Merck Stock Market Game

In the stock market game, the whole class learned about the importance of analyzing stocks before buying. For me, the ultimate result of the game did not please me, but I did learn some things about the market. If we were to play another game for a short period of time, my strategy would certainly change. Using my experience, I would purchase precious metals. Precious metals constantly change price, and these constant changes guarantee high variability and chances to jump to the top. For example, the stock SIVR had over five peaks in period of two months. Other precious metal stocks have had similar patterns. Furthermore, the price of these stocks almost always bounce back to the original purchase price during the short period, so these stocks are relatively safe investments in the short term. As long as I do not become too greedy, precious metals provide a way to make quick money.
However, not all metals make people a decent amount of money. Over the last month, the copper
Merck (MRK) experienced only minute changes over the period that I held onto it. During this time, Merck experienced both positives and negatives, and these different experiences helped to balance the value of the company’s stock. At the beginning of the year, Merck successfully “acquired IOmet,” a company that produces “innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer.” With this new subsidiary, Merck will most likely experience an increase in profits and control over this market. Therefore, this should have helped boost the stock. However, MRK did not grow, but it remained around the same; this was probably the result of a lawsuit. The drug company’s “illegal promotion of it former painkiller Vioxx.” This 800,000,000 dollar settlement most likely negated all the small gains that MRK had made over the past weeks. With these positives and negatives MRK’s value stayed relatively constant for the last couple of