the problem of “Reticence to Invest in the Stock Market” using the PPA steps. Your solution will be to create a portfolio which will build wealth as well as minimizing risks (see below)

-The company you work for, Waterside Investment Advisors, Inc, is a company that has been created to provide people with peace of mind when navigating how to invest their money in the aftermath of COVID 19.

-Your boss has created a challenge for his employees. He is giving a raise and a promotion to the group who can make the most profit from a stock portfolio over the course of two weeks. He wants his clients to feel confident that they can trust Waterside Investment Advisors with their money.

-You will be managing a $1,000 account and your goal is to make investment decisions that will make your client as much money as possible. You will be choosing stocks that you feel will increase over the next two weeks. You will keep track of your stock’s progress (or struggles) over that time period.

PROCESS/RESOURCES

The 6 Steps of the Public Policy Analyst (PPA)

Define the Problem
Gather the Evidence
Identify the Causes
Evaluate an Existing Policy
Develop Solutions
Select the Best Solution (Feasibility vs. Effectiveness)

Define the Problem

The problem you will analyze is “Reticence to Invest in the Stock Market”

Article from Financial Times

Gather Evidence

Read about the Impact of COVID 19 on the Stock Market

The Pandemic and the Retirement Crisis

Causes of investor uneasiness post-COVID

Watch video about why COVID 19 brought the Stock Market down

Article and Statistics about changes in Investing Mindset

Existing Policy

Strategies to reduce investment risk

Develop a New Policy

1) Intro to Investing:

What are Stocks? | by Wall Street Survivor

How 4th graders beat the stock market

Stock Market Vocabulary

Stock Market Vocabulary Practice

McNulty Example: Stock Market Portfolio

2) Selecting your client’s portfolio of stocks:

Browse different company's stock values on Google Finance

Waterside Investment Advisors Inc

3) Monitoring your progress:

Check your stock values on Google Finance

Waterside Investment Advisors Inc

4) Final calculations/ Reflection/ Conclusion

FINAL REFLECTION!

EVALUATION

	3	2	1	SCORE 0= scholar did not complete
Intro to Investing	Scholar completed all intro to investing activities and demonstrated strong engagement and effort	Scholar completed all intro to investing activities and demonstrated engagement and sufficient effort	Scholar is missing portions of the intro to investing activities
Stock Portfolio	Scholar did not exceed their $1000 investment limit and created a diverse portfolio for their client	Scholar did not exceed their $1000 investment limit, but did minimal research and did not set up a diverse portfolio	Scholar either exceeded their $1000 investment limit or barely used any of the money given to them. Minimal research done on stocks.
Engagement	Scholar made sure to check in on their stocks regularly and updated the initial, mid-way, and final values	Scholar checked their stocks, but did not update their values for all of the required check in points	Scholar did not update their stock values except for their initial value
Reflection	Scholar took time to reflect on this activity in a meaningful way and accurately determined their final profit	Scholar completed the reflection and determined their final profit, but did not go very deep in their reflection	Scholar either minimally reflected on their activity OR did not accurately determine their final profit

CONCLUSION

Investing money in the stock market can be risky! The COVID 19 pandemic made people even more worried about investing. Feelings of apprehension can be mediated by educating yourself on the basics of investing and researching strategies to minimize your risk. Furthermore, practicing investment strategies and creating portfolios without real money is a great way to gain confidence and knowledge. I hope that this activity will encourage you to make smart investment decisions in your life and help others that may feel anxious about investing!

STANDARDS

NYS SS 8.5a Risky investing, protectionism, and overproduction led to the collapse of the stock market, a wave of bank failures, and a long and severe downturn in the economy called the Great Depression.

Next Gen RH4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including content-specific vocabulary related to history/social studies.