MarketWatch Investing Game anyone?

Would anyone be interested in playing along in a MarketWatch (or similar) investing game if I can set one up?

Premise is you invest a fake $1,000,000 and see how you end up in a year. I'm in one that's wrapping up right now and it's kind of fun. That group is doing it again but I'm not digging the new rules. So I'm looking for some people that might be up for it and thought I'd start here since there are a bunch of smart people. Besides, the best way to learn investing is by doing. Best way to learn by doing is by not having to put up your own dough.

I'd give it a try, sometimes I see great opportunities IRL and think I'd put money on them if I had any

Great suggestion CamaroKeith, count me in.

I assume we’re going to make this real with all fees, and taxes factored in right?

Also, do we get any credit for having a low beta?

How much do i have to know? I'd like to try, but unsure if i'm versed enough.

Swank Force One wrote: How much do i have to know? I'd like to try, but unsure if i'm versed enough.

Don't worry, most of the people doing it IRL don't know what the hell they're doing

Swank Force One wrote: How much do i have to know? I'd like to try, but unsure if i'm versed enough.

Not much:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/06/financial-knowledge-and-investment-performance

If the game is a longer term game, put it all in VTSMX or FSTMX and you'll stand a good chance of winning

I'm gonna invest a cool million into Pizza Hut.

In reply to Swank Force One:

That's part of the appeal of the game. It's practicing but not risking anything except your pride (if you are hyper-competitive). If you want to see your portfolio increase you have to focus on what makes it move. You have to pay attention to the news. Keep an ear to the ground for things that matter. When you learn things like that, you can apply them to real life and hopefully end up better financially.

And it doesn't need to be scary. What you do is ONLY invest in what you know. For example, two of the best performing stocks I ever owned were Copart and Action Collectibles. Copart runs auto salvage auctions and Action Collectibles - model race cars (they are no longer publicly traded). Stick with that methodology - you'll be intrinsically interested in what that company does so you'll pay attention to it. It's when you stop paying attention to it that you get your butt handed to you. It's "buy and homework" not "buy and hold" but it won't feel like homework to you.

I'd play this game to win. Like I would in real life if I had a million dollars and was forced to invest it to make as much money as possible, instead of just effectively cashing it out through lending and retiring immediately

Is there a website that calculates the values of the portfolios this is played in, or is it something we have to calculate out by hand? If it's just pick a fake portfolio online and watch what it does, I might be interested.

In reply to RX Reven':

I'd like for the game to be as real as it can but not so real that newbies are put off by it. Like for example, the one I am in you have a $1M budget + $1M in margin you can tap into. However, if you start tapping into the margin, you are charged interest. And there are commissions you have to pay for each transaction.

I'd also like for this to be friendly enough that the newbies walk away having learned something - whether that's a thing or two about financial ratios or economics or whatever - but there also be enough humility to realize it might have been dumb luck you placed high a year from now, but look back and figure out why your stuff did so well.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Is there a website that calculates the values of the portfolios this is played in, or is it something we have to calculate out by hand? If it's just pick a fake portfolio online and watch what it does, I might be interested.

Yes, thats exactly what those online games do. And you get a leaderboard and updates from time to time, etc. Its very simple to get involved.

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

I'm going to look to see what it takes to set it up in MarketWatch. The interface looks similar to any other real online trading system - like Fidelity or Scottrade or whatever. You enter a ticker symbol, how many shares you want to buy, submit it; repeat as necessary. You can do the same to sell the stuff as well. When you log in, it shows you where you rank, how much your portfolio is valued , daily gain, overall gain (or loss), etc, etc. There are tabs to see your portfolio positions and a few others. It tells you how many people have that stock, but won't tell you who specifically. I think its fairly intuitive. All the calculations are done automatically.

Count me in.

Willing to have younger people participate? I've been looking to do something like this with my teen kids.

SVreX wrote: Count me in. Willing to have younger people participate? I've been looking to do something like this with my teen kids.

Absolutely!

I'll look at setting this up tonight. Maybe we'll try to start trading Oct 1st. People can join as they hear about it / take an interest. It'll likely run for a year - but this is something that takes as little or as much effort as you want to put into it. If you want to make multiple trades everyday, you can do that. If you want to make 1 trade on day 1 and check back in a year, you can do that too. Or you can do something in between.

....just as long as no one thinks they are Warren Buffett at the end of this and should be betting their house, in real life.

In reply to CamaroKeith:

Can you tell us a bit more?

Team game, single entries?

How's it work?

Do you have to be a GRM user?

etc., etc.

I'd like to play in such a way that my 2 boys are competing against me (If I have any say in the matter).

BTW- I had a suspicion about the split of Apple stock, and bought some well before they split.

I tripled my money.

Unfortunately, I only bought a few shares.

SVreX wrote: In reply to CamaroKeith: Can you tell us a bit more? Team game, single entries? How's it work? Do you have to be a GRM user? etc., etc. I'd like to play in such a way that my 2 boys are competing against me (If I have any say in the matter).

It's going to be single entries. However, on the home page (and rankings tab of the game) you will be able to see where you and your boys rank so you'll be able to see how you compare with one another. Everyone will be able to see where they stand within a reasonable time frame. (Your portfolio totals should be up-to-the-minute but the actual ranking is updated about once an hour.) You won't necessarily need to be a GRM member but you'll need to visit the board to get the password to join the game. You will need to start an account with MarketWatch. It's free to join. It strikes me as it takes about 5 minutes and is no more complex to join than this board was. As far as making trades in the game, it's pretty intuitive but I can explain it if anyone has questions.

Again, yes this is a game so there will be a winner and there will be losers. But part of the reason I asked if there was interest was that I hoped some people might want to actually try to learn something and that others on the board might chime in on answering questions. Like some people might not understand how or why you sell a stock short (and you can get taken for a ride if you are not absolutely certain because losses are potentially unlimited). Or "This company turned a profit; why is it tanking?" (Maybe an answer is that net income as a percentage of revenue has taken a massive hit.) Those are just some of the types of things I'm kind of hoping newbies will learn from the game (not so that you become an expert but so that if you have a question about what's going on in your 401k, perhaps, that you can at least be conversational - or if you are starting an IRA, you can be more comfortable that the manager you are hiring knows what they are doing).

I created the game. What you'll need to do is go to marketwatch.com. If you don't have an account, you'll have to create one. The game is called "Grassroots Motorsports forum investing game". The password to join is e30_Miata. I have the game set to private and that is because I don't want someone just cruising MarketWatch to join. I'd like for it to just be people on this forum and associated folks (i.e. SVreX, bring your kids). Your portfolios are private so no one else can see what you are holding. You can trade pretty much any symbol (stocks, ETF's, etc.). Any stock from $2 to $500k. The game starts on Oct 1, 2014 and ends Sept 25, 2015. I believe you will be able to join the game until the day before it ends.

Any questions, shoot me an email at sanyarcokeith@yahoo.com (not sure what email acct messages from here go to, but I don't have that email acct anymore so use this one) or post them on here.

In reply to CamaroKeith:

Excellent. Those are basically the things I had hoped you would say.

My motivation for my kids is a learning experience. Sounds like it should do great.

I'm in.

Cool. Let me know if you guys have any issues registering with MarketWatch and finding the game. You can join the game now; we just can't make any trades until Oct 1.

I'm a super boring investor.

One of my sons has signed up, the other one will later.

Look for them to check in after the waiting period.

this sounds fun