Paper trading challenge

[cavalier973]

I started a virtual stock game on www.marketwatch.com  The object is to turn the original $10,000 into $1 million in one year's time.  The only stocks in which the player can invest are the DJIA components.  The game doesn't allow options trading (which is a bummer), but one can trade on margin and sell short.

Everyone is invited to join.

[cavalier973]

I've also started a blog over at townhall.com in which I record my attempts to emulate the game "Millionaire: The Stock Market Simulation" with virtual trading.

The rules of the blog are a bit different; I can only purchase stock or sell stock I already own until I reach a net worth of $12,000.  At that point, I can buy on margin.  At $18,000, I can buy call options.  At $40,000 I can buy put options, and at $100,000 I can sell short (this is how the old game played).

I'm planning on putting everything into Walmart tomorrow.

[cavalier973]

I followed through with my threat and put everything into WMT; 279 shares at $71.21/sh.  I currently ranked #2.

One of the rules of this game is "public portfolio", but I can seem to find what anyone else is doing.

[hen567mcb]

What type of game is this or what the thing is this please tell me about it.....

[cavalier973]

What type of game is this or what the thing is this please tell me about it.....

It's a stock market "simulation", except that the players virtually trade in real time.  The activity used to be called "paper trading", where you looked at the newspaper every day and pretended to buy or sell stocks.  www.marketwatch.com has set up software on its website to allow people to set up the rules for virtual trading.  The rules for my game are in the original post.

I bought 279 shares of Walmart, and made around $130 today.  I'm ranked #2; the #1 player bought Intel Corp.  The #3 ranked person prefers day trading; he made six trades today.

[cavalier973]

I set the rules so that anyone can join at any time (just look for the game called "The Millionaire Challenge".  You begin with $10,000 in "Monopoly money" and try to reach $1,000,000 by July 2013 by trading in the 30 companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

[cavalier973]

Had another decent day with WMT, even though the Dow dropped 80 points.  I'm thinking that, based on the ABCT, the "lower order goods" providers like Walmart and Kraft are going to be doing better than the "higher order goods" companies like Alcoa or Boeing.  Speaking of Kraft, it did the best today, and it's inching up to the $40 a share threshold (its previous high, according to the chart).  If it breaks out to a new high, I might sell the WMT and buy KFT.  I'm not the expert on charts, but KFT also looks like it's forming a "cup with a handle" pattern, which Bill O'Neal says is a really good indicator that the stock's price is about to shoot up.

I'm ranked #1, but as soon as somebody realizes that selling short is an option, that could very well change.

[Turd Ferguson]

Is insider trading allowed?

[cavalier973]

Is insider trading allowed?

Feel free.

[cavalier973]

So investors are cautious ahead of the Fed's meeting at 14:00 EST today.

I can't tell (and I don't pay attention enough to already know) if this is the type of Federal Reserve meeting where interest rates are set.  I think this is the economic reporting-type meeting.

WMT's down a bit, IBM and Cisco are up, Exxon and Chevron are doing even better.

[Turd Ferguson]

Its one of those "further action needs to be taken" reports.



Maybe they'll just say interest rates need to be set at -15% for the forseeable future.

[Turd Ferguson]

My Ronald Mc Donald is bleeding right now.

I'm betting on a big turnaround by summers end.

[cavalier973]

It was stupid of me not to allow stop loss and limit orders.  I'm going to see if I can change that.

[hen567mcb]

Thanks cavalier973 for your kind information I am satisfied with your ans...

[cavalier973]

Proctor & Gamble is kicking tail today.  WMT was down a bit earlier, but back up again.  I briefly considered selling WMT and buying PG, but decided to wait until Monday.