I'll come right out and say it now. I've had too many alcoholic beverages, too many unrealistic dreams of grandeur, and thoughts of day trading success. So when I was finally confronted with a finance 420 class that required actual investing knowledge I was quickly crushed after the first test. I think I got a 67 percent, close to the worst test score I've ever received. But you don't care about my test score so let me explain how Wall Street can be a game.

One of the graded portions of my investments class is stocktrak, essentially a game invented by an online company. As you can see in my first screen shot I dominated the first week. I took a chance in Euro futures and made out like a thief, I quickly shot up to the top 10 (6th spot to be exact) and laughed at how skilled I was. You can actually see my peak in this screenshot, how gloriously disastrous.



Obviously things have gone poorly since my early success as a Euro currency day trader. Well soon after I sold my futures in Euros I purchased Canadian and then pork belly futures. Sadly, these purchases did not serve me well as you can see below in the next screenie. :(



Let me explain, in this scenario each student is given $500,000 and can put $125,000 into whatever they please (a restriction so you don't spend all your money on Microsoft stock before they lose to Bluray :( ). So you can't bet all your money on a Halo 4 announcement but if your mildly crazy like me you can put a large portion on the success of Super Smash in Japan[url] and make a sizable profit.



So I made a little bit (sadly very little after[/url] broker costs) on the release of an enormous game. But don't think you can ride on the hype of industry games. Technology is a very dangerous industry to play with and you can lose or gain a great deal of money. I know I've had a great deal of ups and downs with the tech and futures industry and that can be shown from my early prominence in the top 5 of my class and well my poor showing as revealed below...



Keep in mind that's from an initial 500,000 after a month and consider the highest returns are up around $760,000 or 52%, so just like a game you can lose or gain a great deal. Essentially a great deal of research and good luck can garner you a huge return on your money but you have to know what your doing with your money.

But even after reading some of this article a lot of you will ignore the tips I give you such as not putting too many eggs in one basket or holding onto a stock for too long. So here's a NASDAQ quote on the largest companies and how you can keep an eye on them. I didn't put this together so don't give me the praise or insults but use it efficiently.

http://www.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?mode=stock&kind=&timeframe=&intraday=&charttype=&splits=&earnings=&movingaverage=&lowerstudy=&comparison=&index=&symbol=atvi&symbol=erts&symbol=knm&symbol=mwy&symbol=ttwo&symbol=thqi&symbol=msft&symbol=sne&symbol=gme&symbol=cool&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&symbol=&FormType=&mkttype=&pathname=&page=multi&selected=ATVI

Now I refuse to leave you with such poor advice so I will tell you to please go out and test some of your theories. Perhaps a site such as http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx. Anyhow, be very careful if you are investing real money and remember that long positions are much safer than short positions (which require you to buy at the right time and then sell at the right time) So let me know all about your opinions and how you would treat the market if you have real money or even fake money in it. We're all learning from each other so voice off and let us all know, even if your strategy involves investing in straight T-bills.