STOCK MARKET FOR DUMMIES: NOT WITH WALLSTREET SURVIVOR!
You’ve got to love things that are FREE and especially when they are as good as Wall Street Survivor. If you are looking for a fun way to learn about the stock market and find out what it will be like to actually make stock trades online, you will find this stock market simulation game to exactly what you are looking for.
The Wall Street Survivor website is a comprehensive stock market simulation game and learning center where you can get your feet wet in buying and selling stocks that comes complete with $20,000 in monthly prizes that anyone can win just for participating.
After you go through the quick FREE sign up process, your account will be credited with $100,000 in virtual dollars that will be your portfolio to do with as you wish. Just like on any real online stock broker site, you can then use that money to invest in any stock you can find on the real market.
You will be buying and selling stock in no time on Wall Street Survivor and any type of trade you can do in the real wold you can do here. That means you can short stocks and then cover them and you can even set up a second portfolio (with virtual money of course) just to trade options. My portfolio looks like this at the time of this post so I actually have a gain after several months of trading:
Anyone who wants to get their feet wet trading stocks without risking their own money will love this stock market simulation game and there is such a wealth of information there as well. Stock quotes, stock tips, up to date stock analysis, forums, contests, tutorials, and business news are just some of the things that are all there for you to use. Some of the features cost money (such as real time stock quotes) but you can learn so much for free that it will keep you occupied for months.
Wall Street Survivor is the place where any beginner can have fun and learn about stocks at the same time, all for FREE. If you want to try out your stock picking skills and see what would happen with your picks had you bought them for real, this is the place to do it. Your portfolio will look just like it would if you were trading for real and you can watch it go up and down daily. The more involved you are the more chances you have to win and you can even earn free gift cards for trading in the activity points you get just for being active. Give it a try!
STOCK INVESTORS WANT TO CLIMB THE WALL OF WORRY
What is the “wall of worry” in the stock market. You hear stock analysts throwing that term around on TV and radio shows and anyone who is a beginner might have no idea what they are talking about.
Right now there is a lot of bad news about the economy. I mean a REAL LOT OF BAD NEWS. Unemployment has gone up to 10% under Obama and stayed there. The government is spending money at rates like we have never seen before. This country is deeper in debt in every way than it ever has been before. In short, there is a lot to worry about.
Yet stocks aren’t going down and it seems like they even want to go up. All the bad economic news I just described is the wall of worry and it is a very big wall right now. But if stocks end up today (9/3/2010) like it looks like they will, it will be the third straight day that they have gone up. Any bit of good news about the economy or jobs seems like it is enough to send the market up.
When stock investors ignore bad news or general pessimism about the market or economy and bid stocks higher, that is when it is said that the market is climbing the wall of worry. Its like there is bad news and the market should be going down and yet it defies gravity and goes up.
You can go out and buy the Stock Market For Dummies book and learn all the basics and fundamentals there are. But no common sense principle or any set of fundamentals can explain why, in the face of so much economic bad news, people are still willing to bid the market up and part with their money.
This is what makes the stock market very interesting for many people. A good investor is in tune with not only what stocks are doing well but also with what people are thinking about those stocks. Often time what people are thinking is even more important than the nuts and bolts of a companies inner workings.
If people like a stock or what a company makes (like Apple for instance), sometimes that alone is enough to keep it going higher. If people want to buy they sometimes will buy, no matter what is happening to the economy. The wall of worry is when there is seemingly enough bad news and a lot of experts predicting bearishness to push the market down. And yet it stealthily keeps going up, usually slowly. Is that what we are seeing here? It sure looks like people want to buy stocks and are just waiting for any little bit of good news as an excuse to buy.