Stock Market Game Round 2 (What can you do with $10,000 in three months)

[snacksnack]

Had 4th tied up till the last hour. Oh well learned a bit in all this.

[1carcrazyguy]

Old man wise steam rolled you guys.

Yep.....I just wish I had the knowledge and guts (capital) to play the market for real. Some people are great at it but I would have the same "luck" I had in the game and go broke!


Of course in the game. Once I started buying-selling, I was buying companies that I never heard of and would have never bought with real investments. I was swinging for the fences. I just got struck out......every time!

[Silverback]

man, i was doing good 2nd - 3rd until last week I didn't have time to check anything.

[1carcrazyguy]

I should have stayed with my original plan. That way I would not have lost everything! And would not have ended up in last place!


My original buys....

shares----value------cost $'s---- todays close-----$ value today
36 -------172.47----6208.92-------212.27---------- 7659.72
171-------17.46-----2985.66-------16.41----------- 2806.11
17-------102.49-----1742.33-------103.75--------- 1763.75
100 ------32.63-----3263.00 -------33.06--------- 3306.00
343-------16.65-----5710.95-------21.30 --------- 7305.90
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------19910.86 ---------------------- 22841.48 (2930.62)

[Unicorn Jeff]

Old man wise steam rolled you guys.

[SVT Lurch]

Congratulations!

1 Jyro $28,196.91 net worth $18,196.91 total returns on 35 trades

2 Sean Mayfield $14,879.63 net worth $4,879.63 total returns on 31 trades

3 2165 Turbo Rail $13,821.56 net worth $3,821.56 total returns on just 1 trade

When are we starting another one?

I can start another one tomorrow. Anyone could really - not very involved to set up. Here's the link and parameters from this game:

http://www.marketwatch.com/game/create

Privacy Options
Game:Public
Player portfolios:Private
Portfolio Options
Starting balance for players:$10,000.00
Commission:$10.00
Credit Interest Rate:3.00%
Leverage Debt Interest Rate:6.00%
Minimum Stock Price:$2.00
Maximum Stock Price:$500,000.00
Trading Volume Limit:1.00%
Short Selling:Enabled
Margin Trading:Enabled
Limit Orders:Enabled
Stop Loss Trades:Enabled
Partial Share Trading: Disabled
Symbols Available for Trading
All symbols can be traded

Indexes:
•S&P 500
•Dow Jones
•Nasdaq
•Nasdaq 2000
Exchanges:
•AMEX
•Nasdaq
•NYSE
•OTC-BB

[1carcrazyguy]

When are we starting another one?

Hopefully soon! I used trial and error on this one and made about 750 errors! lol

[Mike]

When are we starting another one?

[2165 Turbo Rail]

I'll take 3rd for my 1 trade. Not too bad

[SVT Lurch]

2.5 hours until the game is over.

[snacksnack]

Its almost over and I dont know who this is but he has been busy!

33 Mi Ro $1,920.39 5.32% -$8,079.61 772

[bjtheman1]

So for those doing small investments ($200-$500 a month). What site are you using? Etrade, TD Ameritrade, Scott?

I just got back into things and I use etrade. I like it, easy to use and money transfers are quick.

[slow99]

I had 30,000 in vlo, I was intending to sell off 7000 to cover my margin (credit) but shorted it instead. Anytime during the day can I do a purchase of 7000 of vlo to cover the short? Can I also do a limit buy set at a low to maximize the difference?


Thanks for the help

If you want to do it to simply clean it up, then yes. You need to 'buy to cover' or 'buy to close' or whatever verbiage the game uses for 7000 shares. For actual performance purposes it doesn't matter.

Back in the day it's what people used to do to lock in gains/losses without having to pay taxes. They'd close it out in whatever year they wanted to pay tax. It's called short against the box but the SEC has since gotten wise to it.

[jyro]

except in this case

I had 30,000 in vlo, I was intending to sell off 7000 to cover my margin (credit) but shorted it instead. Anytime during the day can I do a purchase of 7000 of vlo to cover the short? Can I also do a limit buy set at a low to maximize the difference?


Thanks for the help

[slow99]

fake money anyway. Let me get this straight, I shorted VLO at 53.40 ( thinking I was selling it), today it closed at 51.50 so tomorrow if it drops more, I can buy back to cover and make the difference?

What you said is the correct way to think about shorting. Shorting means you sell something you don't have in hopes of buying back later at a lower price. A short position is a bet that something goes down in value.

In your case, it sounds like you owned VLO and tried to sell it (close the position) but accidentally shorted instead. In that case you essentially locked in your account at $53.40. Ever since the price was $53.40, you've owned shares long and had shares short (in reality, no position) - the gain on the short (from it going down) is offset by the loss in the long (the shares you already owned). In real life, the clearing firm would flatten this for you on settlement date or cancel/correct the trade to correct it.