Uni Work Help - Statistics for Economics

LewieP

I'm in a bit of a bind, I have some uni work (1st year) I need to finish ove the next two weeks, and my notes are really no good on the topics (I'm dyslexic and often can't even read my own writing, and up untill recently haven had a PC at uni), and it's in the area of my course I struggle the most. Not usually a problem, I would ge tthe relavent notes of my Uni's online service, but for some reason the notes arent up. I emailed several tutors, but there's been no response. Can anyone be of any help?

the assaignment is -

SUMMATIVE ASSIGNMENT
Select any three stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial 30 (under the data folder) and collect the calendar monthly ultimo price for each stock for 30 consecutive months (so that you have 30 observations for each stock).

Answer all three questions

1. Provide a full statistical description of each series, computing and interpreting any statistics you think are required. (35 marks)

2. Compute all the linear correlation coefficients between the series (this comprises of 3 correlation coefficients) and comment on your findings.
(35 marks)
3. If you were asked to provide financial advice on “hold, buy or sell,” how would you categorise each stock? Explain the basis of your advice carefully. (Hint: Base your interpretation on statistical measures of variation, risk and volatility).
(30 marks)
All answers should be based on the interpretation of statistical measurements that you generate using the data. You should not provide descriptions of the methodology and procedures. You should only provide the results and the relevant interpretations and discussions. No qualitative or accounting information regarding the companies you choose is required.

Now I really don't want you guys to do the work for me or anything, but if anyone has any relavent notes they would like to send me, or can point me towards somewhere that can help, that yould be wicked.

So far I only have this done

The three stocks I have chosen to study are 3M Company, AT&T INC, and American Express INC. Part of the reason behind choosing these was that they are all in different industries; Manufacture, Telecommunications and Financial services; so there should be an interesting range of data. To ensure I was limited to 30 months worth or data, I started at end of December 2003.

These are some simple line graphs to identify the data I am using –
[simple line graph just showing stock value against time]
Initial Impressions of this data are that this seems to fluctuate between around 70 and 90 quite frequently, but there is no visible long term trend or growth of decline.
[simple line graph just showing stock value against time]
This stock, however, appears to be rock steady around the 25 mark, with only small fluctuation, no long term trend or growth or decline is evident.
[simple line graph just showing stock value against time]
This stock appears to be the only one showing any long term pattern of growth, over the 30 month period, there appears to be a pattern of growth, with some short periods of decline in price.

Initially, some simple descriptive statistics are useful to get an idea the nature of the data, as such I calculated the Arithmetic Mean. To calculate the mean, it’s the sum off all the data, divided by the total, in this case 30. The mean is a simple measure of central tendency.

Total Mean
3M Company 2390.98 79.69933
AT&T INC 747.29 24.90967
American Express INC 1434.736 47.82454

From this we can see that over the 30 month period from the end of December 2003 to the end of May 2005, the arithmetic mean of the three stocks were that 3M Company was just under 80p per share, AT&T INC was just under 25p per share and American Express INC was at around 48p per share

No that I have started off with a basic statistical description, I will go onto some more useful detailed statistical techniques.

I compiled this table containing the already calculated Mean, with the Median, range and Inter-quartile range of each data set. The median is the middle value of each data set. The range is the highest value minus the lowest value, and describes the spread of the data. The inter quartile range is similar to the range, but excludes the top and bottom 25% to remove extremes.

Mean Median Inter Quartile Range Range
3M Company 79.69933 79.34 7.96 18.86
AT&T INC 24.90967 24.72 1.98 4.21
American Express INC 47.82454 46.9493 5.2346 12.142

I only need to get 40%, and I know what I've done's not great, but I just want to pass this module and go onto the stuff I prefer. My other modules will more than carry me.

I think I have to calculate variance? or some other similar statistical test.