Jack Lawler, a financial analyst, wants to prepare an article on the Shadow Stock portfolio developed by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). A list of the 30 companies in the Shadow Stock portfolio as of March is contained in the Excel Online file below. Use the spreadsheet to answer the following questions. Jack would like to select a simple random sample of 5 of these companies for an interview concerning management practices.
a. The Shadow Stock companies are listed in column A of the Excel worksheet provided above. In column B we have generated a random number for each of the companies. Use these random numbers to select a simple random sample of 5 of these companies for Jack by finding the smallest random number, the second smallest random number, etc. in column B using an Excel function.
The random numbers corresponding to the first 5 companies selected are (to 5 decimal places):
First company (smallest random number)
Second company (2nd smallest random number)
Third company (3rd smallest random number)
Fourth company (4th smallest random number)
Fifth company (5th smallest random number)