FantasyStockMarket.com : A great site to play with a fantasy stock market portfolio
Written: Jul 12 '04
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Pros: Great way to learn the market, very competitive and fun, Easy to play
Cons: The cost can be a detractor
The Bottom Line: FantasyStockMarket.com is a great site to play with the stock market. You learn about the quick ups and downs while having fun competing with other users.
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| three_ster's Full Review: FantasyStockMarket |
One of the great things about the Internet, is its ability to get people involved in entertaining topics, with little cost to being able to participate. With the stock market, it is hard for a normal person to get involved in it, because the entry-level costs, and the costs of buying many stocks can be very high. A few web-sites have decided to make it easier for people to get involved with the stock market, but not have to pay the high costs involved, nor take the risks that are inherent in buying stocks. FantasyStockMarket.com is one of those such sites, that offers users the ability to purchase stocks and monitor their progress on the Internet in a game that they host on their site.
The premise of the web-site is for people to get involved in the buying and selling of stocks without actually using real money. Each month, you are given $100,000.00 with which to buy any stock of your choice that exists. It can be a maximum amount of a single stock, or you can decide to invest in lots of individual stocks and ride the ups and downs of the market. You are allowed to sell off (or trade) the stocks at any point during the month, and it is up to you to decide what to do with your portfolio at any given time. This is one of the great things about the site, because all of the decision making is left up to you, and you can decide whatever company you want to get involved with.
The game runs from the first trading day of each month, until the last trading day of that same month. Translating that means the first weekday that is not a holiday. This gives you 1 full month to turn your $100,000.00 into a profit. There is also not a specific date that you must start trading during a month, you just know that you are at a disadvantage if other players start making a lot of money early on in the month. At the beginning of the next month, the balance is cleared and reset to $100,000.00 again for the start of the new game. This way it is more fair for people who have lost all or most of their money the previous week. It also means that you cannot float on the site the entire time on one company that has done really well in the market.
Signing up for an account on the site is very easy, and the information that you give is quite minimal. You can choose to give as much as you want, but the only real requirements are a username and an e-mail account for the free trial-use. The trial lasts for 7 days, and if you are pleased with the site and would like to continue using it, they charge a user fee based on how long you will want to participate in the game. Here is a brief price scale of the site:
1 Month Subscription is $4.95
3 Month Subscription is $9.95
6 Month Subscription is $14.95
1 Year Subscription is $19.95
In addition to the normal memberships, the site also provides league-play where a number of users can get together and compete against each other. This is great for office settings or groups of friends who want to show each other just how great they are at trading on the stock market, but don't want to risk that much money. There is a league fee to set one up, and if everyone that participates in it chips in a little bit, it is really cheap. Here are the one-time fees associated with the leagues:
Number of Players / 3 Month League / 1 Year League
1 - 10 / $29.95 / $59.95
11 - 20 / $39.95 / $79.95
21 - 50 / $49.95 / $99.95
51 - 100 / $59.95 / $99.95
As I stated before, the game is based on a time-table of one month, in which you are trying to make more money that the other people who are also playing. They have a great standings page that shows the top players along with the value of their portfolio, the amount of money that they have gained or lost, and the percentage of their changes. You get to see how you stack up against these other players, and you can even see what stocks that they have been buying to do so well on the site. Most players have opted to use the league parts of the site, by either setting one up themselves, or by joining one that is already active. The people competing one-on-one tend to be those people who are using the free trial membership, and are just testing out the site.
The web-site itself has a ton of features that make it easy to make an informed decision when it comes to buying stocks. They have quotes, research tools, market searches, and even performance charts that show how any given stock has been doing. The research tools are great, because you can use them to learn a lot about a company that you may be considering buying into. You know that they will also be unbiased, because there is no gain from the site to show incorrect information. They actually want people to do well in their choices so that they will come back and play some more on the site. In addition to that, you can also research what your opponents are doing, and see what types of trades that they are benefiting from, or losing money as a result of.
This site is a great one to get involved with if you like stock-market trading, or just love competition where you put some work into doing well at it. The league set-up on the site is one of its best assets, as you can go up against large groups of people that you know in a virtual trading market. It can be a lot of fun if you do your research and pick the right stocks. The only real detractor of the site could be the cost. If you are the type of person that does not like to pay for fantasy games on the Internet, then I recommend Yahoo's Investment Challenge which allows you to play for free against other Yahoo users. But, if you like the challenge of playing in a league style setting, then this is a great site for it. I highly recommend this site as a place for avid stock-market junkies who want to show off what they know, or compete against many other people to show who top-dog really is.
Recommended:
Yes
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