Info: How to Create Your Own FREE Investment Portfolio Online

Shortlink this blog entry: http://wp.me/p29JVv-7D

If you don’t already know how to do this by now, it may come in handy. I’m talking of course about how to create a FREE investment portfolio online for your stock research and tracking. This week, to test performance among the major media companies in the stock market i will create a portfolio on and track the major 7 competing media companies with an inception date of 10/12/12. Therefore, whatever the stock opened at on that day, for the purpose of this experiment I invested in 1000 shares, and we will be able to track performance, compare stats, analyze, and report on these investments.

Two of the easiest to use free online portfolio tracking is CNBC.com and of course the awesome entity Google Finance, my favorite. Google Finance is much more user friendly and self explanatory, not to take anything away from CNBC, because they have a great UI as well, but I prefer Google Finance a hair more, I would say. Here we go:

CNBC.com (see below for screen shots)

1. Create Account if you don’t already have one.

2. Hover mouse pointer over INVESTING, move pointer down to PORTFOLIO

3. Create a New Portfolio

4. Name Portfolio

5. Enter information accordingly

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1. Create Account

Create an account

2. Hover mouse pointer over INVESTING, move pointer down to PORTFOLIO

INVESTING –> PORTFOLIO

3. Create a New Portfolio (upper right box)

Create a new portfolio

4. Name portfolio

5. Enter information accordingly

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Google Finance (see below for screen shots)

1. Sign in/ up Google Account

2. Access Google Finance Application

3. Click Portfolio (left menu)

4. Click create new portfolio (upper right corner)

5. Enter Symbols

6. Edit by clicking ‘Edit transaction’ on menu bar

It should look like this for the current experiment this week, to test performance among the major media companies in the stock market:

Google Finance Screen Shot

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Image Screenshot Sources:

CNBC website screenshots retrieved via CNBC.com on 10/24/12

Google Finance screenshots retrieved via Google.com/finance on 10/24/12

Important Investment Blogs Compared

What’s your favorite investment blog?

When I started this blog one of the largest problems I faced was finding an investment/ finance focused blog that would talk about the entertainment business, more importantly film studio investing, on a regular basis that would also cover other subsidiary companies under the same umbrella of large corporations. After searching, I discovered a couple of very different blogs that offered relevant film news.

Business Insider, my preferred blog, and Freakonomics are very forthcoming with information, have a multitude of options to browse and retrieve for news and they are focused on all aspects of business which, in the long run, contribute to the overall possibility for profit when investing in corporations with film production studios, like Sony and Time Warner. I prefer Business Insider because the blog roll is instantaneous with a picture and a headline that entices the reader. Freakonomics is still a very important and useful source, but for different reasons. Freakonomics user interface is not as busy, or complicated with as many tabs as Business Insider, and it is a single home page without the need to scroll down to see all the content.

Both blogs include search boxes and social widgets towards the top of the page, but with Business Insider you don’t have to worry about navigating any tabs at the top to begin reading, if you don’t want to, so it is instantaneous. On the other hand, you know what you are getting with Freakonomics every time. One at a time, five featured, self scrolling blogs are available to view and their are tabs to help you navigate to different services. I recomment both blogs as credible, instant, and interesting forms of engaging information.

Which #1 Studio Has Grossed $1.3 Billion In 2012, So Far?

Who is #1?

According to boxofficemojo.com, the movie studio with the most market share, at 16.1%, is Sony/ Columbia. This percentage translates to a $1.3 billion total gross from 22 movies in 2012. The highest grossing movie, thus far, for Sony/ Columbia is The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, with $262 million at the box office. In second place, we find MIB3, starring Will Smith, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones, which grossed $179 million.

Previously, I invested in SNE, just before MIB3 was released on 5/25/12, and held it for a month. According to CNBC.com, SNE stock opened at $13.30/ share on 5/25/12. One month later, 6/25/12, SNE stock opened at $14.10, which amounts to an awesome 5.67% gain. Therefore, count a victory against the market for us! If I were to invest in a bond, sit on it for 6 months to a year, I might gain 3%, but we almost doubled that amount in one month with our reasonable, well-researched, and analyzed experiment.

SNE Experiment: Savvy or Sappy Investment Part II

Will I be the smartest financiest (that didn’t sound right) dude ever in world history of the earth planet? Predicting the success of “MIB3” and turning a profit from its stock SNE, seems like an easy task to me, but what might Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” think of my hair-brained yet logical scheme? On 5/26/12, Cramer talked on his show “Mad Money” about predicting stock success, stating that it is almost impossible because stocks will sometimes do the opposite of what they are expected, even if the news and profits are good at that current time. He was trained always to look at the success, profits, etc. of companies to invest in the long run. I have never heard him recommend day trading and even though my 17 day experiment is not exactly day trading it’s not exactly long-term trading either.   Check out Cramer’s “Mad Money” Soundboard by clicking on the picture here.

“MIB3” was released on Friday, 5/25/12 and it finally knocked “The Avengers” off its 4 week streak at the number one spot at the box office. Holding the spot next weekend doesn’t seem as it will be too much of a feat, but only time will tell. I visited a website entitled BoxOfficeMojo.com that reports on box office earnings and keeps all-time earnings stats; it is a very informative website and I highly suggest you check it out. Apparently, “MIB3” was a big hit in China where, “The movie had it’s best start in China with 19.5 million, which ranks seventh all-time for a Hollywood movie there” (boxofficemojo.com). I think its because Will Smith won the “Ninja Warrior” competition in Japan…oh wait, that doesn’t make much sense.

SNE was down Thursday and Friday, but Tuesday, 5/29/12 could be the beginning of a streak that could prove profitable. As we noticed in the previous blog post, DIS went a very profitable streak and peaked after 17 days. Will SNE match the success? We shall see! Hang on to your money if you don’t wanna grab my hand like they did in “Thelma & Louise” and drive off the cliff, into the sunset, holding hands, because I’ve invested in the risky stocks with which you don’t have to invest. But, also if anyone has any advice please feel free to speak up, or forever hold your peace…at our wedding, I love you.

Experiment in Investment Strategy: Savvy, or Sappy?

I have recently been trying my hand at the stock market and think I’ve come across a secret in investing. My hypothesis states: I Billy Simpson, under liberty, and justice for the rockets red glare, do declare that when highly anticipated movies are released, stock prices raise, accordingly, for those companies that own production studios. One company, whose stock may raise in the coming week due to “Men in Black 3” or “MIB3” being released this Friday, May 25, 2012, is the Sony Corporation (SNE).

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Recently, Disney (DIS) released the epic money maker “The Avengers” and its stock went up accordingly. At close, 4/24/12, DIS stock was $42.18/ share and 17 days later it peaked at $45.56/ share. Check my math but that might just be an 8% increase in 17 days. Now,this may seem like a sure bet on any other major motion picture relaese, but you have to think about the movies success, anticipated release, and other contributing factors that may have led to the epic success of the DIS stock.

The Street, recently wrote an article entitled, ‘Sony Corporation Stock Downgraded (SNE)’, which discusses the stock being downgraded from hold to sell. In the same article it references that the net operating cash flow for SNE is, “still fairing well by exceeding its industry average cash flow growth rate of -71.16%” (www.thestreet.com). This news, does not mirror the same positive news surrounding DIS great quarterly report that was released in early MAY 2012, but I am confident that “MIB3″will parallel the success of, if not surpass “The Avengers” worldwide success. Will Smith reaches a far greater demographic range than a lot of other actors and I’m betting all his fans will go support his long awaited “MIB” addition.

“MIB3” is set to release May 25, 2012…visit the blog daily. We will compile and compare notes leading up to June 10, 2012.

5/23/12 CLOSE: $13.83 DOWN -0.17 (-1.21%)

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

THE STREET

WIKIPEDIA

SONY CORPORATION

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

CNBC