MarketWatch Investing Game anyone?

Hmm I'm thinking about starting a second account/player entry with an alternate style of play just to see what happens.

Edit: Fun fact: if I'd sold everything a day or two ago, I'd be in 2nd place right now.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

That is exactly what I did as an experiment.

BTW, who is the other shleps that got suckered into AMD stock like me?

Alcoa declares higher than expected earnings.

Stock down 4%.

WTF?

Looks like the DOW is opening down another 30 points? WTF people!?!?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-the-most-dangerous-stock-market-since-2008-2014-10-13

Faaaaantastic

AA is one of my losers. I bought expecting good performance, they reported good performance, and they tanked anyway. Grrr.

Sold my short on GPRO this morning to lock in a $60k gain. Shorted a $90 - $75 swing. Pretty pleased with that.

Day trader's paradise.

Not a game I have enough time to play.

Very relevant article here on why Tesla stock ate E36 M3 on the D release and the effects of Apple hype:

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/making-money-tech-stocks-doesnt-depend-good-new-product/

Wow i'm HOSED!

While I'm certainly not a day trader with real money, I do look at my 401k at least monthly and probably make moves 2-3 times a year.

I'm considering putting my real money on the sidelines for a while.

Back in 2008, I let the dow make it from 14000 to 8500 before I pulled out. I also didn't stay out - I re-bought at 7500. So long term, "timing the market" worked out well for me, getting an extra 1000 points of movement by getting out when I did and re-buying at near the low. To the point where I felt dumb that I had listened to the "stay the course" folks rather than pulling out at 10k like I was inclined to.

Fast forward to today, I feel like the potential for a longish-term drop is a LOT more than the potential for a long-ish term boom. I'm again thinking of letting the money rest on the sidelines for a few months.

GameboyRMH wrote: Very relevant article here on why Tesla stock ate E36 M3 on the D release and the effects of Apple hype: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/making-money-tech-stocks-doesnt-depend-good-new-product/

so it IS all just a bunch of hooey!

jsquared wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Very relevant article here on why Tesla stock ate E36 M3 on the D release and the effects of Apple hype: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/making-money-tech-stocks-doesnt-depend-good-new-product/

so it IS all just a bunch of hooey!

But it's approaching a 3 month low right now. I liked it before the announcement, and even though I'm $30k down on it right now, I'm considering doubling my investment to halve my loss. I still like TSLA's fundamentals.

Me too. I've never been keen on the "this time the electric car is for real" moments in the past, but it seems like it's a good car in general, that just happens to be an electric. Maybe because it's approached from the ground up instead of adapted.

Administrative note: for the buy/sell triggers, how would I set a floor? I've figured out how to set a floor to cover a shorted stock, and how to set a cap where it'll sell when the price hits the cap... so how do I set a "sell" floor? E.g. stock is at $35 and I want to put a floor of $30 in place. I don't want to use the limit or stop the wrong way and lose stuff right when it goes the way I want

I profit when people get Ebola. Is that bad?

JamesMcD wrote: I profit when people get Ebola. Is that bad?

You too, huh?

I just rode Ebola fear from 14th to 3rd place, though the rankings are wonky again....Can't tell where I actually am.

I'm feeling too bummed out to keep playing this. I've got 5-digit losses on two stocks now and it's a game where I can't feel any connection between the inputs and the outcome, which is often bad stuff happening to me seemingly at random.

Very reminiscent of when I tried to just pick up & play ET on the Atari.

I think that's more a reflection of what's happening in the real world right now rather than the game itself.

I stuck over 60% of my money into gold..... berkeley it. It tanks, I tank. It's the only thing keeping me afloat right now!

GameboyRMH wrote: I'm feeling too bummed out to keep playing this. I've got 5-digit losses on two stocks now and it's a game where I can't feel any connection between the inputs and the outcome, which is often bad stuff happening to me seemingly at random. Very reminiscent of when I tried to just pick up & play ET on the Atari.

Would it make you feel better to know I was down $180k today on one stock? It recovered a bit and I got out with only a $45k loss. Good thing i did, if I had held it until the end of the day I'd be down over $300k!

Sitting on 83k of losses right now. Nothing green. Only reason I'm not dead in the game is 60k of GPRO short and 40k of riding TKMR at the right time.

JamesMcD wrote: I profit when people get Ebola. Is that bad?

I'm still working both Ebola and pot so no, I think you are all right.

I think the game is cool, despite the glitchiness of the interface. (Anyone else having trouble typing in their number of shares?)

But I am torn over how to play. I SHOULD be using this to teach myself to invest more intelligently in real life. But it's so temping to do crazy stuff with this "mad money" that you'd never do for real.

If one of us goes nuts and puts 900k into something which happens to double overnight, he may win the game, but that doesn't make him the best investor.

We don't have to share our entire portfolios, but I'd like to see more sharing of specific stock "plays," with reasoning and a time-horizon given, so we can all watch and learn from each other. We are most of us investing a decent amount of time into this, so it would be nice to get something out of it.

Who is Jonathan Joye?

I'm impressed! You are whooping us.

You actually made 7.49% today?? Wow.

JamesMcD wrote: But I am torn over how to play. I SHOULD be using this to teach myself to invest more intelligently in real life. But it's so temping to do crazy stuff with this "mad money" that you'd never do for real. If one of us goes nuts and puts 900k into something which happens to double overnight, he may win the game, but that doesn't make him the best investor.

QFT. You sir, have nailed it.

That is the downfall of this "game". Especially as a teaching device.