Investment simulator game

[iQing]

I have found that www.investopedia.com offer us simulation game of investing.

Do you guys have any other websites or sources that offer such simulations?

thanx

[weich]

www.thegreatgame.com - based on FTSE...

[CyberJaya]

I've checked out investopedia.com and i cant find any computer game for investing. Can you tell me where i can find it?

[iQing]

ooo... just go to the main page and u can see a link to the game at the left side of the page...

thanx for providing another link to such game...

[weich]

so do you trade on NYSE? Anyway, do you do all those things like analysing the indices, etc - share some of your experiences on how you decide to buy a share, etc???

This is what I used to do:

1. Goto Yahoo UK's finance section and click on the share tips for everyday and buy shares based on that, which wasn't really a good way i think, 'cos by the time you get the news it's too late to buy.

2. Then, I moved on to the Director Dealings, still in Yahoo UK's finance section and buy shares based on that b'cos they normally get 1st hand knowledge about any insider information =) But still it didn't return a good amount of profit

3. Now, what I do is analyse the graphs 1st for the one day graph, followed by the prev. week's graph, then the prev. month, and so on....so once I see an upward trend in terms of price growth, I'll start buying the stocks.....this I find gives you a higher chance of getting profits....but still not as much

So, any of you guys have any tips to share?

On point 1 and 2, you're absolutely right that it doesn't make sense to trade on information available on the internet. Use some common sense, if the information is publicly available, it is usually already incorporated in the price.

On point 3, you seem to allure to market timing, i.e. trying to find ways to time your trades so as the make money. This is almost not going to work for 3 reasons. One, there are pro market-timers in Wall Street that spent all their time trying to analyze the markets with sophisticated computer models. Two, these pros have access to privileged information (yes, companies can and do disclose information to only a select few people). And three, the transaction cost for ordinary investors is very high, especially if you make many trades (which you would have to do to time the market).

The only way I can think of for a ordinary investor to make money in equities is through long-term sound investment. That is, holding a stock of an excellent company for a period of 5-10 years, and also buying the stock at a good price. A superb book on this subject is "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham. (Warren Buffett was Graham's student and became the 2nd richest man just by investing.)

[chenchow]

I haven't tried real-world investment, but did a few study with the Business Simulation Lab over here, where a Professor is studying the effects of having disclosed information vs non-disclosed information, and various other kinds of the studies. I have been involved in a few of those, and I would say that in those hypothetical studies, where a market consists of 5-20 students, you can see the effects pretty clearly, even though only like 20-50% of students have disclosed information.

And we do look at the lagging of information, where some people get the information earlier and some get the information later, and we see the effects. Some people have continuous disclosure, whereas others only have disclosure once a day(analogy to you reading the news for the day).

I would say that long-term investment would be ideal for starters with money, that you have no good investment to deal with it. And I think diversification is essential too!

The only way I can think of for a ordinary investor to make money in equities is through long-term sound investment. That is, holding a stock of an excellent company for a period of 5-10 years, and also buying the stock at a good price. A superb book on this subject is "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham. (Warren Buffett was Graham's student and became the 2nd richest man just by investing.)

Oh, I should also point out that you don't need to spend lots of time researching and buying stocks for long term investing. Mutual funds, both index and managed, offer a simple and relatively cheap way to invest for the long term. Some of the good funds I would recommend are:

Index:
Vanguard S&P 500
Vanguard Total Market

Managed:
Dodge and Cox Balanced
Mairs and Power
Clipper

----
Chen chow mentioned about diversification, which is a good point that I would to elaborate on. Basically, diversification means buying a whole bunch of stocks instead of just a few.

The rational behind this is that if one sector sinks, and your stocks are in just that sector, it may take a while to recover. Buying many sectors allow you to profit in some and lose in some, but overall make more profit in a less volatile manner.

In this respect, index funds are well-suited for diversification. The Vanguard S&P 500 tracks 500 companies on the S&P index (companies on the index are selected for being the top companies in the US), mostly large-cap (big) companies. The Vanguard Total Market Index tracks the whole of the US stock market, around 5000 stocks in total.

[Randomphantom]

Those with insider information are the ones that are sure to make the quick bucks. Rumours are at best not to be trusted, as some of these information might be cooked up purely to bait people into investing, others might just be outdated info. As ordinary investors, our best bet is to try for long term gains, and I guess stock tips are more suited to these type of investments. Mutual funds have lesser gain potential compared to private equities, but likewise are less risky. Maybe the beginner might opt for these first before delving into stocks.

[__earth]

Diversification is good but for most people, especially small time investors, do not have the resources to diversify.

It takes money to manage a diversified portfolio.

[pandaboy]

I'm really confused by those terms and everything about investments. Is there any good websites where i can learn from a scratch? Btw, any investment simulators based on KLSE? hehe.... :mrgreen:

[iQing]

sure.. here?s one basic + easy one :

www.min.com.my


here?s one good one

www.investopedia.com

[pandaboy]

thanks iQing,
I've bookmark those link. The first link was kinda cool...i mean ....with those interactive intros...hehe...

But those are the sites for learning about investments rite? Any site with simulators for KLSE investment?

[iQing]

one of the menu (left side)
got invesment simulator game (www.investopedia.com)


www.min.com.my is investment in malaysia