Stock Market Games - Frequently Asked Questions

OK - I hope the following will help to answer some of your trading questions stock market games anna about the stock market games, and if you do need any further help on your trading strategies, please have a look at some of my other sites which are shown above - remember all the information on my sites is provided free for you, so please do have a look a them - I hope you find them useful.

Stock Market Games - How Do I Buy And Sell Stocks ?

Trading stocks is very easy. To make a trade on the stock market game, you have to know the ticker symbol of the stock you want to trade and the number of shares you want to buy. If you don't know the ticker symbol, click on the "Quotes/Research" link on the top horizontal navigation bar and then on "Symbol Lookup”" and enter the company name. The ticker symbol is the company's one-to -five character abbreviation. Click on the ticker symbol of the company in which you're interested, and you will see the latest price. You can then decide how many shares you want to buy. For example, if you're interested in a $20 stock and want to invest $10,000, you would have to buy 500 shares.

Once you have the both ticker symbol and number of shares, click on the "Make A Trade" link. On the Stock Order Screen, indicate whether you're buying or selling, input the ticker symbol and number of shares click on the "Preview Trade" button. When the Trade Preview screen appears, you'll be prompted to either "confirm" or "cancel" that trade.

Stock Market Games - What Order Types Are Available ?

The stock market game supports four types of order, namely market orders, limit orders, stop orders and open orders. A market order is an order to buy or sell a specified number of shares (or bonds, etc. ) at the best available price when the order is submitted. All orders that don't bear a specific price are considered market orders.

A limit order is an order in which a specific price is set to buy or sell a security. If the price point is hit and there is sufficient volume at that price point or better, your order will be filled.

A stop order is an order to buy or sell a stock when the stock price reaches a specified price, which is known as a stop price. When the specified price is reached, the stop order becomes a market order.
(a) A Sell Stop Order is used by investors and traders long a stock to protect an existing profit or avoid further losses if the stock price drops. A stop order to sell must be placed below the current market price.
(b) A Buy Stop Order is used by investors and traders short a stock to protect a profit or limit a loss if the stock price increases. A stop order to buy must be entered at a price above the current market price.

An open order, which remains current until it is executed, is an order to buy or sell a security at a specified price. Open orders are usually submitted within a specified time frame (e.g. , 30 days).

Stock Market Games - Can I Sell Stocks Short ?

Yes you can, but shorting stocks is a little more difficult to understand. Everyone knows that to make money in the stock market all you have to do is buy low and sell high. However you can also make money when prices are falling by selling high and buying low. By shorting a stock you are actually borrowing the shares from your broker and selling them, but then at some point you must buy them back and return the shares to you broker to pay off the loan. So if you are short a stock, you are hoping that the stock loses value after you've shorted it. Let me give you an example as follows:

Suppose a stock is trading at $30 and you think it will decrease in value in the next few days or weeks and decide to sell or 'short' the stock. The stock subsequently falls to $25 and you then buy it back, having made a profit of $5. So your opening order would be a sell order.

In order to close a short position you will need to place a trade called a cover trade. Covering a short sell is how you close out your short position. The 'Cover' option is in the 'Order Type' pull down box. So in the example above to take your profit, instead of selecting the sell order type you will want to use the 'Cover' order type.

Stock Market Games - What Is A Ticker And How Do I Find Them ?

Every company listed on a public exchange has a ticker symbol, which is a 1 to 5 letter code for each publicly traded stock. To look up a ticker symbol, click on the SYMBOL LOOKUP link on the trading page and enter the company name. If the company is publicly traded it should be found. If the company is not found, then it is probably not a company that trades publicly. For example, Google’s ticker symbol is ‘GOOG’ and The Coca-Cola Company’s ticker symbol is 'KO'.

Stock Market Games - Technical or Fundamental - Can I Research My Stocks ?

Absolutely - we offer a full research centre for both technical and fundamental traders. Fundamental traders determine a stock's value through the analysis of the quality of management, financial data, the industry in which the company operates, their competition and other factors that are 'fundamental' to the company's operations. Such an analysis excludes the equity market's overall condition, market psychology and behavioural variables or the market's technical analysis.

There are many approaches to a fundamental analysis. Some investors take a "value" approach, which means they focus on analyzing and determining items such as book value, intrinsic value, free cash flow, price/earnings ratio and dividend yield. Other investors are more "growth" oriented, delving instead into issues such as future earnings and revenue growth rates. In addition, differing methodologies and yardsticks are generally used depending on the industry in which the company operates.

Technical traders use charts to forecast a financial investments' future price movements based on an examination of past price movements. The technical analyst ignores factors that are 'fundamental' to both the company's operations or investment vehicle being analyzed. Instead, a technical analysis leverages a wide variety of techniques and charts that show price over time. Some well-known techniques include trend line analysis, support and resistance, chart pattern analysis, moving averages, Dow Theory, Elliott Wave Theory, Fibonacci analysis and Japanese candlestick charting.

All trades are opened and closed using a professional platform which provides immediate updates on the value of your portfolio, along with your ranking on the leader boards. Each time you open or close a trade you are notified with a 'fill' order - just like the real thing!! A 'broker commission' of $10 is applied to each trade.

I hope the above answers some of your questions and clarifies some of the trading terminology which is actually quite easy once you get used to it!!

Thank you for visiting my site, and good luck with your trading, and please let me know how you get on either on the blog, or drop me an email and if you are on twitter, I can add you to my contacts. I hope you do well, but perhaps not too well as we will be competitors on this and probably other stock market games!!!- kind regards - Anna.