Name: ______________________ Period: ______ Investor number: ______ Start date: __________
This journal stays in your FACS folder for the whole Gilded Age Market. You write one entry every class day. Every entry has three parts and one number:
- What I did (bought, sold, or held; which company; how many shares)
- Why I did it (a dispatch, a risk level, my pie, a feeling you noticed)
- What happened (did the price move, did my total move)
- My total at the bell, in dollars (the number on your ledger)
Three sentences and the number is a complete entry. More is welcome.
Sentence starters:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Today I bought ___ because ___. | Hoy compré ___ porque ___. |
| Today I sold ___ because ___. | Hoy vendí ___ porque ___. |
| I did not trade today because ___. | Hoy no hice ninguna operación porque ___. |
| My total is $___. | Mi total es $___. |
| The news said ___, so ___. | La noticia decía ___, así que ___. |
| I felt ___ when the prices dropped. | Me sentí ___ cuando bajaron los precios. |
| Next time I will ___. | La próxima vez voy a ___. |
Journal cover: my notes
The risk ladder (Day 1): copy the seven rungs from the slide here, safest at the bottom.
7 (riskiest): _____________________________________________
6: _____________________________________________
5: _____________________________________________
4: _____________________________________________
3: _____________________________________________
2: _____________________________________________
1 (safest): _____________________________________________
My risk guess for each company (Day 1): write none, low, medium, high, or very high.
| Ticker | Company | On the board from | My guess | Was I right? (fill on Day 9) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BANK | The savings bank | Round 0 (1870) | ||
| RAIL | Pennsylvania Railroad | Round 0 (1870) | ||
| OIL | Standard Oil | Round 0 (1870) | ||
| GAS | Manhattan Gas Light, later Consolidated Gas | Round 0 (1870) | ||
| ELEC | Edison Electric Light, later General Electric | Round 2 (1882) | ||
| STEEL | United States Steel | Round 4 (1901) | ||
| AUTO | General Motors | Round 5 (1911) | ||
| RADIO | Radio Corporation of America | Round 5 (1911) |
My first buys (Round 0, 1870) (ticker and shares, and how much went in the bank): ______________________________________________________________________
Notes: the rules and definitions from the slides go on the My notes page, next.
My notes (rules and definitions from the slides, one line each)
Day 1: the risk ladder rule (higher up the ladder, more it can grow, more it can fall): ______________________________________
Day 3: the two-line rule (more buyers than sellers, more sellers than buyers): ______________________________________
Day 3: the four kinds of news: ______________________________________
Day 3: the three tests for a headline (who says it, is there a number, does it tell you to hurry): ______________________________________
Day 4: the two do now headlines, scored on the three tests: ______________________________________
Day 5: diversification, in one sentence: ______________________________________
Day 5: the two pies (draw them small): ______________________________________
Day 5: rebalancing means: ______________________________________
Day 8: the bottom: ______________________________________
Day 8: buying low: ______________________________________
Day 8: rebalancing after a crash: ______________________________________
Day 8: percent return formula: ______________________________________
Anything else I want to remember: ______________________________________
Entry 1 (Day 1: Lesson 2.14, the market opens and the Panic of 1873)
What I bought and why (the short version today): ______________________________________________________________________
More room: ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 2 (Day 2: Lesson 2.14, reading the ledger)
Total at the start (after Round 1): $ __________ Above or below 1,000? By how much? __________
My trade log check: ______ shares times $ ______ = $ ______ cash moved. Matches? yes / no
What I did: ______________________________________________________________________
Why: ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
My pie (rough slices, label each with a ticker):
[ draw here ]
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 3 (Day 3: Lesson 2.15, reading the news)
My prediction before the Round 3 prices went up (which company is most at risk in a panic, and why): ______________________________________________________________________
What I did: ______________________________________________________________________
Why (name the dispatch): ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
Did my prediction come true? yes / no. The number that shows it: ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 4 (Day 4: Lesson 2.15, fact vs hype)
What I did: ______________________________________________________________________
Why: ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
One headline I ignored today and why (which test did it fail?): ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 5 (Day 5: Lesson 2.16, diversification)
My pie before Round 5 (rough slices, label each with a ticker):
[ draw here ]
What I did (use the word rebalance or hold): ______________________________________________________________________
Why: ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
My biggest slice is ______ percent (ticker: ______). I am comfortable / not comfortable with that because: ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 6 (Day 6: Lesson 2.17, the boom of 1928 and the margin line)
How I felt at the start (one word): __________ A stress sign I noticed: ______________________
Did I borrow on the margin line? yes / no. If yes, how much: $ __________
What I did: ______________________________________________________________________
Why (copy your decision from the grid): ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
How I feel now (one sentence): ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 7 (Day 7: Lesson 2.17, the crash of October 1929)
My corner today: sold some / sold everything / held / bought more
Margin call: I owed $ __________ and paid it with cash / shares / it took everything.
What I did: ______________________________________________________________________
Why: ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
Look back: my Day 6 decision was a plan / a panic. My evidence (a number): ______________________________________________________________________
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 8 (Day 8: Lesson 2.18, the bottom of 1932 and return math)
What I did (rebalance, buy low, or hold; if buying low, which company and what I expect): ______________________________________________________________________
Why: ______________________________________________________________________
What happened: ______________________________________________________________________
My percent return so far (from Return Math Part B): ______ percent
The company that hurt me most fell ______ percent from Round 6 to Round 8 (ticker: ______).
My total at the bell: $ __________
Entry 9 (Day 9: Lesson 2.19, the closing bell and the reveal)
The market is closed at the 1936 prices. My closing total: $ __________ My rank: ______ of ______ (by investor number)
Why my final number is what it is (one or two sentences): ______________________________________________________________________
More room: ______________________________________________________________________
What I know now that I did not know on Day 1: ______________________________________________________________________
Entry 10 (Day 10: Lesson 2.19, the report)
My final percent return was ______ percent.
One sentence to my future self about money: ______________________________________________________________________
The replay: 1925 to 1936, knowing what is coming (Lessons 2.20, 2.21, 2.22)
Teacher: print this section as its own half sheet for Lesson 2.20. The journal itself is stapled behind the Investor Report on Day 10 and does not come back out.
Name: ______________________ Investor number: ______
The market reopens for ten minutes a day with a fresh $1,000. You now know what happens in 1929 and in 1932.
Block 1 (1925, the buys): I did ______________________ because ______________________ Total: $ ________
Block 2 (October 1929, the crash): I did ______________________ because ______________________ Total: $ ________
Block 3 (1932, then the close at 1936): I did ______________________ because ______________________ Total: $ ________
Knowing the crash was coming, did I still buy on margin? yes / no. Did I buy at the bottom? yes / no. Did knowing change how I traded? How: ______________________________________________________________________