Case analysis:

Go on finance.yahoo.com or Bloomberg and select a stock listed in U$.$S$.$ stock markets that you think has promising growth prospects in the future, given the current situation. our choice is $($Microsoft$).$ solve Task$1$ and Task $2.$ Task $1$: $$ Prepare your Company Financial Market Data:

Under Historical data, collect monthly prices for the last $5$ years on an excel sheet $($click on download data$).$

a$)$ Calculate the monthly returns $($for each month$)$ based on the adjusted close price using the below formula:

Return for month t $=($price at month t $$ price at month t$-1)/$ price at month t$-1.$ Important: make sure from the beginning that the firm you chose has at least $5$ years of historical data.

b$)$ Calculate the average and the standard deviation for the stock return. Use AVERAGE and STDEV.S functions in excel.

c$)$ Calculate the annualized average return and standard deviation of the stock return. Task $2$: $$ Prepare the S&P $500$ Index Financial Market Data:

On finance.yahoo.com, search for S&P $500$ index. Under Historical data, collect monthly prices for the last $5$ years on an excel sheet.

a$)$ Calculate the monthly returns of the S&P $500($as above$).$

b$)$ Calculate the average and the standard deviation for the S&P $500($as above$).$

c$)$ Calculate the annualized average return & standard deviation of the S&P$500($as above$).$