Regarding stocks, it feels like so many people these days are business/finance majors and know a lot about stocks. Even my roommate in HKU plays with real money in stock. Unfortunately, even though I was an economics major for two years I got nothing useful out of it ( thanks to UCLA’s focus on theory rather than application). Instead of wasting time on Facebook, playing with stocks could prove to be a useful hobby that can allow one to understand the financial matters of our times.
The first thing in playing with stocks is to gain experience. For example, last year when I had some free time I would go to Borders and read up on some stock books. However, my friend told me that while these books are great to dip your feet in the water, following them word for word is a recipe for disaster. Instead, make your own game plan and test to see if it works.
A great way to start doing that is to first “ghost trade”, or trade without using real money. Ghost trading simulates how stocks are being traded by using real information in the current financial markets. A great site recommended to me is Virtual Stock Exchange. Joining up is totally free and you can even join my stock game to compare how your stocks are doing with other people! Stock games are better for short-term investments as long-term stocks would require one to sit on it for a couple of years. Some people have told me that playing in the current volatile market would skew my data but all I want to do now is gain experience regardless of whether it is a bull or bear market.
