Module: Advanced Financial Management Referral Assignment: Share Trading

Assignment Objectives

You are given a notional SGD 100,000 to invest on the Singapore stock market in shares selected from the list of shares in the FTSE ST ALL Share index (listed on the SGX). You need to split your investment 50:50 between two portfolios of shares, one where you selected the shares by technical analysis and the other by fundamental analysis. Your aim is to beat the market with both portfolios. It is important you can demonstrate that you know the difference between these methods. You need to compare and contrast the two portfolios and you need to make explicit reference to EMH in your analysis.

Submission Requirements

• You need to submit a 2000-word report on your trades, including full referencing according to Harvard APA.
• It needs to be submitted to Turnitin.
• An appendix with a spreadsheets of your trades (these should not be submitted to turnitin)

Assignment Requirements

• You are given a notional SGD100,000 to invest in the Singapore stock market.

• Use market data for 3 months up to 2 weeks before the assignment due date. For example, if the deadline is 31 November 2016, use market data from 15 August 2016 to 15 November 2016. This means that you are going to have to use short-term investment strategies.

You have 2 weeks to finalize the report, but you should progressively do parts of the report as you trade during this period.

• The aim is for you to try to beat the market. The market is represented by the FTSE ST ALL Share Index - if you do not 'beat the market you will not lose marks, most people will find it impossible to do better than experienced investors . You must calculate the return on the market from your first trade to your last trade in order to determine whether you have beaten the market or not.

• The shares MUST be selected from the list of shares in the FTSE ST ALL Share Index.

• You are not allowed to use derivatives, such as options or any short selling.

• 50% of your investment must be based upon fundamental analysis and the other 50% on technical analysis (Based on two theories - no more or less, just TWO).

• Each of your portfolios must contain at least 10 shares.

• You are allowed to trade as many times as you like.

Recommended Format

Introduction - You need to explain the strategies you used and which if any of your portfolios beat the market.

Rational, Literature and Methodology - How did you select the companies for your portfolios? You don't have to give a list of every company and why, it should be in general. The detail should be in the appendix. You need to make reference to the technical theories you have used and justify your approach, this should be done by making direct references to the journal articles read.

Results and Analysis - How did the portfolios perform? Did they beat the market, which was best?

Conclusion - You need to tie your results back to the literature you have read on the type of analysis you have used and the EMH.

Appendix - Spreadsheet of all of your trades, with notes on why you chose your companies. The spreadsheet needs to have profit and loss for each of your shares and should say your final profit. The spreadsheet needs to take account for trading costs, see below for details.

Transaction costs

When you purchase shares you must also pay Stamp Duty of 0.5% of the purchase price. There is no Stamp Duty payable when you sell your shares.

You should also assume that you buy your shares online through an internet broker. Assume that the broker charges you a flat fee of SGD10.00 per trade, i.e. SGD10.00 when you buy and SGD10.00 when you sell.

You can buy and sell in any amount you like. You do not have to buy in round amounts. For example, you could buy 798 shares or any other number you like.

Sources of Data

Obtain share prices and news from financial information sources like yahoo and Bloomberg.

Reading

Fama(1991) Efficient Capital Market: II. The Journal of Finance, Vol. 46, No.5 (Dec 1991), pp 1575-1617

Jagadeesh & Titman (1993) Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency. The Journal of Finance, Vol. 48, No. 1, (Mar., 1993), pp. 65-91

Dimson & Marsh (1998)Murphy's Law and Market Anomalies. Working Paper. pp1-35

Lakonishok, Shleifer; & Vishny (1994) Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk The Journal of Finance, Vol. 49, No. 5. (Dec., 1994), pp. 1541-1578.

De Bondt & Thaler (1985) Does the stock market overreact? The Journal of Finance, Vol 40, No 3. (July 1985) pp793-805.