cblj_backup | (no subject)

So, I decided I wanted to learn more about the stock market.

Well, it's always struck me as a terribly irrational way to run an economy, but if I'm going to dislike it I should understand why. And really the only way I learn is by doing, so I asked Nakki about it, since I knew she did a little investing, and she pointed me to the RobinHood app, which lets you buy and sell stock in realtime for no fee.

I threw fifty bucks in and built a portfolio, just to kind of see what’s what, and today I made my first sale -- I bought Grubhub at $18 in late January and just sold it for $25. Probably I shouldn't have sold, but the whole thing's an experiment, not a wealth-building exercise, and seven dollars' profit is a bonus.

Plus it freed up just enough cash to buy into Fitbit. :D We'll see how well my picks continue....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So, I actually do a stock market unit with my GT elementary students (like what we cover is suuuper basic, but I've got one ten year old whose REALLY into it and he'll tell me all about what Sprint or the Steel group or SEED is doing on Yahoo.Finance each day), but we did have a guest speaker who was a day trader. He recommended to the kids that a good rule (for them as new traders) was sell if the stock price got lower than 10% or reached 30% or higher. Conservative guideline, but helpful and you did that!

HAH yes, that is a good rule! Good on you for doing that with your students, too. They're lucky -- they have so many more accessible ways to monitor the stock market. Back when I was a kid it was the stock page, which told you next to nothing about anything unless you had an MBA.