Stock Market Simulation Game

I was searching for a stock market simulation game in the web and in iTunes. The search was good as I discovered plenty but with different quality. Before I tell you what I found , I would like to talk about stock market games and what they can do for us such as advantages and benefits.

Stock market simulation is an educational tool used today for educational purposes. The main users of this technology are professionals who are involved in investments. They practice their own techniques and strategies in order to improve their skills. Some schools and universities do use them to teach their students stock trading. The simulators mostly follow real market data in real time, they give you the feeling of being truly in the market.

Some organisations and schools organise stock trading competitions. Students are encouraged to manage virtual stocks portfolios and the winner of course is the one with  more money or higher money return. My college for example—Bangor business school participates in a national event annually called “stock market challenge” .

Advantages of stock market simulation:

1- Learning by doing :They can teach you how trading and investing works by showing you the basics.

2- Familiarity with industries and companies: You can also get familiar with company names and industries.

3- Portfolio management: You will also learn how to work on your portfolio and manage it.

4- Wisdom and expertise: No one can succeed without making mistakes ,  learn from your mistakes and apply what you learn in real money

Disadvantages:

Risky behaviour: You are investing virtual money, so you might act with overconfidence and you get lucky with profits because the market trend is your friend (for now). You might think you are ready for the real world and your strategy is superb, you take your wallet and foray some real stocks , BOMB ! You lose money. What happened ? your current strategy don’t work this time. So to protect your self from being caught in this kind of situation, don’t rush into real money, take your time and keep practicing.

Experience bias: I think you know some people who have been driving cars for many years but still bad drivers. Either their skills are not good or they have developed bad habits. The same case goes for investing. No matter how much time you have invested playing stock market game, that does not necessarily make you a good trader. You must learn the rules of the game. Read books , attend seminars and interact with experts- share with them your experience and ask for a feedback. Investing my friend is a group (team) activity and should  not be done alone.

My personal advice : Its OK to make mistakes that’s what the simulation is for. However, if you want to learn best , then pretend that the virtual portfolio is a real one.You can act serious by doing what most successful investors do before buying stocks. I wont mention their habits or the process they go through here in this post because its lengthy and worth to be explained properly in separate posts. I will consider it in the future.

There are plenty of simulators out there, I have tried 3 and here they are :

iPhone: Go to iTunes and type “itrade”.

Web :

1- Virtual Trader: based on the UK market “FTSE”.

2- Investopedia Stock Simulator : based on the USA market

Tags: Bangor Business School, Bangor university, Game, stock market, stock market challenge, stock market simulation

iTunes 64 bits

I’m now in London with my family. I will stay in London for two weeks. After that I will head back to my home country “Kuwait” which I haven’t been there for more than a year.I found a site that had a solution that helped me  install iTunes for my laptop running  windows 7 64 bits. I had a problem installing it before , because the main website did not provide the right 64 bits  file. Here is the link and have fun : http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1037 .  Once the file is download and installed, do an upgrade to the earlier version.I did all that and its working now. Now I can get my old apps. This is my second iphone (3gs) my first one was a 3g which was ruined when it fell in the water Both of them were given to me as a gift.  My wife bought me the first , and my parents bought me the second one . I’m thankful to both.

I will give you a link of very good and useful iPhones apps for London city:  The Ultimate London iPhone App Review List – The Top 19 London Apps for iPhone !

Tags: iPhone, iPhone apps, iTunes 64 bits, Kuwait, Kuwaiti Blog, London, online entrepreneur tools, windows 7

Iceland Volcano Opportunities

Many businesses and entrepreneurs got affected badly in this current natural disaster the ” Iceland Volcano”. Airplanes around the world lost enormous money due to not flying . Business deals, imports and exports were halted. Countries were governed remotely. The Norwegian prime minster ran his government while he was in USA using his iPad.  The flip side of that scenario is others started to make a fortune out of the current incidence. For example, ferries are in a big demand, and I’m sure many other enterprises benefited as well. SO what I’m saying here, is problems create opportunities for the prepared minded.

Lonely Planet – the tourism guides company, offered and still offering travelers who  use iPhone, to download 13 European guides from Apple store for free.  Those guides-apps were not free before the Iceland eruption. The offer is valid until tomorrow- Thursday April 22nd.  I find this a great way to help travelers who got stuck in Europe (because it is the most affected continent from Iceland volcano) to manage or even survive. It is also an oblique way to increase Lonely Planet’s reputation and maybe its profits in the future.

To get those guides, go to Apple store through your iPhone or your computer’s iTunes and type Lonely Planet. You should get the following countries:

1. Amsterdam
2. Barcelona
3. Berlin
4. Budapest
5. Copenhagen
6. Istanbul
7. London
8. Moscow
9. Munich
10. Paris
11. Rome
12. Stockholm
13. Vienna

Governments also played a big role. For example, The Kuwaiti government did not hesitate to help its stuck citizens in Europe to pay for their accommodation until they  get back to Kuwait.  I’m sure other government did the same as well. The Crisis teaches us something and we must learn from it. Opportunities always present themselves in the time of problems, and those who are prepared mentally shall see them.

Tags: Entrepreneur, Icland Volcano, iPhone, iPhone apps, Kuwait IceLand Volcano, obliquity

iPhone Money apps

To continue my previous article : iPhone productivity apps , I will add more tools that will help you take care of your finance .

1. iSpend – Track and categorize expenses. You can also generate reports and view them inside your computer as excel files.
2. QuickBooks – Manage your QuickBooks account by taking care of your customers, invoices and reports.
3. Bloomberg- App that offers stock quotes, charts, analysis and latest news.
4. Budget - Easily track your budget. Perfect for something like the iPhone because you won’t forget to input your expenses.
5. Pricecheckah – Quickly search online for the latest low prices for anything in the market.

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Tags: Finance, iPhone, iPhone apps

iPhone productivity apps

Yesterday I was reading an interesting  post . It reviewed some useful iPhone applications , I think it will be beneficial to the entrepreneur.

I’m going to summarize it here and post future articles on the same topic. Here is the article :

1. Air Sharing – Mount your iPhone as a wireless drive on any Mac, Windows, or Linux computer, drag-drop files and view documents in many common formats ($4.99).

2. Evernote – Capture photos, notes, and voice memos and sync with your Evernote account on your desktop (free).

3. Gmail – Manage multiple Gmail accounts (free).

4. Google Sync – Synchronize the calendar and address book on your iPhone with your Google account (free).

5. iProRecorder – Turn your iPhone into an audio recorder ($4.99).

6. Jott – Take notes, set reminders, and manage your lists through voice-to-text conversion (free with Jott account).

7. SugarSync – Access, update and synchronize files from your desktop (free with SugarSync backup service, starts at $4.99/mo).

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Tags: iPhone, iPhone apps, Productivity