Investopedia Stock Market Game

[Kenthar]

Hello and sorry if somebody has already made a thread about this, but I would just like to introduce this neat little stock market paper trading game. I like it because it's free, and includes many options that let you customize your experience. I was just wondering if anyone would like to make a game and have a little contest to see who can do the best in say, 3 months or so. I think it would definitely be a good learning experience for everyone, as we could all gauge each others' performance and maybe pick up a few subtleties that we may have missed in Phil's Book. Anyway, if you're interested then here's the link, and we can agree on the settings of the game, the time frame, and the starting amount of virtual capital. Just reply on this board if you're interested and we can work things out. Thanks. Investopedia's Simulator - Stock Market Game

[.Smitty.]

I have an account with them, but with the stocks on my list, I haven't found a recent "buy" lately. By lately I mean in the past three weeks since I've started researching companies. I mostly have stocks that Phil refers to in the book or on his website. I tried using his search criteria for MSN, but like you posted back in the Garmin thread, some of the recent year's numbers seem off to me. And since I'm new to investing, I really want to make sure that it's a good company before investing. npg refered me to UNH, WLP, and some others just now and I'm going to look into them.
In short: I'll play. Sorry I had to let out a little rant there.

[Kenthar]

Haha don't worry about it I rant a lot too. And yes, it's very hard to find that "perfect company." I've been searching for three months now and I haven't quite found anything besides Garmin that I'm very comfortable with. Anyway, just sign up for an account at the simulator and I'll start up a game in a few days.

[.Smitty.]

Well I don't know if you'd want to check out my list to see if any are in your interest, but here's my stocks: GRMN, URBN, COH, AAPL, HANS, INFY, and NKE (not sure on Nike yet, just on the list). My user name is Smitty66 on Investopedia.

[Kenthar]

Hm, what a coincidence. I too like Coach, Garmin, Apple, Hansen Natural, Nike, and Infosys, but I haven't looked in to Urban Outfitters yet. Anyway my user name is KentharLarrisis. Before I make the game I just have to ask a few questions about what type of rules you want. Here's what I need to configure...

Allow Margin?
Allow Short Selling?
Allow Options?
Allow Trade History Viewing? (I think this one would help us learn from each other)
Allow Portfolio Viewing? (this would also help us learn but would make it much less competitive)

Starting Cash? ($1,000. $10,000. $25,000. $50,000. $100,000. $250,000. $500,000. or $1,000,000.)

And finally do you want to specificy a length for the Game or would you like us to stop paper trading and move on when we think we have enough experience? I think I'd be more comfortable with the latter. Anyway let me know what you think of these options, and we'll start the game once we get a few more people. (Remember, new people can always join mid-game if we enable that option)

[.Smitty.]

I say no margins and no options. Other than that, I think that the others would be a benfit more than hinderance. This is just for fun and we're all learning, right? Heck, I read that you're only 13! I'm only 18. I just got done with the book and have been researching for a while.
I think that $10,000 should be a good starting point. It's more realistic to you and I personally instead of $50K+. I really only have ~$1,000 to invest, but you have more room to grow and buy different stocks with $10,000.
I agree with your decision on coming and going as we please. Once again, I don't think this should be about competition, but more of a learning experience for people of all skill levels.

[Straddle]

Some impressive investors on that site, checking their overall return on the rankings list.

[pkamoako]

Please add me to the game my username is pkamoako

[Kenthar]

Alright I created the game. The name is "ROIC Community Game." Just click the join game button and search for it. Oh, and it wouldn't let me enable short selling with margin turned off. I don't know why, but whatever.

[hitone395]

Because you need a margin account to short stocks.