Name That Company

Based in Bethesda, Md., my roots go back to 1909. With a market capitalization of around $30 billion, I’m one of the world’s largest technology companies. My name reflects the 1995 merger between two defense giants, and in 1996 I also snapped up some businesses from aerospace technology specialist Loral. I rake in around $24 billion annually, and my backlog of orders tops $70 billion. I employ more than 125,000 people in more than 50 countries. I built the Hubble Space Telescope, and my SR-71 flew from California to Washington, D.C., in 64 minutes, at 2,145 miles per hour. Who am I? (Answer: Lockheed Martin)

Know the answer? Send it to us with Foolish Trivia on the top and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a nifty prize! The address is Motley Fool, Box 19529, Alexandria, Va. 22320-0529. Send questions for Ask the Fool, Dumbest (or Smartest) Investments (up to 100 words), and your Trivia entries to Fool@fool.com.

Teens earning money

It’s never too early for teens to start thinking about their next summer job and some teens need part-time jobs throughout the year. Here’s a list of job ideas, adapted from our new book “The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of,” by David and Tom Gardner with Selena Maranjian (Fireside, $14).

When someone in your neighborhood goes on vacation, you can care for their pets, turn lights on and off, collect the mail, and water plants.

Many older people in your neighborhood may welcome your services delivering groceries, running errands or doing odd jobs around their home. And you can pick their brains on what really matters in life.

Develop a list of customers whose property you can tend year-round: mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow and gardening.

If you enjoy arts and crafts, make beautiful things (jewelry, photographs, etc.) and sell them.

With just an intermediate familiarity with computers, you might offer your services as a computer guru to befuddled computer owners in your neighborhood. You can install software and hardware, solve problems, answer questions, and show people how to use their machines.

If you can create well-designed Web sites, you can make some good money setting up (and possibly maintaining) Web sites for small companies and organizations.

You can teach skills you have, such as piano playing, horseback riding or juggling, to others. You can also play music at functions, publish a newsletter or draw portraits.

More ideas: If you’re good at a school subject, you can become a tutor, helping others to understand it. Factory work, although often dreary, can pay well. At department stores, you often get employee discounts and sometimes you earn sales commissions, too. If you inquire early enough, you can line up a job at a summer camp, movie theater, amusement park, golf course or parks department. If you enjoy working with young children, see if any nearby day-care centers could use some help.

Stop!

First, I put $5,000 into a brokerage account to play with, reading some books and making and losing a little money until I thought I was ready. Then I borrowed (borrowed, mind you) $35,000 and started playing the market.

I learned early on to use “stop-loss” orders (which automatically sell at set prices).

On a Friday afternoon, one holding’s stock price fell, the stop kicked in, and all my shares were sold. Monday morning, the stock popped up about 80 percent because of a buyout offer. I felt I lost out on a lot of dough because of the stop order. Therefore, my next investment did not include a stop. It was eToys, which went bankrupt. I’m broke. From now on, I will use stops. D.R., via e-mail

The Fool Responds: Think of buying stocks as serious (though sometimes fun) business, not “playing.” Stop-loss orders have their advantages and disadvantages, as you learned. They can bump you out of a holding that has just slumped temporarily, but they can keep you from losing your shirt on a stock, too.