Trade vs. Investment

A trade is a short term deal (less then 6 months) that you take and give back. Its more of a short sell to gain money, but you have potential to lose money also. You don't want to sell  your trade until the catalyst (certain event that you bought the product for) is complete. An investment is a long term deal (more than 6 months) that you plan to keep. When the sell on the product goes down you either buy more or you wait. In an investment you don't want to sell your product until it has gone up 15% because then you can potentially make money.

Candy, Candy, Everywhere

When I got to free enterprise we all had to leave our backpacks coats and anything else that would potentially be a distraction outside the class room. We were instructed to go through the doors only when he told us and advised us to have half go through one door and the other half go through the other door. Hearing this we all got excited and began to decide which door we should go through. As we all waited anticipating what might be on the other side of those closed doors. When Kapptie came to the other door and opened it he then announced that we could all go inside. It was a mad dash into the doors. The room was dark and there were screens projected onto the wall of people saying different things and calling out different parts of stocks. I looked on the ground and seen candy and Monopoly money scattered everywhere. Boom. It was like breaking open a big piñata. All of us students were in a mad dash to get the most. Yet, we didn't know why or if we needed the most or what we needed. We were all just grabbing and stuffing it anywhere we could. Once all of the candy and money was off the ground we all picked a place where would be our 'home base'. Everyone was confused and didn't know what to do. It was then that Kapptie announced that he would be making announcements every two minutes. He wrote different numbers under different candies up on the board. Still we were all confused. After the first few announcements I realized that there wasn't just money that was paper there was hints. I read all of my hints and got rid of them. Not realizing some of the hints were good, but thinking they were all bad. It was chaotic and confusing when some people started realizing what to do. I stood still confused and unsure of what to do until the very end. I was making trades and I though what trades I was doing would potentially benefit me, but in the end I don't think they did. I really should have stuck with what I had to begin with, even if some of the candies had defaulted. When all was said and done everyone counted up what they had and got their totals. I definitely didn't win. My total was around 1,000-2,000. I learned that I never want to be thrown into the pool without a little guidance along the way, and that I will never be a stock person.