NYSE: Wake-Up Bell

In order to determine which investments would be beneficial for a certain individual, I will need to do actual research on the market. This step in my project will require early morning wake-up calls and stock analysis as the opening bell sounds at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Working early mornings won't be as big a hassle as the math that will inevitably need to be solved at several intervals in my research. My mentor, Patrick Cross, mentioned in our first meeting that the amount of time that this project requires is a lot less than that necessary for any noticeable or note-worthy changes that an investment will potentially undergo.

Due to this limitation, i have decided that for every week of analysis, I will crunch numbers to extrapolate the "current" face-values of an investment over the course of 1, 5, 10 and 20 years. Now, because an investment may not do so well after a certain period of time, adjustments may need to be made to the portfolios in order to ensure growth of prevent loss.

Who Will Invest?

Because I have very limited access to my mentor, the bulk of my project will consist of independent stock/bond research and analysis, checking in with Mr. Cross only occasionally. Over the past few weeks, I have been contemplating what types of people should be included in my study of investment fluctuations and I believe I've found a decent sample group.

As I mentioned before, age, retirement and income level are among, if not, the most important aspects of investment. I have determined what I think to be a socio-economically diverse group to revolve my project around. I will create a portfolio, a list of one's investments, for each of 4 or 5 fictitious people with varying backgrounds determined by national averages for age and income for different ethnicities. Other aspects of individual backgrounds could include education and family size, both of which could influence ones income, therefore, their investments.