Smeal Student Distraught over Investment Portfolio

By Kevin Giraldo

University Park, PA-- While some students stick to classroom learning, choosing not to venture into the real world until after graduation, others decide to take the risky journey early. Unfortunately for Mark O'Bryan (senior - Finance), the results did not go as he had hoped after he invested his entire "nest egg" in the stock market in May 2008.

A close examination of a typical stock graph reveals the graphical up-down-up-down nature of stock prices.

     "Things were going good at first," O'Bryan commented, "up 15% in just 2 weeks. I was using the grade A education at Penn State and applying it to real world priciples. I was on top of the world."

     "Then I got lazy. I didn't do the necessary 'homework' on the stocks I had. I lost track of things" admits O'Bryan, "I forget what I learned in Finance 410, the so-called 'Up and Down Principle.' Stocks go up, and then stocks go down, like a graph. That's how they act, in a graphical fashion: up, down, up, down..."

     As of this writing, O'Bryan's initial investmest of $125 is down to $70, and he sees no end in sight. "This is a huge loss, I don't know how long it will take to recoup it. Almost a 50% loss in only a few months, how could I be so blind?"

     O'Bryan still has time to ponder his future and make a big recovery. As the coming spring semester is his last, he hopes to make up the $55 loss before graduating with $24,000 in student loans in May.

     O'Bryan says he will avoid repeating his previous mistakes by more closely following the "Up and Down Principle." "This time I will buy just before the stocks go up, and sell just before they go down."