The well-anticipated Mr. Whalen stock market challenge begun on August 26th 2016, with a very rough start for myself. A well-rounded group of competitors shooting for the top spot in the 70-day challenge, stood in front of me with a tough task ahead. With past experience in the contest I came into class with several stocks in mind to invest in, that in the past have earned and lost me a great sum of money. The strategy I came forward with was to lead off with an optimistic start to push my peers to take risks to fight for the top spot in the early running, using my past experience as an advantage. I came to the conclusion that my goal in the stock market challenge was to come Top 20 amongst all 80 competitors from various classes. As several peers have invested their money into stocks in the past as well as Mr. Whalen who has been extremely successful in the past with stocks. This goal I believe is realistic and attainable, if I am successfully able to accumulate the proper strategies and take several risks that lead to significant rewards (total gains).
Day 1 was a roller-coaster of emotions, several hours into the challenge, a stock called Direxion (NUGT), had earned me several thousand dollars to put me in top 5 in the challenge, as gold was rebounding from a quick loss in the first few hours of the market open. Unfortunately, the stock plummeted from 24.03 to about 22.90, which not only lost me all that I gained in the first few hours, but also in addition put me in the hole of about 4000 dollars. As I was not able to get to a device as soon as possible to minimize and or eliminate my loss, my positive ambition to start the challenge on a high note collapsed in front of eyes. This tremendous loss pressed me to reconsider the strategies to execute and reach my goal of top 20 out of the 80 competitors in the challenge, which I begun to brainstorm for the next few days. 
As the days rolled on, I had also begun to read more articles from various reputable sources including MarketWatch, in addition analyzing stock graphs as well as studying the trends of certain stocks. Several articles that I came across that looked promising was about a pharmaceutical company called Sunesis Pharmaceutical Inc. Analysts from various companies had estimated several sums that put the stock (SNSS), in an optimistic light. They estimated Sunesis would grow in the next quarter by about 26.7%, not to mention that the company believes they will grow significantly in the coming years, about 116% per annum for the next 5 years. As these numbers are not supported by the past trends of the company, I researched more into why these numbers exist and are relevant. What I found was that Sunesis at the end of the second quarter had begun new stages of advancement in two of their new therapy drugs called vosaroxin and SNS-062. They project the release of the vosaroxin drug to European markets in 2017, which will consequently increase their revenue and therefore their share price inevitably in the future. As I was able to attain this knowledge prior to my peers I was able to put in a significant amount of my buying power into the stock several times during the duration of Thursday and Friday, which increased my net worth significantly as the share value increased by about 9%. http://www.newsoracle.com/2016/09/08/what-are-analysts-report-about-sunesis-pharmaceuticals-inc-nasdaqsnss/
http://scibilitymedia.com/sunesis-pharmaceuticals-inc-nasdaqsnss-sufficient-cash-remain-afloat/
https://www.equities.com/news/sunesis-pharmaceuticals-inc-snss-jumps-8-99-on-september-09
I have learned that understanding and becoming knowledgeable of what is happening with companies and global markets is a major asset to the success in this challenge. I believe if I continue this strategy of compiling information and implementing my effective methods of buying and selling stocks, I will be able to set myself up for success and create a realistic opportunity for me to attain my goal. Overall, from 64th on Wednesday night, to 31st on Friday night I was able to make substantial gains and cut my loss to a positive figure. 33 spots in two days, not the start I intended, but the progress I envisioned.
No comments:
Post a Comment