BellaOnline Forums Money Investing Fantasy Stock Market Investing

You've heard of fantasy football. But have you heard of fantasy stock market games? Several of these games exist online. They can be a lot of fun while honing your investing skills. What are the benefits of playing? How can these games help you? How do they work? What are they?

Fantasy Stock Market Investing

A special thank you to my fellow editor, Leif - Role Playing Games, for introducing me to fantasy stock market games.

Oh these sound like fun and a great way to learn the ropes in an interactive way.

They are. Plus, the contests are on your topic, too.

There is a fantasy stock market game for kids. It is called Piggybank. It is at fantasystockexchange.com.

These games are great practice and a lot of fun. But do try to take them seriously and invest with the same risk tolerance you have in real life. It is too easy to take extra risk when just playing a game. In real life, that extra risk can decimate a portfolio.

I' ve signed up for the wallstreetsurvivor game. So far I'm enjoying the courses and have bought shares in two stocks for the course portfolio. I bought shares in Bank of America and Amazon.

Are you playing a fantasy stock market game?

I haven't yet Sandra but thanks for the tip on a good one to look for.

Your welcome!

I wrote a new article on this topic.

Want to trade individual stocks? Don't want to risk your own money? Fantasy Stock Market games are a great way to practice investing and trading stocks. They give you free virtual money to build a portfolio. This way you gain experience and confidence without the risk.

5 Free Fantasy Stock Market Games

Awesome!!!!

Glad to read about these games from your more experienced perspective I might try Wall Street Survivor. SmartStocks has training videos, but you have to watch them all in sequence - not good for some now/some later.

Good point, Leif. I agree it is more convenient to learn when it fits our schedules. Glad you told me about these games. I think they are a great way to become a successful investor.

You can even use options and trade currency on many of these games.

Have you found any that let you trade no-risk stuff? Like government bonds? I really wanted to test out the Beta statistic but I don't know how.

I only know a little about diversification and all that, too. But it seems like nondiversifiable risk would be the most fun to experiment with, on these stock market games.

Leif,

Good point. Choosing just one sector or industry or even one stock, to see how a non-diversified portfolio works would be a great test using these games. Then you could add other non-correlated stocks and bonds to see how diversification may improve the performance while lowering the risk.

I have not done any beta statistic testing. I usually rely on the calculated beta that is listed with the stock on the major stock internet sites. The games have this information listed with the stocks, also. There is a pdf titled, Calculating and Interpreting Beta, listed on Google that explains how to calculate beta. Sorry but it wouldn't let me copy the link.

I'll look into games for government bonds. Haven't seen any of those yet, but I wasn't looking.

Hope this answers your questions.

I just wrote an article about Wall Street Survivor -

Learning about the stock market can seem overwhelming. Stock market investing games that also teach can make learning easy and fun. Wall Street Survivor is one of these games. They give you $100,000 free virtual money to practice stock investing.

Wall Street Survivor Review

What do you think of this game?

My wife is against getting any large amount of bonds: corporate or government. We disagree on that one. Maybe a simulation would change her mind? Of course maybe it'll change mine too, heh.

I went into the games thinking they might be something like Monopoly. Far more gritty -- wish I knew even halfway what I was doing. All my macroeconomics and accounting classes have taught me is that I know very little, lol. Wall Street Survivor looks like it might be more along my lines, with separate instruction videos and all. SmartStocks one million virtual dollars is more than I know what to do with.

Personally, I like bonds a lot. But that just goes to show that there are many, many ways to invest to reach your goals.

I remember playing Monopoly and these games are a lot more grittier. I like that because so is the stock market. I think you will find that your macroeconomics and accounting classes will be a real asset when researching stocks to invest. Balance sheets and income statements take a finesse to learn. You are ahead of the game there.

Experience plays a big role in investing. The more you invest, the better you get the hang of it. The games are great for that experience.

For the week, my practice portfolio has done better than my courses portfolio. That is if you can consider going nowhere compared to a loss of .34% as doing better. Lol

Of course, there are currently only three stocks in my practice portfolio vs. nine in my course portfolio. It has been a tough week on Wall Street. Hopefully, our portfolios will do better next week.

I like the concept of bonds a lot. Virtually no risk and money doesn't just sit there. I've had sums of money before and there's a fact: when money isn't APpreciating, it's DEpreciating. Sad but true.

That's partly the reason I'm such a vicious Monopoly player. I can't stand having money just sitting there under the board or in my bank. Always competitive, and selectively so. Between probability and the rules, that game isn't difficult to master. Problem is, my wife doesn't find it fun when I play like that

My SmartStocks might have three stocks, but I haven't checked those in a while. I'd really like to contrast the two. Though, I could probably just set a paper bond account as a control variable myself and then test the numbers against one another. Didn't really think of that lol.

Nowhere definitely seems better than a loss of a third Are you on Wall Street Survivor currently, or a different fantasy stock market?

I'm currently on Wall Street Survivor. I haven't been playing as much as I would like to. Too much other work to do.

I don't feel I have picked the best stocks. The courses portfolio was mostly from the few stocks that were available as part of the course. Which is really good for a new beginner. I want to do more research into the stocks though.

As for the practice portfolio, I just picked three well-known stocks. Not really the right way to start a portfolio. I want to design a portfolio of dividend-paying stocks. I would also love to create a portfolio of Made in the USA stocks to test this investing idea.

I would love to have a game to test the bonds. Haven't found it yet. One thing you could do was to create a portfolio of Treasuries through TreasuryDirect.gov and test how they do. The minimum to invest in each bond is $100. I am invested with TreasuryDirect and they do a great job. No costs!

If you don't want to buy any, you can find the historical auction results on TreasuryDirect and then track a bunch of those bonds. Also, look at investinginbonds.com. They have a calculator to track bond performances.

It is great the way you think in making your money appreciate. One caveat, it is a good idea to have a little in cash as a ballast. Normally, (how long has it been since things were normal?) cash would pay some money. Also, watch out for rising interest rates and inflation. That can negatively affect bonds. One thing though: as rates rise, the yield on bonds will rise too. So for now, short-term bonds may be advisable. That is if you can believe that the Fed will stop buying bonds and interest rates will rise.

When school cools down I'll have to hop over there too, then. I finally deleted SmartStocks from my bookmarks toolbar.

I went with three stocks from companies I knew and didn't mind. Is there a difference in the real stock market, where investing money causes the company to change? Rephrasing: Is the stock market entirely passive or is it dynamic with investment? I imagine that's not something some of these games could simulate well if it's active with investment, unless they went with their own stock market.

Nice! I'll have to remember those.

My wife is really, really big on having cash as a ballast/asset. If she had her way we'd probably invest as little as possible in bonds. I'd rather invest more so our funds aren't simply soaked up by inflation.

The book I had last term talked only briefly about the investment market. Specifically, it mentioned a little about the market for treasury notes, bills and (forgot the word already). Is it true that the price will change in the market but the percent yield at maturity remains static?

I'm not sure I fully understand your first question. I would consider the stock market active. But I think the games do a good job of representing this because they use price quotes that are very near to or are very up-to-date. Could you rephrase this question so I understand better.

I understand your wife's position. I like to have my money safe, too. However, it is so important to fight inflation. If she wants to stay in cash, maybe as interest rates rise, she can go with a ladder of cds. Or a ladder of bonds. Then some is short but you are fighting inflation and getting higher rates.

Bonds will have the same percent yield if you hold them to maturity. If you sell early, you will be affect by the price change. So you may get more or less. By the way, I forgot to add that TreasuryDirect has no costs unless you sell you treasuries before maturity. Then they charge a commission for selling.

My apologies for a poorly worded question. Does stock value fluctuate based on who invests, or is it purely as a result of business transactions? If I was to make a huge investment in Small Company Z, would their stock price reflect my actions at all?

Today in small business finance class I got to explain the inflation-fighting purposes of bonds a lady just started a small business and didn't understand why anyone would desire bonds.

Got it. Thank you for being patient with my questions I'm very grateful. Investing is a big thing and I understand little of it; Especially with my major (entrepreneurship) it's going to be a big part of my life in not a lot of time.

I understand now, Leif. Stock value will definitely fluctuate as people invest. Large investment firms can move the price of stocks when they have to adjust their portfolios. Small investors don't really move the price because their investments are so small. But if you purchased a huge investment, you would definitely move the stock's value.

I'm very glad that you could use what I explained in class.

I am happy to answer any questions. It is a pleasure to discuss investing with someone interested. I think investing is an important skill to learn and willingness to learn it is an important key.

Interesting!

me too.

I believe investing is an important skill to learn as well. Even if not from a business or personal aspect, there's still layers going on that are useful to understand. Without my brush with economics and investing, I wouldn't know as much about the '07 or '08 recession and it's causes.

My Wall Street Survivor portfolios are still doing less than good. My courses portfolio is in the red. My practice portfolio is about where it originally began.

Courses contains stock in the following companies: Chipolte Mexican Grill, Consolidated Communications, Walt Disney Company, Citigroup, Apple, Amazon, Bank of America, Proctor & Gamble, and Kellogg.

Practice contains: McDonald's, GE, and Apple.

I think I'll make some changes to it soon.

How is your portfolio doing?

My courses portfolio has five stocks that have made a profit and four that are in the red.

Practice portfolio has one profitable stock - McDonald's. GE and Apple are in the red.

I admit I have not changed anything. Part of this is because I want to see how buy and hold works. The other part is pure procrastination. Lol

My portfolio has stayed about the same. I really have to go back to it and start purchasing stocks of dividend paying companies.

Is anyone playing the stock market games? Do you play regularly or only on occasion? How do you think you are doing? Does it help you learn more about investing?

Unfortunately I'm not. It didn't occur to me exactly how much devotion one of my courses would take until I was in it, or else I'd have one of the games as a regular stop. The few places I do visit online invite enough procrastination :0

Leif,

I understand completely. Best of luck with your course. Maybe we will both have time to play the game later and can compare notes.