May 9, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

I know you like to listen to rock  music. Have you heard Cage the Elephant? I recently heard a song called Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, and I really enjoyed it. I actually heard it from a TV show, but I can't remember what it was called. I think you might like it!

You said hello to me in the hallway today, and said it wasn't possible for me to learn something while walking. I disagree - even though multitasking doesn't allow people to fully focus while learning, I think for what I was doing, I was fine. I don't need to learn how to walk - I already know how. I was placing more focus on the video analyzing Reservoir Dogs That's pretty darn interesting. Learning the motivations behind directors and novels is really cool to me, despite being a STEM kid.

May 5, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

We got a new book today! I'm looking forward to reading Behavior Gap. Learning about things that Mr. Hallam might have missed will help me get a better understanding of finance. That goes for most financial planning books, actually. Each one will help me in a way the others haven't. After reading just 19 pages in our 20 minute reading time today, I can tell I will really enjoy it.

One thing I like so far about this book is that Mr. Richards puts me as an investor first. I'm paraphrasing, but a line in the book said to think about my own goals instead of following everyone else. It's easy to get caught up in the bandwagon phenomenon, buying because others are buying, selling because others are selling. This is not a wise investment strategy. I should invest based on what I am attempting to achieve.

May 3, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Investing with CME is not going well. We've lost more than $3500 and seem to be making the wrong investments. The problem I'm having with the stock market is that it pretty much is a guessing game. How am I supposed to know when to buy and when to sell? What if the stock goes up after I sell or goes down after I buy?

This is why investing is scary and I feel like shying away from it. I have the opportunity to graduate debt-free from college. The money I make after that I can keep for myself. If I invest it, how do I make sure I don't lose too much? Investing is long term, I get it, but it's very discouraging. 

April 28, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Let the the CME High School trading challenge begin! Today, we're going to start investing our virtual $100,000 in a virtual stock market. I know this challenge is mostly about finance, but I can't help but appreciate the technology and the network behind the CME website. The numbers on screen reflect real market numbers. We can 'invest' in real commodities, index funds, and metals. It's very well laid out. It feels real, and it's exciting!

Here is what I'm writing to try and convince my group to buy the following futures:

1. The S&P 500 is a good future to invest in because, as we've discussed multiple times in class, it takes into account the entire stock market. It's a good idea to invest in this because the return of this fund is based on the entire stock market, and not just one or two stocks.

2. Currency - I think that the Mexican Peso is worth investing in because it's at a low price and its current trajectory seems to be up. I know our mantra is to buy low, sell high, and I believe this is a good combination of both.

I discussed with my group and we ended up buying them! I hope I made the right decisions :)

April 26, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

This class, we got to meet someone from the CME group. Before class, I didn't know what to expect. We'd read about futures for homework before, but I'm still a novice at investing. I couldn't quite understand what exactly investing in futures meant. However, when the group came in to talk to us about the challenge, I found myself better appreciating the idea of investing.

It's kind of scary to begin. I'm sure that my group will make mistakes (after all, we can't profess to know about investing when we've never done it before), but soon we'll get the hang of the challenge. One thing I learned the importance of was to keep up with current events. Mr. Hallam in his book writes no to follow the news, and I first wrongly understood that to mean not to look at any news. However, that's obviously not a good idea and I know get that we shouldn't look at the financial news, and just go with what we know will work.

April 25, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Thank you for the extra five minutes of reading at the beginning of class today! I love The Name of the Rose, as I've said in countless blog posts before this one, and those extra five minutes helped me get through two more pages of unwieldy (but extremely entertaining) prose. How is I, Robot going? Science fiction is one of my favorite genres, and I love Isaac Asimov! Perhaps my favorite sci-fi book is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (though I'm not quite sure one could classify it as sci-fi exactly).

I think I should participate more in class. Today's discussion was so interesting, and unfortunately I had fewer questions than I hoped I would. I think Chapter 8 is the most useful chapter in Mr. Hallam's book because it makes me aware of what kind of risks lie in the investing world. I'd known about Ponzi schemes and about Bernie Madoff, but learning how to detect one of these schemes is extremely important. More important, I'd argue, than knowing how and where to make more money.

April 20, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

I am really enjoying The Name of the Rose. I always feel a bit sad when the 15 minutes of reading are over. I find myself sinking into my seat and pretending that I'm in the monastery. The main character is not the same as the narrator in this book, which I find quite interesting. The narrator is a monk named Adso of Melk, while the main character is his teacher, Brother William.

Every night for homework I read a little bit of Millionaire Teacher. I've really been enjoying it so far. The reading due for today was Chapter 7. We had talked a lot about the ideas in the chapter in class already, so I didn't feel like I was learning anything new, to be honest. However, I like reading Mr. Hallam's stories because it personalizes things for me. Reading about the effects of a real person's financial habits can help me predict what might happen to me if I did the same thing.