MarketWatch Investing Game anyone?

I think the challenge for doing this in the real world would be trading costs. I might make money on a few hundred bucks worth of trade, only to lose whatever I make in fees.

Is that figured into this game?

It is figured into the game, but it's not noticeable to us since we're all playing as rich dudes.

You'll see the trading costs on the stock purchase/sell screen.

It'd be cool to do a game where we all start with $1000. More realistic, I'd think.

Swank Force One wrote: I know it's bad, i'm tracking my stuff on the googles. Yamaha says the sight is berkeleyed for him, too.

Same issues here on the left coast.

PHeller wrote: It'd be cool to do a game where we all start with $1000. More realistic, I'd think.

It would be a helluva lot harder, because you'd have to make about 1% gains constantly just to cover the transaction costs. Only one player's doing that well right now.

Uuuggggghhhh i need to get in dammit. I'm up pretty good right now and need to shuffle.

Every one of my companies is in the green save for two. Looks like all that shuffling i did may end up paying off.

Googles is telling me i'm up $22k for the day so far. GO GO GO

I've decided that if either 6 months are up and I'm losing money, or half my money runs out, I'm going to start playing in Bizarro Mode. As in, I would short the stocks I think I should buy and buy the stocks I think I should short.

Edit: Some interesting facts so far:

I've lost the most on a company I thought was the least likely to lose value in the long term. Sticking with it though.

I've gained the most on the company that I'm most sure will lose value in the long term.

I'm losing mad money on big companies that are low on hype but big on inventions. Again, gonna stick with them.

It's amazing how when you hold $500,000 of one stock, how much a few cents change can impact your gains or loses. Can't tell if I like that or not....

^That probably wasn't smart. I'm not holding 6 digits in any one stock.

PHeller wrote: It's amazing how when you hold $500,000 of one stock, how much a few cents change can impact your gains or loses. Can't tell if I like that or not....

What's even better is when that $500,000 of one stock gets you 212,200 shares. 4 cents makes me a cool $10k.

Now if i could just get in the damn game so i can play the short game over and over and over again i'll dig myself out of this hole.

GameboyRMH wrote: ^That probably wasn't smart. I'm not holding 6 digits in any one stock.

I have 6 digits in 4 stocks.

GameboyRMH wrote:

PHeller wrote: It'd be cool to do a game where we all start with $1000. More realistic, I'd think.

It would be a helluva lot harder, because you'd have to make about 1% gains constantly just to cover the transaction costs. Only one player's doing that well right now.

It's Me! It's ME!!!! I'm a day trading genious! Excuse me while I go quit my real job! Woohoo!!!!

Seriously... i need to get into the damn game. I have a half mil of stock to sell.

Can anyone help understand the "Sell Short" option when you purchase stock? How can you sell something you don't hold yet?

It's really complicated to explain the financial trickery behind it, but that's how you short a stock. Much like buying one but in reverse, you make money if the stock goes down. That's been my bread and butter so far.

Here's the long answer:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/shortselling/shortselling1.asp

So. Angry.

GAME Y U NO LET ME LOG IN?!?!?!

Googles is showing me being up $38k right now for the day. Because one stock i have 220k shares in is up $0.10 right now and i need to berkeleying sell it!!!!!!!

I'm being told that i've made up a bunch of ground on the rest of you fools regardless. So at least my stocks may or may not be solid-ish?

I'm all green except for one, now. Haven't been able to touch anything for hours.

I've dropped from 1st to 14th today. This is why I don't try to time the market with my own money.

I've actually lost the most money with large, stable companies that I bought planning to hold them long term. I may reevaluate that strategy next week.

I'm going to experiment with this short selling stuff. It seems like it would be easier to bet on a company hitting its high and falling than continued rapid growth.

PHeller wrote: I'm going to experiment with this short selling stuff. It seems like it would be easier to bet on a company hitting its high and falling than continued rapid growth.

This is why most investments bet on the market or entire sections of the market as a whole. Its a lot safer bet.

http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm

moneychipm said: The most significant pattern is this: Over the very long run, the stock market has had an inflation-adjusted annualized return rate of between six and seven percent.

I like to feel good about myself by sorting the rankings by today's returns. Just sayin'.

How many shares overall are you guys holding?

Seems i have just north of 300k.

A bit over 54k.

Around 16,500

Around 32,500.