Stock Market for the College Student

Every one has heard of the Stock Market. Mainly how people either win big or loose it all. In my ever-wandering ways to make a extra buck so I canafford a pizza on those all-nighters I pull, I looked into the Stock Market as a way to make extra income.

In therory, it is not a hard concept. By stock when prices are low and sell stock when prices are high. But upon further analysis of this simple therory I have learned a few things that people should consider and make the desicion about playing the makrt very easy. I will explain how to make money on this game in 3 easy to follow steps.

1. Start-Up
In order to buy and sell stock you must have an account with a online website like TD AmeriTrade, E*Trade, USAA, or any other company. Many of these companies required a "start-up fee" or "deposite." On average this fee starts at 500 dollars and climbs. The most expensive fee I saw was anything overthe 1,000,000,000(billion) mark. This is a very large sum of money for the average college student. The fee corrisponds to a level on whatever website you are using. Basic Bronze, Silve, Gold Platinum. Right away many people turn their heads at the large number and give up on their dreams of being a stock market trader right there. But wait it gets better (and much more expensive)

2. Trading
Once you throw that lump sum of money into this game, You can start buying Stock. Every company has them so pick a few and buy away. Buying and Selling is called "Trading." The website charges you a fee for every trade you make. This is how the wesite makes money. Based on your level of buy in at start up, your Trade fee goes up or down. At the Bronze level you will be charged 9.99 everytime you buy or sell. Platinum people are much lower at around 5.25 a trade. So not only must you pay for the price of the stock, you must also tack on this trade fee.

3. Money Making
Buy Stock, Wait until Stock prices go up, Sell Stock. That is how you make the money.
In more detail: buy the stock and wait for the price to rise, you must factor in the two trade fee's that will be charged to your account, then sell the stock.

Example:
Lets take a single share of google stock. Ticker Symbol GOOG

Single share of GOOG opened the market today at a price of $610.05

-

Trade Fee to buy Stock  (Rounding) $10.00

-

Trade Fee to sell Stock  (Rounding) $10.00

+

Single share of GOOG closed the makret today at $ 618.43

=

Net Profit $-11.62

In order to make money off this stock you would have to buy more then one share. at that price no one can afford. No Matter how many shares you buy the Trade Fee is always 9.99. This is were the money comes in. Lets say you bought 100 Shares of GOOG, Here is the sample equation:

100 shares of GOOG opened the market today at a price of $61,005.00

-

Trade Fee to buy Stock  (Rounding) $10.00

-

Trade Fee to sell Stock  (Rounding) $10.00

+

100 shares of GOOG closed the makret today at $ 61,843.00

=

Net Profit $818.00

Now there is a Number we like.

Of course this example is done with a fairly high priced stock. There are stocks on the market that trade a under $1.00 dollar a share. You can use the same equation to figure out your net income on that type of stock to. Just remember a stock that trades at under a dollar a share will not have as much price change as the GOOG stock. therefore in order to make money you will need to buy in the 100's of shares. And with a stock that has a price change of .25 cents, you will not make over 800 dollars at a time, instead your profit may only be in the single digits.

FAILURE

All the aboe is of course the happy and lucky side of the market. It could very easily (and more commonly) go the exact opposite of the examples above. You buy a stock at a certain price, and instead of going up, the Stock crashes. buy the time you get to click "Sell" on the computer you could have lost your 61,000 dollar investment.

World Influence in Stock

Lets play two examples here:

1) You Buy a stock in an airplane company. The stock is trading at 10 dollars a share. That day the airline company comes out with a media release that says they made an airplane that can fly farther, use less gas, and carry more people then any other airplane in the world. The stock prices skyrocket. You sell your shares for 1,000 dollars a share. You have just made a huge profit.

2) You buy stock in an airplane company. The stock is trading at 10 dollars a share. That day an airplane from that company crashes. They company comes out to the media and says that a certain part failed and caused the crash, the company must not fly any of their airplanes until the art has been replaced in all their airplanes. The stock price plummits. You have to sell your share at .10 cents a share. You have lost it all.

If you stay on your game and can afford the initial start up cost, there is alot of money to be made in the stock market. But the second you fall behind or trip up, you will loose almost all your money in a heartbeat. I read recently that almost 90% of people who try to play the stock market will loose all the money they put into it. Of that 90% over 30% of the people will have to go into bankruptcy because of the ammount of money they lost.

it would be a great learning experience to try to buy a few stocks and see how it all works first hand, but no college student has the moey to go and try this.

Still better off working at McDonalds then playing the Stock Market.

The 3 Phases of new Technology

When a new technology is introduced to the public, three kinds of stories are written in "The Media." Here they are, in order:

1. "Hey, look at this New Thing!"
2. "You can have sex with this New Thing!"
3. "The New Thing can hurt you."

Motion Sensing additions to 3rd gen Video game consoles:
1) The Wii came out and everyone was drooled over how cool it was with its motion senor num-chucks. Not long after that everyone heard the lawsuit going around about how some lady let go of her num-chucks and they went flying across the room and hit someone else standing nearby watching her Mario Kung Fu action. Crazy lady, who is obviously mentally impaired, looses lawsuit and now all following technological inventions have to have some sort of goofy warning.

2) The Kinect comes out for the Xbox. The world is amazed with the notion that you no longer need to use your hands to play video games, it is now more realistic than ever. Within a month the game developer ThriXXX comes out with a sex game for the Kinect. Microsoft shut ThriXXX down within a matter of hours after their Media Release about their "Hands Free sex game" came out. After a few months now I still read stories of people hurting themselves, their surround furniture, and the TV itself.


3) The PS3 Move. Lacking in all departments. You stole the Num-chuck controllers from the Wii and after the Kinect came out, no one was to impressed. Sorry.


Web Cams:
At the first sign of video chatting through a computer the world was up in flames to acquire this new technology. Soon I'm sure people were video chatting naked. That is basically like watching porn online BUT the porn star can see you too. Next thing you know the person you thought you trusted took pictures of you naked and has now posted them all over the image boards. Now that your naked pictures are all over the internet, good luck explaining that to anyone who questions you about it.

Yes, that is a picture of yourself nude,
 that you just found online.

On to what every one wants. Pictures display things way better then words, so here are some of them to help put my point across:

Next time something technological comes out, watch these steps occur.

These are only two examples, If you have more put them in a comment on this post and I'll put them up to a case study!

A Gamers 2011 Resolutions

So, the new year is upon us, and throughout 2010, I saw, heard, and read a lot of things that really concerned me. Gamers have some really bad habits that hurt the hobby, maybe more than they realize. I want to see some of those habits change in 2011 — for the good of gamers, gaming, and its standing among other forms of entertainment. So, at the fresh start of a fresh year, it’s worth calling some of the bad stuff out so as not to repeat it. For instance:

1. Stop acting like everything is the end of the world.
A price goes up. A network goes down. A release date moves. A designer talks about doing something different. It no longer seems to matter what the news is –- all that matters is that everything is ruined now. No more dramatic overreactions to minor issues, let alone non-issues.

2. Cynicism for its own sake is pointless.
The self-serving sarcasm has gotten out of control. Some gamers like hating gaming more than they like the games themselves — a uniquely self-destructive attitude compared to other passion hobbies. Gaming can’t be a game of piss-and-moan-upmanship or we all lose.

3. Admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about, then stop.
“That game sucks.” You mean the one that doesn’t come out for four months, or the one that came out four months ago but you’ve never played? Either way, stop. Gaming is an experiential hobby; if you haven’t interacted with what you are condemning, you’ve got nothing. Once you’ve gotten some personal experience, we’ll listen. (This resolution goes double for anything related to business.)

4. Don’t expect perfection.
Games aren’t perfect because people make games and people aren’t perfect. It runs on a computer; it wasn’t birthed by one. They don’t make games like they used to, and in fact, they never did. Likewise, things break; things then get fixed. You cannot alter 60 million lines of code in 5 minutes. Neither can they.

Without the soapbox, it all comes down to “Be rational.” Games will come out this year that you will like, dislike, or ignore. But overreactions, unrealistic expectations, and a quick temper are not helping the hobby you hold dear. We are all ambassadors of gaming; we represent it to every non-gamer on the planet. And gaming just can’t be defined by these irrational actions and reactions if it’s going to get the respect it deserves.

I think we all need to hold each other to a higher standard — and if you are not guilty of the kinds of stuff I’ve referenced here, say “You know, I don’t think that actually helps” when you see someone who is. A community — particularly online — can be shaped by a handful of good examples. Right now, I fear too much of it is being shaped by bad ones. So that’s what I’d like to see change.

Gaming evolves every year. Let 2011 be the year that gamers evolve.

In reference to One of Swords Blog 

Bed Times

As the impending doom of Spring Semester approaches I was thinking about my upcoming class schedule and what my weeks would look like with Class, Work, Social Life, and Xbox. I thought it would be best to sit down with a spreadsheet and plan out a common week so I could have a general idea of what the semester is going to look like (very responsible!).

As I dove head first into this week planning idea, I soon realized that I was going to be a busy busy beaver. Like most college students, as the activities piled up, sleep was the first thing to go. Not that this worries me to much, I strongly stand by the "You can sleep when your dead" motto, but it still got me thinking about sleep schedules of the population of the world.

On average I got about 5 hours of sleep a night last year. going to bed at about 0030 and getting up at 0530. I was never the last one asleep in my dorm but I was ALWAYS the first one up. Figured that is natural since I went to bed semi early as opposed to my neighbors. This semester I go to bed between 0200 and 0300 and I'm up by 0800 or 0900. You do the math.

Compared to my roommate I get way less sleep, and the few other people I hang out with I also get alot less sleep. Most of my friends are older and they go to bed earlier and get up about the same time. I know for a fact babies and little kids go to bed earlier. As most of us grew up, we were allowed to stay up progressively later. We would stay up later and later because the maturity level wasn't high enough to kick in yet. As you get older and more mature your bed time starts back down from 0400 to a more reasonable time like 2200.

Here is a graph to illustrate this concept:

Given that college is the 18-25 category on this graph, you have party's and homework. Once this phase passes you have less work to do at home and less of a crazy social life so your sleep pattern will even out.

This graph is just for shits and giggles:

This is fairly self explanatory. When you need to do things, you don't want to, commonly sleep is the culprit and now you must think of an excuse because you are late to work.

You start out wanting alot of sleep in the beginning of your life, and then the same in the end. Like most life patterns, shit gets crazy in the years between 18-25 (college). Why can't everyone just agree to go to bed at 2200 every week night and 2300 on weekends? It would be so much easier for the WORLD the next morning.

Even the Desert Gets Cold!

So as I was blazing across the internet reading various articles and such, I came across a article about some animals in a Zoo in Japan. It was a very short article and contained a picture.

The article of only a few words said something about how furry animals get cold too (who knew?). This article got me thinking, "What do the other animals think about the cold?" I'm sure the first time a Lion has it's first winter in a Zoo it's probably thinking "What the hell is going on?" I'm sure it would love some blankets or space heaters, especially if it was in the cage next to these lucky little guys.

    

Lemurs in front of a electric heater.

So what about all the birds and other animals that are on the Eastern Sea Board of the US. I can imagine they don't like the cold to much. Just think of all the little pairs of eyes out there looking in windows at Humans sitting by a fire under a blanket. They must hate us and our opposable thumbs. Or our fire making ability. Maybe this is why birds always poop on our cars right after we wash them, the birds just want to get back at us for being warmer then they are.

What about the animals in the desert. The temperature was  25F last night. All my neighbors were covering their beloved trees and bushes to prevent them from freezing. I was a bird I would somehow sneak into an attic or hide under one of these covered bushes to sit out the night. Not only would it provide me with great warmth it also has super protection from any predators that would brave the cold night to come find me.

I think I personally will turn on a little electric heater for any poor animal that gets caught out in the cold. Can't hurt to help the environment any way possible. I could also then use my monthly electric bill as a tax write-off, I would call it "The preservation of endangered species." Sounds like a perfect plan to me!

Make Money Online Websites

So recently I have been looking into how to make some spare money online. Everywhere you look you see the "Make Money Fast" or "Make money Without Leaving Home." Well I thought it was finally time to give it a try and see if I can make some money.

Going into this I had very little hope. I figured I could maybe make enough to buy a pizza at the end of the week. Every site I visited had testimonies that people had submitted where they say they make enough money to cover their house payments and car bills and what not. Now I knew THAT was a scam, maybe if a person had been doing this for their entire life they might be able to make that much, but not in the next 10 years would I make that.

I set aside a little bit of starter money, just in case, and plunged headfirst into websites outlining this and that and how to make money. It seemed that to get the fast start you had to fork over a small sum of around $40.00 American. So After this and that, and not nearly enough research I gave up some money to get behind the walls of a website www.projectpayday.com and see what the hype is all about.

Once behind those walls I come to find out, this site only TELLS you how to make money. Dam, so much for that 40 bucks. The site has a bunch of links and videos about how to start making money, all not worth to much time. After following the steps it leads you to another webpage, that is free, but you have to go through a process there too. So after creating a massive amount of user names on a trillion websites I am starting to give up on this project.

All the websites that you pay for information on how to start making money, lead you to websites where you need to register for this or that, and then go click on random offers (exactly like those you see in a pop up) and fill out information only to wait a week before you see a few points added to some account. Rewards from any given website start in the 1000+ point range and you receive about 2 points per offer you complete (only about 2% of these offers are free). Everything is based on a ladder system, which is VERY hard to move up.

In the end the whole make money online deal is a big scam. There is no way you can make money fast, or alot of money, or do anything of that sort effectively. after blowing through almost 80 bucks of websites that help me "make money fast" I have come to the conclusion that this isn't the way to go to make money. You pay for the information that is completely useless.

Save your money, Get a real job, this isn't worth the time commitment or start up fund. :(

V/R

Starting Up A Blog

Hey World,

I'm gonna try this new thing and start a blog. I will try and have it focus on the Funny/Silly/Stupid Things that Happen in my life and maybe throw in a life lesson here or there so Hopefully I can build up a little bit of a following of people who would like to have a laugh.

A Sergeant I used to work with once told me "Popelas, When I'm having a bad day, I just think of you and all of a sudden I start laughing and my day is way easier!"

Hopefully that'll be the case with everyone who reads this. Make your day a littler brighter with a laugh or to.

V/R

Brian