An investment project in a virtual trading platform with the most realistic simulations available for real-time, streaming platforms that feature global equities, bonds, options, futures, commodities and more.
The project involved being a financial advisor for an investor with a total portfolio value of USD 1 million.
This project report highlights the performance and strategies used to ensure a successful and profitable Investment for the portfolio.
The trading period started on 22nd January, 2013 and ended on 12th April, 2013.
2. "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get
advice from those who take the subway.”
"Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction." - Warren Buffett
"If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; if health is lost, something is lost; if
character is lost, everything is lost”
4. 1 | P a g e
INTRODUCTION
Aviazon Corp is happy to announce the performance of Mr. Bradley Cooper’s Portfolio, which
performed extremely well and above the estimated expectations. The trading period started from 22nd
January, 2013 and ended on April 12th
, 2013. As per the customer’s requirements and after undergoing
an evaluation of the risk taking capacity, the portfolio type had a growth profile.
A Growth Portfolio’s objective is to accumulate wealth, over time, rather than current income. As an
investor the ability to accept the risk of price volatility in seeking to achieve growth was of prime
importance. The historical average annual total return for this allocation typically ranges from 7% to
9%. This growth typically varies according to the market sensitivity.
The Amount allocated for the Portfolio was $1 million, with a margin fund of $ 100,000. This fund
could be used in case of any unforeseen circumstances. The Growth Portfolio essentially has higher
risks and higher returns with Asset allocation upto 60% Stocks, 25% Bonds, 15% Cash. This allocation
helps us to balance between and risks and return potential to achieve our specific goals.
Investor Profile
Our Investor Mr. Bradley Cooper aged 31, Married with 2 kids, lives in Fremont California works for
Tesla motors as Senior Manager- Quality Control. He is compensated with a salary of $200,000/
annum. Our client comes from a well to do background with family assets and financial assets
summing up to $ 9 million. Our client is an Extrovert and a High Risk taker investing for his retirement
and kids’ future educational support. The investment time scale margin is 7-12 years.
Portfolio
The Portfolio consists of Mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds, Stocks, International Portfolio stocks,
Bonds, Options and Future contracts on commodities and future options. Each security was analyzed
according to its allocation so that it complimented our Portfolio criteria.
Figure 1
5. 2 | P a g e
SECURITIES SELECTION APPROACH
Aviazon Corp’s approach towards security selection has always been entirely through market research
and extensive analysis of our investor’s profile. The stocks and securities have been picked to match
the portfolio’s profile.
After extensive research and analysis about the investor being done, his needs from the portfolio, risk
taking ability, expected return potential and his investment duration were considered. It was important
to know the investor’s profile as this was helpful in better picking of securities.
Top down Approach is what we followed in our portfolio selection process. It was important to
consider such factors as geography, sector and size as a big picture perspective was taken first before
looking at the more minute details. Although there was some debate as to whether the top-down
approach is better than the bottom-up approach, we found the top-down approach useful in
determining the most promising sectors in a given market.
Asset allocation had to be constantly monitored as for each portfolio the allocation varied accordingly.
Our portfolio falls under growth category and needed to have an asset allocation around 65% stocks,
25% bonds and 15% cash. Ideality in portfolio allocation is not always observed because of the market
conditions. Portfolio of Mr. Bradley Cooper had 72% stocks 14% cash and 14% bonds. The bad bond
market condition and the bullish equity market explains the reduced bond allocation and increase in
investments of the Stocks respectively.
Constant market analysis had to be done, observing their growth and earnings trend helped us to invest
cautiously. Current affairs also had a heavy impact on the market and stock prices. Company reviews
and Analysis were very important to our selection.
PORTFOLIO SECTOR ALLOCATION
We maintained a well-balanced portfolio which invested adequately in the various sectors comprising
national and international economy. Consumer, Banks, technology, mining, industrials, Healthcare and
utilities were generally present in mixed equity portfolios and added to the diversification.
The portfolio had the biggest weight for consumer cyclical and least to the Realty sector. The market
was currently in a growth phase hence we diversified accordingly. International diversification was a
good strategy to adapt especially when investing in companies with growing markets and currency
values. Our portfolio had securities from countries like India, Thailand etc.
7. 4 | P a g e
MUTUAL FUNDS
One of the main advantages of us investing in mutual funds is that it gives a good leverage to investors
to access professionally managed, diversified portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities, which
is not quite possible for them to conceive with a small capital. Each shareholder participates
proportionally in the gain or loss of the fund.
Mutual Funds were mainly analyzed taking into consideration important factors such as:
Minimum Investment
Minimum investment for mutual funds can stretch anywhere from $0 all the way to $1 million or more
for institutional share classes. For retail investors, there remains a large selection of funds that have
modest minimum investments of a few hundred dollars.
A big factor for a fund manager in determining a minimum investment size is the strategy and liquidity
demands of the fund itself. By setting a high minimum investment, fund managers can effectively
weed out short-term investors and regulate cash inflows to the fund, which can be helpful for day-to-
day management of the assets. In our Portfolio the selected Mutual Funds had a minimum Investment
of $100 - $2500.
Expense Ratio
Expense ratio or Management Expense Ratio (MER) is what it costs a company to operate a Mutual
Fund. Expense ratio must be minimal and for our portfolio, we have invested with funds having MER
of $0.78 – $1.43.
Morning Star Rating
Morning Star Ratings served as an excellent guideline for the investors to select their funds and stocks.
It rates a stock according to its return potential and risk. It also does a basic analysis such as its historic
performance, market sensitivity etc. Mutual Funds in our portfolio are all 5 star rated.
Return
Mutual funds selected are based on their return potential. Our Portfolio is of a growth profile; hence it
falls in the high Return category.
Fund Managers Holdings
Another important consideration, is to review the fund managers holdings or contribution in the
company. This would indicate the confidence of the manager in his funds future performance.
8. 5 | P a g e
Risk
High Return Portfolio’s are always accompanied with high risks.
The Mutual funds in our Portfolio are
• LKCM Equity Instl LKEQX
• Wells Fargo Advantage growth Inv SGROX
• Laudus Growth Investors US large cap Gr LGILX
• Marsico Flexible Capital MFCFX
• Amana Growth AMAGX
• Touchstone sands capital select growth Z PTSGX
Code%% NAV% Min%Invest% Yield% Load% Expense% Turn%over% Investment%
LKEQX& $18.45' $2,000.00' 0.65%' 0' 0.80%' 20.00%' $15,000'
SGROX& $41.45' $2,500.00' 0.00%' 0' 1.76%' 47.00%' $15,000'
LGILX& $15.18' $100.00' 0.11%' 0' 0.78%' 96.00%' $20,000'
MFCFX& $15.43' $2,500.00' 0.60%' 0' 1.43%' 12.00%' $20,000'
AMAGX& $27.88' $250.00' 0.25%' 0' 1.13%' 12.00%' $10,000'
PTSGX& $13.13' $2,500.00' 0.00%' 0' 1.32%' 19.00%' $20,000'
Table 1
A total of $100,000 dollars was invested in Mutual Funds as per the allocation in Figure 2. The
allocation of the various sectors in the invested mutual funds is given in Figure 3.
Figure 2
9. 6 | P a g e
Figure 3
Mutual Fund Performance
The performance of the Mutual Funds was satisfactory with all the Funds generating profits. Owing to
long-term nature of the funds, the growth funds would eventually yield a greater return. The
performance and profits made by the Mutual Funds can be seen in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.
EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS
ETF is type of security which tracks an index, a commodity, basket of assets like an index fund, but it
trades like a stock on an Exchange. The prices fluctuate throughout the day as it’s actively traded.
The ETF’s in our portfolio are
• THD iShares MSCI ThCIM Shs
• QQQ Power shares QQQ SerI Shs
• PJP PowerShares ETF Shs Dynamic Pharmaceuticals Portfolio
ETF Sector Allocation
ETFS% Cash Stocks Bonds Others Total
PJP 192.6 17807.4 0 0 18000
QQQ 0 18000 0 0 18000
THD 0 13986 0 14 14000
Table 2
10. 7 | P a g e
Figure 4
A total of $50,000 was invested in the ETF’s and in the sectors as depicted in Figure 4.
ETF Performance
The performance of the Exchange Traded Funds was positive with all the Funds generating profits.
Owing to long-term nature of the funds, the growth funds would eventually yield a greater return. The
performance and profits made by the Exchange Traded Funds can be seen in Appendix 1 and
Appendix 2.
BONDS
A debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (corporate or governmental) that
borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a fixed interest rate. Bonds are used by companies,
municipalities, states and U.S. and foreign governments to finance a variety of projects and activities.
Symbol% Company%Name% QTY% Amount%Invested%
B-COF-10.250-15082039 CAPITAL ONE CAP V 6 6000.6
B-FNF-7.625-15072017 FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORM 3 3240
B-GT-10.500-15052016 GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBR CO 1 1091
B-T-4.625-15022040 T-BOND 4.625% 15-Feb-2040 10 13278.9
B-T-5.000-15052037 T-BOND 5.000% 15-May-2037 20 27745.4
B-T-6.125-15082029 T-BOND 6.125% 15-Aug-2029 10 14996.1
B-T-6.250-15052030 T-BOND 6.250% 15-May-2030 10 15286.7
B-T-6.375-15082027 T-BOND 6.375% 15-Aug-2027 10 15022.7
B-T-6.875-15082025 T-BOND 6.875% 15-Aug-2025 10 15268
B-T-7.500-15112024 T-BOND 7.500% 15-Nov-2024 20 31369.6
Table 3
11. 8 | P a g e
Bonds are commonly referred to as fixed-income securities and are one of the three main asset classes,
along with stocks and cash equivalents.
The current scenario for the bond market is weak, which made us reduce the allocation from 25% to
around 14% of the total assets. The total amount invested in Bonds is around $143,299.
Bonds Performance
The performance of the bonds was as expected, managing to make a small profit attributing to the
current bond market being weak and also because the portfolio time-scale is a long-term one,
considerable benefits could not be reaped out of this asset class. For more details, refer to Appendix 1.
STOCKS
The below strategy to pick stocks was instrumental in helping us achieve our desired objective and
outcome with extremely good performance of our stocks.
• Look for stocks having very good timeliness, safety and technical rankings (1 or 2 preferable)
• Look for stocks that are expected to rise by more than most other stocks-This involved in doing
a bit of Fundamental Analysis for a few stocks which were good as predicted by the market.
• Look for stocks with consistent performance as indicated by good rankings, growth
characteristics and earnings.
• Read through the analyst reports.
• Diversify always.
The below table gives you the stocks held in Long and short position.
Symbol Company Name QTY Price Paid
GNCMA% General'Communications'Inc' -1209 $ 8.25
RL% Ralph'Lauren'Corp' 74 $ 176.69
EBAY% eBay'Inc' 211 $ 56.96
DEO% Diageo'Shs'Sponsored'American'Deposit'Receipt'Repr'4'Shs' 249 $ 120.03
MMM% 3M'Co' 294 $ 103.35
HD% Home'Depot'Inc' 296 $ 67.56
IFF% International'Flavors'&'Fragrances'Inc' 331 $ 74.32
AON% Aon'PLC' 523 $ 57.16
DOV% Dover'Corp' 551 $ 73.13
JNJ% Johnson'&'Johnson' 656 $ 76.16
NKE% Nike'Inc' 1091 $ 54.99
UL% Unilever'Shs'Sponsored'American'Deposit'Receipt'Repr'1'Sh' 1256 $ 40.15
SBUX% Starbucks'Corp' 1837 $ 54.59
RIL% Reliance'Industries'Ltd' 3333 INR 846.2
XTXI% Crosstex'Energy'Inc.' -845 $ 17.79
NYT% The'New'York'Times'Company' -1668 $ 9
ITC% ITC'Ltd' 9450 INR 300.3
Table 4
12. 9 | P a g e
Figure 5
Stocks Performance
The performance of almost all the stocks in Long position performed well and yielded very good
profits. However the performance of the three Stocks in short position did not perform as expected and
made a loss. This can be owed to the fact that the market was bullish. The performance and profit / loss
of the Stocks can be seen in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.
COMMODITIES, STOCK OPTIONS, FUTURES & FUTURE OPTIONS
From the orange juice we drink to the gas we use to power our vehicles and heat our homes,
commodities play important roles in our daily lives. They can be found literally all over the world, and
can be traded on the global marketplace as part of a diversified investment portfolio. In fact, billions of
dollars are invested in commodities every day.
While they can be traded on either spot (real-time) or futures (options) markets, most individual
commodities are traded in the form of futures, where what is being traded is not the commodity itself
but rather a contract to buy or sell it for a certain price by a stated date in the future. This carries the
potential for wild market fluctuations, but it also offers exciting opportunities for investors willing to
ride out market volatility in anticipation of rewards.
Like any investment, the goal in commodities trading is to buy low and sell high. The difference with
commodities is that they are highly leveraged and trade in contract sizes instead of shares. The primary
difference between options and futures is that options give the holder the right to buy or sell the
underlying asset at expiration, while the holder of a futures contract is obligated to fulfill the terms of
his/her contract. The portfolio utilized stock options only for hedging purposes to ensure no loss. For
more details on the performance of stock options, refer to Appendix 1.
13. 10 | P a g e
The portfolio consisted of investments in Commodity Futures and Futures Options in Corn. Investment
in Corn was an important strategy for our success. Reports of high percentage of corn supply being
unused prompted us to invest in this commodity.
Futures No. of
Contracts
1
Futures –CK/ 13 Price Qty Amount
Price Paid 6.95 5000 $34750
Price Sold 6.465 5000 $32325
Table 5
The company invested in Corn Futures with the purchase of 1 contract at a price of $6.95/ bushel. The
total amount invested in Futures was $34750 and there was a loss of $2425.
Futures Options.
This was a part of our active management strategy and this yielded us a humongous profit. Our
strategy was to hedge using Futures Options on the Corn Futures we bought. The amount invested in
Futures Options in Corn matched the amount invested in Corn Futures.
Futures Options No.of
Contracts
30
Corn5/2013 7.35 Put Premium
Price
Qty Amount
OZCK13P7350 -Buy 0.2 30*5000 $30000
OZCK13P7350 -Close 0.6 30*5000 $90000
Table 6
The company invested in Corn Futures Options with the purchase of 30 contracts at a price of $0.2/
bushel. The total amount invested in Futures Options was $30000 and the profit made was $ 60,000.
The fall in corn prices enabled us to make a handsome profit. This profit was results of a tactical move
backed with strong belief in our fundamental analysis of the fall in prices of Corn post the reports of
unused supply of Corn.
Summary of Stock-Trak Portfolio
The Portfolio has performed exceedingly well as it has posted a Net Market Value of $ 1,078,993.90 at
the end of the trading period. Table 7 gives us the Portfolio Value and summary at the end of the
trading period.
14. 11 | P a g e
Portfolio Summary
Cash Balance $928,215.83
Short Sale Proceeds N/A
Loan Balance 0
Interest Earned on Cash $3,260.04
Interest Charged on Loan $0.00
Total Mark to Market Value for Futures
Restricted Funds $12,600.00
Margin Requirements $0.00
Total Margin for Futures
Market Value of Long Positions $145,666.70
Accrued Interest Earned on Bonds $1,791.32
Market Value of Short Positions $0.00
Net Market Value of all Positions
Portfolio Value $1,078,933.90
Percentage Return 7.89%
Buying Power $1,993,817.44
Trades Made/Allowed 84
SP500 % Return 6.92%
SP500 at start date 1,485.98
Current SP500 1,588.85
Table 7
Figure 6 and 7 shows the Assets which contributed the most to the Profit and the loss of the portfolio.
As mentioned earlier, the futures options reigned in the highest profit followed by the Stocks. The
highest losses were again due to Stocks, most of which was in Short positions.
Figure 6 Figure 7
15. 12 | P a g e
Performance evaluation of Aviazon Corp.
The following performance Evaluation for the Investment firm Aviazon Corp. is computed for the
investment period starting from 22nd
January 2013 to 12th
April 2013.
Week # $ Portfolio value Port Return S&P Value S&P 500 Return
0 $10,00,000.00 NA 1,485.98 NA
1 $10,01,124.18 0.112% 1,502.96 1.143%
2 $10,02,127.29 0.100% 1,513.17 0.679%
3 $10,02,595.98 0.047% 1,517.93 0.315%
4 $10,02,926.25 0.033% 1,519.79 0.123%
5 $10,00,278.35 -0.264% 1,515.60 -0.276%
6 $ 9,99,602.52 -0.068% 1,518.20 0.172%
7 $10,16,475.37 1.688% 1,551.18 2.172%
8 $10,14,903.54 -0.155% 1,560.70 0.614%
9 $10,19,002.94 0.404% 1,556.89 -0.244%
10 $10,20,687.11 0.165% 1,569.19 0.790%
11 $10,68,130.53 4.648% 1,553.28 -1.014%
12 $10,78,933.90 1.011% 1,588.85 2.290%
G Mean 0.6351% 0.559%
Table 8: Weekly Portfolio Values and Returns
The above table provides weekly Portfolio values and its corresponding weekly return rates, which
gives a good account of the performance of Aviazon Corp through the course of the Project. Table 8
highlights the fact that the final portfolio value of $10,78,933.90 and the corresponding Geometric
return of 0.635% per week outperformed the market return of 0.559% per week.
Although, it may seem that the Portfolio outperformed the market in terms of returns, the
corresponding risk taken also plays an important factor in performance analysis. Hence the risk-
adjusted performance of the portfolio would be a better assessment of the portfolio performance.
However, in this case the risk-adjusted performance is compared with the S&P 500 index, which itself
is not an accurate representation of the entire market since the portfolio consists of a mix of many
assets like Stocks, Bonds, Options, Futures and Commodities.
If the portfolio consisted of only equity then the S&P 500 would be the ideal comparison for
assessment of performance. To add to that, the 12-week period is not an ideal sample size for
comparison purposes. For purposes of performance evaluation, the analysis that follows is compared to
the S&P 500. Table 9 gives an insight into the risk-adjusted performance figures, which are important
in assessing the portfolio performance concerned to various measures.
Portfolio S&P 500
Geometric average return 0.635% 0.559%
Standard Deviation (Total
Risk)
1.38% 0.96%
Beta (Systematic Risk) -0.2805 1
Non-systematic Risk 1.349% 0
Table 9: Return & Risk Performance figures
16. 13 | P a g e
Figure 8 shows the growth of the portfolio value over the twelve weeks versus the cumulative
investment of one million USD$ during the trading period.
Figure 8
Figure 9 shows the growth of the portfolio compared to the S&P 500 for the twelve-week trading
period. The figure shows that the portfolio had similar but lower returns than the S&P 500 for most
part of the trading period, until Week 10, where the returns between the market and the portfolio were
negatively correlated. This week saw that the Portfolio outperformed the market and had extremely
higher returns than the S&P 500.
Figure 9
17. 14 | P a g e
Performance Analysis Measures
a) Sharpe Measure
The total risk measured by the Standard Deviation of the portfolio is 1.38% compared to the S&P
figure of 0.96%. Sharpe Ratio measures the total risk adjusted performance of the Portfolio. It is
defined as the ratio of Excess return to the Total Risk (Standard Deviation) of the portfolio.
Sharpe Ratio = (Return of the Portfolio – Risk Free Rate) / Standard Deviation (σ)
Note: The weekly risk-free rate is approximately 0.0585% and this rate is used in our performance
calculations throughout.
Sharpe Ratio of the Portfolio = 0.4191
Sharpe Ratio of the Market = 0.5194
Figure 10
18. 15 | P a g e
Figure 11
The Sharpe Ratio of the market is higher than the portfolio. Hence in terms of total reward to volatility,
the market outperformed the portfolio (Figure 10). The main contributing factor to the
underperformance of the portfolio in this measure is because of the high Total risk or Standard
Deviation of the portfolio (Figure 11).
b) Treynor Measure
The Treynor measure estimates the performance of the portfolio corresponding to the systematic or
market risk or non-diversifiable risk of the portfolio. Beta is an accurate representation of the
systematic risk as it represents the effect or consequences of the Market on the portfolio. The Beta of
the portfolio is -0.2805, which shows that the portfolio is negatively correlated to the market. It is
obtained by computing the slope between the Excess market return (X) of the market and the portfolio
(Y).
Though the performance of the market and the portfolio have been bullish having returned positive
returns, the negative Beta can be attributed to the fact that the performance of the portfolio in Week 11
outperformed the market with a positive return of +4.648% whereas the market (S&P500) posted a
negative return of -1.014 %. Owing to the small sample size of 12 weeks, the portfolio shows a
negatively correlated Beta.
19. 16 | P a g e
Treynor measure or ratio is defined as the ratio of Excess return over Market Risk.
Treynor Ratio = (Return of the Portfolio – Risk Free Rate) / Beta (β)
Treynor Ratio of the Portfolio = -0.0206
Treynor Ratio of the Market = 0.0050.
Figure 12
The Treynor measure of the market is higher than the portfolio; hence the market outperformed the
portfolio (Figure 12). The underperformance of the portfolio is owed to the fact that the Beta is
negatively correlated to the market. Figure 13 shows the Systematic Risk of the Portfolio and the
market.
20. 17 | P a g e
Figure 13
c) Jensen’s Alpha measure
Jensen’s Alpha is a measure of the return of the portfolio over and above that predicted by the Capital
Asset Pricing Model.
Alpha (α) = (Return of Portfolio-Risk-Free Rate) – Beta (β) * (Return of Market-Risk Free Rate)
The portfolio has a positive Alpha (α) value of 0.0073 or 0.73%. Since the Alpha is positive, the
portfolio outperformed the market. The positive Alpha (α) also indicates that the portfolio managers
engaged in good active management. In this analysis, Jensen’s Alpha is computed using the Regression
Analysis for the Excess Return of the Portfolio and the Market. The intercept of the output line is
Alpha (α) and the slope of the line is Beta (β). Figure 14 shows the Characteristic Line of the Portfolio.
21. 18 | P a g e
Figure 14
d) Information Ratio or Appraisal Ratio
The appraisal ratio is a measure of the return per unit of non-systematic or diversifiable risk. Like the
Jensen’s Alpha, a positive appraisal ratio indicates good active management. Most of the investment
managers are assessed based on their active management capabilities and this is a very important and
relevant measure to be considered for the performance analysis of the portfolio and its managers.
It is defined as the ratio of Alpha (α) to the Non-systematic or Diversifiable risk.
Appraisal Ratio = Alpha (α) / σ non-systematic
The non-systematic risk is the Standard deviation of the residuals obtained by computing the
regression analysis outputs of the Portfolio Excess returns with the Excess returns of the market.
The standard deviation of the residuals or non-systematic risk is 1.349% and the Appraisal Ratio is
0.5387, which shows that the portfolio has a pretty good abnormal return per unit of Non-systematic
risk.
22. 19 | P a g e
Figure 15
The above figure gives us the total diversifiable risk per unit of abnormal return. Comparing it with the
systematic risk, the portfolio had a lot of diversifiable risk and it more than made up for the total risk in
the portfolio.
Note: The Jensen’s Alpha and Beta are assumed to be significant, in our analysis for performance
assessment of the Portfolio and its managers.
e) Modigliani –Modigliani or M2
measure
In this measure the idea is to lever or de-lever a portfolio (i.e., shift it up or down the capital market
line) by creating a matching portfolio whose standard deviation is identical to that of the market
portfolio.
The M2
of a portfolio is the return that this matching portfolio earned. This return is then compared
directly to the market return for the period. In our analysis, the matching portfolio was created with
around 70% of funds to be invested in the portfolio and the rest in T-bills. The amount of 70% to be
invested in the portfolio is computed by the ratio of the (σm / σp). The matching portfolio gives us a
return of 0.4626%, which is less than the market return of 0.559%. In this measure, the portfolio
underperformed the market again.
23. 20 | P a g e
Figure 16
f) Returns of the Portfolio Versus Risk
Figure 17 shows the market risk-return relationship during the trading period. The return of the
portfolio is expressed in the positive area. In this case, the return is decomposed into risk and
selectivity.
The investors’ risk to the return earned is based on the target level of Beta. The managers’ risk
corresponds to the extra risk the manager took than the target level of Beta. In this case, the target was
to keep the Beta very low compared to the market. However, we had a negative Beta and hence had a
very low-systematic risk and very high unsystematic risk. In the normal bullish scenario, with this kind
of risk-return relationship, the portfolio would underperform the market and vice versa in a bearish
environment provided the value of Beta is significant.
The selectivity, which is further decomposed into net-selectivity and diversification, was positive and
indicates good active management. Net selectivity was positive and it indicates abnormal return over
the market. It included returns due to hedging and other active management techniques.
25. 22 | P a g e
With regards to the diversification of the portfolio, the difference between the value of Beta (β=-
0.2805) and the ratio of Portfolio Standard deviation to Market Standard Deviation (σp / σm =1.426) is
pretty high which indicates lot of unsystematic risk and bad diversification. Even though the portfolio
had different stocks in various sectors both national and international, highly diversified mutual funds
and ETF’s, the diversification could not be seen. This has largely got to do with the simplified
performance analysis using S&P 500 as the market benchmark.
As for as active management strategies are considered, hedging by futures options proved to be
extremely beneficial realizing a profit of $ 60,000 from the strategy in week 10-11.
Although, the portfolio underperformed the market in most of the risk adjusted measures, the
performance was quite satisfactory considering the fact that the market benchmark is not quite
appropriate for comparison with a portfolio composed of many different type of assets. The active
management played a very important part as indicated by the analysis. The portfolio theorized as a
growth portfolio, would perform much better in the long-term than the figures indicated by the
analysis.
CONCLUSION
The world of investments is unpredictable, even the gurus make mistakes and learn from them. The
STOCK-TRAK project was extremely helpful to us in terms of learning the art of real life trading.
Even though the money we had was virtual, we handled and invested it with precaution just as we
would with real money.
The 12 week trading period was like a roller coaster ride with so many unpredictable turn of events.
We were truly excited trading, when the S&P 500 recorded a five year high. Though we had the
highest total portfolio return, we still think we should have avoided a few trades.
This experience educated us with a few of the most important things such as:
• There is NO such thing as sure thing. Some of the stocks which we thought would perform well
failed,
• Always avoid herding as it always leads to a cliff in most of the cases.
• Proper Risk Management and Diversification – this helps the portfolio to resist market’s High-
Low and single sector malfunctioning.
• When to Sell and when to Hold- never to attach your emotions to your portfolio, if the stock
which once earned you a fortune is currently doing bad, do not hesitate to sell and always use limit
and Stop – loss orders.
• Be you own advisor- always take your own decisions, never go with anyone else’s word until or
otherwise you have done your fair part of research and you are 100% sure.
These experiences have made us better investors with good market ethics and behavioral values which
is one of the important key factors to succeed apart from your investing and trading skills.
26. Exchange Company Name QTY Currency Price Paid Last Price Market Value Profit/Loss P/L % Amount spent
US 19/02/13 General Communications Inc 1209 USD 8.25 9.25 11183.25 -1209 -12.12 9974.25
US 19/02/13 Ralph Lauren Corp 74 USD 176.69 172.81 12787.57 -287.49 -2.20 13075.06
US 19/02/13 eBay Inc 211 USD 56.96 57.52 12136.72 118.16 0.98 12018.56
US 19/02/13 Diageo Shs Sponsored American Deposit Receipt Repr 4 Shs 249 USD 120.03 121.74 30313.26 425.79 1.42 29887.47
US 19/02/13 3M Co 294 USD 103.35 107.9 31722.6 1337.7 4.40 30384.9
US 19/02/13 Home Depot Inc 296 USD 67.56 71.63 21201 1203.24 6.02 19997.76
US 19/02/13 International Flavors & Fragrances Inc 331 USD 74.32 75.06 24844.86 244.94 1.00 24599.92
US 19/02/13 Aon PLC 523 USD 57.16 61.48 32154.04 2259.36 7.56 29894.68
US 19/02/13 Dover Corp 551 USD 73.13 74.33 40955.83 661.2 1.64 40294.63
US 19/02/13 Johnson & Johnson 656 USD 76.16 82.07 53840.74 3879.78 7.77 49960.96
US 19/02/13 Nike Inc 1091 USD 54.99 60.43 65929.13 5935.04 9.89 59994.09
US 19/02/13 Unilever Shs Sponsored American Deposit Receipt Repr 1 Sh 1256 USD 40.15 42.5 53379.87 2951.47 5.85 50428.4
US 19/02/13 Starbucks Corp 1837 USD 54.59 58.07 106674.59 6392.76 6.37 100281.83
BO 18/02/13 Reliance Industries Ltd 3333 INR 846.2 781.05 47639.29 -3986.505416 -7.70 51778.67817
US 18/02/13 Crosstex Energy Inc. 845 USD 17.79 16.95 709.8 275.9785203
US 18/02/13 The New York Times Company 1668 USD 9 10.05 -1751.4
BO 18/02/13 ITC Ltd 9450 INR 300.3 284.55 49208.65 -2732.467413 -5.24 52099.04535
US 30/01/13 iShs*MSCI*ThCIM*Shs 157 USD 88.45 89.02 13976.16 89.51 0.64 13886.65
US 30/01/13 Pwrsh*QQQ*SerI*Shs 268 USD 67.29 70.05 18773.4 739.68 4.10 18033.72
US 30/01/13 PowerShares*ETF*Shs*Dynamic*Pharmaceuticals*Portfolio 457 USD 37.04 40.03 18293.66 1366.38 8.07 16927.28
US 24/01/13 Amana Mutual Funds Trust Growth Fund 358.9375 USD 27.86 28.29 10154.34 154.34 1.54 9999.99875
US 24/01/13 Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Fund Investor Class 361.5329 USD 41.49 41.78 15104.84 104.84 0.70 15000.00002
US 24/01/13 Lkcm Equity Fund Institutional 812.1278 USD 18.47 19.42 15771.52 771.52 5.14 15000.00047
US 24/01/13 Marsico Flexible Capital Fund 1296.1763 USD 15.43 15.99 20725.86 725.86 3.63 20000.00031
US 24/01/13 Laudus Growth Investors U.S. Large Cap Growth Fd 1314.0604 USD 15.22 15.48 20341.65 341.66 1.71 19999.99929
US 24/01/13 Touchstone Sands Capital Select Growth Fund Cl Z 1522.07 USD 13.14 13.22 20121.77 121.77 0.61 19999.9998
US 26/02/13 DOV PUT 75 May 13 1 USD 3.6 2.95 234 -126 -35.00 3.6
US JNJ PUT 85 Apr 13 6 USD 3.35 2.61 1848 -162 -8.06 20.1
US 28/02/13 NKE PUT 60 Apr 13 10 USD 1.48 0.34 600 -880 -59.46 14.8
US Goodyear*Tire*&*Rubber*Co.*M*10.5%*M*May*2016 1 USD 1091 1091 1091 0 0.00 1091
US Fidelity*National*Financial*Inc*M*7.625%*M*Jul*2017 3 USD 1080 1075.5 3226.5 -13.5 -0.42 3240
US Capital*One*Financial*Corp*M*10.25%*M*Aug*2039 6 USD 1000.1 1000.1 6000.6 0 0.00 6000.6
US TMBOND*7.500%*15MNovM2024 20 USD 1558.87 1584.06 15840.6 251.9 1.62 31177.4
US TMBOND*4.625%*15MFebM2040 10 USD 1327.89 1327.89 13278.9 0 0.00 13278.9
US TMBOND*5.000%*15MMayM2037 20 USD 1387.27 1387.27 27745.4 0 0.00 27745.4
US TMBOND*6.125%*15MAugM2029 10 USD 1499.61 1499.61 14996.1 0 0.00 14996.1
US TMBOND*6.250%*15MMayM2030 10 USD 1528.67 1528.67 15286.7 0 0.00 15286.7
US TMBOND*6.375%*15MAugM2027 10 USD 1502.27 1502.27 15022.7 0 0.00 15022.7
US TMBOND*6.875%*15MAugM2025 10 USD 1526.8 1526.8 15268 0 0.00 15268
US Corn Futures(CK/13) May 13 1 USD 6.95 6.465 32325 -2425 -6.98 34750
US Futures Options-OZCK13P7350 30 USD 0.2 0.6 90000 60000 200 30000
APPENDIX 1