There is a vigorous global debate about the existence and/or extent of global warming. At the same time investor demand for alternative energy stocks, ETFs and indexes is rising.

One of the investors you advise in your financial planning practice asks you to invest in a custom basket of alternative energy stocks.

This Quiz will see you create a custom basket of alternative energy stocks, and a price weighted alternative energy index for those stocks, and calculate the performance of the custom index. The information and examples you need to create the index is given in chapter 2 of the text.

QUESTION 1

Define alternative energy. Use your definition as the basis to create a clear description for your custom alternative energy index.

QUESTION 2

By researching the internet and financial websites (Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg, Google, etc.) choose five stocks that fit your definition of alternative energy companies, and provide a brief description of what each company does.

Question 3

Calculate and show the weekly return of your index during Q4 2015.

QUESTION 4

Find a currently trading alternative energy ETF and calculate its price performance over the same period you calculated your custom index performance in requirement 3. Comment on the reasons for any differences in performance.

Text book information: Investments: Principles of portfolio and equity analysis Authors: Mcmillan; pinto; pirie; and Van de Venter