I noticed last weekend that I got bumped to 2nd place in my inMessment Game. Mayoman7 beat me out for the top spot. Below is the top two spots in the rankings list for the game. Today is Wednesday, November 16, 2001. As the market has gone up and down this week, Mayoman7 and I have been swapping places as the leader.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise me but I must admit I was somewhat shocked by this. Mayoman7 is a friend of mine and I know he only has one holding in his inMessment Game portfolio. How could be beat me with only one holding?
Back on February 2, 2011 Mayoman7 bought 300 shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). At the time he told me he thought it would be good because Verizon was going to start selling the iPhone and might get a bump from that.
I was skeptical but I was glad to have a friend in the game with me. I was also glad that he was starting to learn about investing in the stock market.
I would never recommend investing in one stock for a portfolio. This is very risky. But as a learning experience in an investing game this is just fine.
Since February VZ has not really done much in the way of appreciation. On Feb. 2 he bought at $36.04 per share. Now, as of November 11, it is at $36.65. That is less than a 2% increase.
What has pushed Mayoman7′s portfolio to the top? It is the high Dividend that VZ pays. In 2011 VZ pays quarterly divided between $0.4875 and $0.50. This works out to a yield of over 5% per year. That is pretty nice.
Mayoman7 purchased 300 shares of VZ on Feb 2, 2011. On April 6 and June 6 VZ paid a dividend of $0.4875. This works out to $292.50 for the first two quarters. Then Oct. 5 VZ pays out $0.50 which comes out to another $150.00 added to his portfolio. The Investopedia Game added the dividends directly to his game cash.
With the 2% appreciation in the stock price and the $442.50 in cash dividends, Mayoman7 is up over $471 for the year. After another down turn on Wednesday, Nov. 16, in my inMessment Game Portfolio I am only up $158 for the year.
I don’t expect his lead to last for long as I hope that I have a good portfolio. Especially if Europe and the US can get a handle on all the debt issue, then the markets should start coming back.
Join the inMessment Game today! You will start with $25,000 in game cash and no one is too far ahead at this point. This is a great way to learn about what it means to invest in the stock market.
Here are my results from earlier this year:
inMessment Game First Quarter Results 2011
inMessment Game Second Quarter Results 2011
inMessment Game Third Quarter Results 2011
