Today I joined a stock market game online to compete against other people at my school. I get 500,000 dollars to invest without any restrictions. The game ends around May so theres alot of time left, but I need to get together a game plan. Anyone want to offer some advice?
if you really want to win, then study some of the high risk, high reward stocks and deversify in those a bit. Only do this if you are trying to beat everyone else in the school. Otherwise, diversify quite a bit. Dell, Dow and are the only stocks I pay attention to. Dow and Dell look like they are on the up and up right now, but after a few days of going up, they'll usually drop a bit. So if you want to gamble, sell short after a big increase the previous day.
haha i did that too at school, i get 100, 000 dollars i invested in WPO when it was at 680 a week ago, now its at 730
Invest in what made all of my Bar Mitzvah money sky rocket!....... WORLD COM!!! Okay, so the quarterly was upside down. Stupid stockbroker.
Yeah lol! Man...I only get 100,000! But it's rate of return...well good luck. www.smartmoney.com Lots of info...
What about efficient market hypothesis. You can't beat the market. So invest in indexed mutual funds and just get your modest return and beat everybody.
efficient market hypothesis is bs. that is just my opinion from experience. if you look at the experiences of the tons of people who do beat the market then you will see it is bs as well.
can you trade as much as you want or do you have to stay invested in the companies? if you can trade a lot then email me at robbie31580@hotmail.com if you can't trade a lot then look at stocks like XMSR, NTE, and a few others. those are just some ones that i can think of off the top of my head that are good winners. out of those i like XMSR the best. satellite radio will be huge and XM is crushing SIRI. don't be mislead by SIRI's much cheaper stock price and think it will go up faster. another investing one that i just thought of is FONR. they are the only company that makes standing MRI machines. i heard about them awhile back but it was a bad time to buy them. now they look like they are at a good point in their stock chart with good fundamentals and the only one who makes that product. i can explain to you the chart formation if you are interested, if not then just follow what i say. aight...well email me if you can trade and if not then do what i say and you'll be alright. but wait on buying XMSR...it will come back some to probably around the 19's so wait for it to get there and then buy.
if you don't have to actually execute trades in a simulated market and liquidity or bid/ask spreads aren't a problem then penny stocks are the only way to go. Also if you are not concerned with the sharpe ratio... Why tie up $40 in capital in one share to move $0.15 when you can tie that same amount in a stock worth $0.05 and have it move $0.01. Just diversify so you don't lost it all. Reason it doesn't work in the real world is liquidity is too thin.. try to buy you raise the market and when you sell you crush it just to unload... that and the vol will kill give any money manager a heart attack. If you don't have to make the market or try find a counterparty and just use daily closes.. easy to win a game that way
The name of your game is: make as much as you can - as fast as you can. Try getting in on an IPO, learn how to place limit orders and stops. Also, look into buying "put"s -- droxford
I knew people in high school who did very well at that game by watching for and buying stock in companies that were going to merge with bigger companies.
There are no real limits in this thing. We are using www.virtualstockexchange.com Market Open Orders All Market Open orders placed before the opening bell (9:30am EST) will be executed, based on the opening price, at or around 9:50am assuming there is sufficient Market Volume for the order. If there is insufficient volume for the order to be executed or an opening price has yet to be established (i.e. there is zero volume), we will attempt to complete the order every 20 minutes until the market closes. If the stock does not generate sufficient trading volume by the closing bell, the order will expire. Also, we will partially fill orders whenever possible (the remaining un-purchased shares will NOT be filled at a later time for Market Open orders). Top Market Close Orders All Market Close orders will be executed at or around 45 minutes after the closing bell (4:00pm EST), assuming there is sufficient Market Volume for the order. If there is not sufficient volume to complete the entire order, we will partially fill whenever possible. If there is no volume, the order will expire. Top Market Orders We strive to execute all Market orders within 2 minutes after placed. It is possible that, during periods of extremely heavy trading, the orders may be delayed slightly longer than 10 minutes. Top Stop and Limit Orders We will check each stop and limit order every few minutes to see if the stop/lmiit price has been met until the market close. Day orders will expire if the Stop/Limit price is not met. GTC orders will remain open until executed, if ever. For more information on Stop and Limit Orders, please refer to the SEC's Answers section. Top Market Volume All competition creators have the ability to determine the volume level at which users within the competition may trade securities. This volume is based on the actual, real-life volume of the stock. VSE users cannot purchase more shares than specified in the Competition Rules (i.. exceed the Market Volume %). For example, the Individual Competition has a trading volume allowance of 100%. If a VSE user in the Individual Competition was interested in buying stock in Company X, and Company X has a trading volume of 100,000 shares at the time the user was placing a trade, the VSE user would be able to buy up to a maximum of 100,000 shares. If a user places an order that exceeds the actual trading volume, VSE will partially fill the order to the maximum volume limit. The remaining shares will be expired. Top Buying Power Users can purchase securities with their available Buying Power (available cash plus margin allowance). Sometimes, users place multiple orders that, if all were to be executed, would exceed their Buying Power. For example, say a VSE user has $1,000 available in cash, and the user places 10 different orders for stocks that cost $500 each for a total cost of $5,000. VSE will execute the first two orders placed, and will expire the remaining eight orders. Users may edit or cancel these open orders at any time prior to their execution by visiting the Open Orders page. Top Mutual Funds Closed vs Open Funds Open-end funds are generally referred to as mutual funds. They have a varying number of outstanding shares, hence the name open-end. When you buy shares of a mutual fund, you buy from the fund. When you sell shares of a mutual fund, you sell to the fund. The fund must give you cash, decreasing the net assets of the fund. All Open-end mutual fund orders will be placed at the current trading day's closing Net Asset Value or Public Offering Price, which is calculated once per day after the close of trading, 4:00 pm EST. The order entry cutoff time for Open-end mutual funds is 4:00pm EST, orders entered after the cutoff time will be placed the following business day. VSE will execute all Open-end mutual fund orders approximately 7:30pm EST. Closed-end funds are not mutual funds. They are commonly known as investment trusts. They raise funds only once in the primary market through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and then they trade on the Secondary Market. When you buy shares of a closed-end fund, you are buying from another existing investor, not the fund itself. When you sell shares of a closed-end fund, you are selling to another investor and not the fund. Closed-end funds trade on all major exchanges, including NYSE, AMEX and Nasdaq. To trade closed-end funds enter the Symbol and type of buy on the Trade Stock page, or click here. VSE will execute all Closed-end mutual fund orders within 30 minutes of being placed, assuming there is sufficient Market Volume. Top
well, the question is: do you want to win the game or do you just want make sure your stocks to do ok? if you do, DON'T diversify. put everything in an EXTREMELY high risk security, something either with unbelievably high volatility (usually find them in penny stocks), or a company that has been on the rocks recently. and then roll the dice. if your stock is good, make your killing (say 50%-100%), and get out of the stock. you might win the game on that one move alone. if the gain is not enough, gamble again. if your stock is bad, then oh well, wait 'til next year. in a field of 500+ contestants, people who diversify will get average returns. And average returns will NOT win the game. It's that simple.
" Their analysts don't know preferred stock from livestock" In those games you simply have to be aggressive as hell to win. The object is a one year scenario, if you play the smart, probably, diversified route, you will lose. Find one or two extreme positions and maximize them with leverage. I would suggest using leverage to short the treasury bond. And I would short the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, preferably the Nasdaq. RYDEX has mutual funds that accomplish some of this. Do that till year end, then ask again and we'll see where the market is. This is never a strategy you want to actually do. But these games are only won if someone makes the right extreme bets, though he has the potential to lose all of it.
