Archive for October, 2009

The Next Generation in Fantasy Stock Trading

The stock market is rebounding following the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Traders are looking for a place to learn, test and profit from stock trading without the risk, and fantasy stock trading is revolutionizing the way people play the stock market.  Zoodak is the next generation in fantasy stock trading, market analysis and social networking.

Since launching its open beta release four months ago, Zoodak is getting over 8,000 unique monthly visitors enjoying the site.  With about 10 pages per visit and about 9 min. of average time spent on the site, it’s no wonder that “users are getting addicted.  The interface is simple and intuitive,” says Zoodak CEO Jinsoo Park who founded the San Ramon, CA based company back in 2008.

Users can learn from one another, share investment ideas and compete for cash prizes.  But what makes Zoodak unique is the “integration of stock trading, market analysis and social networking in a very simple and intuitive format,” says Park.  Registration is free and users can choose to be ZooTraders, ZooAnalysts or both.

ZooTraders create and manage virtual stock portfolios initially valued at $100,000 for 20 trading days.  Unlike any other stock trading competition, Zoodak hosts monthly tournaments where you can sign up and start trading immediately.  Your performance is ranked against other ZooTraders who created their portfolios in the same month.  If your portfolio ends up in the top rankings, you win cash prizes.  The prize money is significant.

ZooAnalysts can make free stock predictions on a daily basis even after the markets close.  All you have to do is choose a stock and guess if it will close up or down from its opening price.  After posting 10 predictions you automatically get rated.  You gain status based on the number and accuracy of your predictions.  ZooPoints are awarded based on your rating; the higher your rating the more your earn.

Anyone registered at Zoodak gets a ZooBoard which is their hub for connecting with friends, posting messages, and viewing portfolio details, transaction history and stock predictions.  You can visit other people’s ZooBoard, see a snapshot of their portfolios and maybe make a connection to learn more about their strategies.  With the Wall and Inbox features, you can communicate with users on a one-to-one basis or at a community level.

“Zoodak is for people interested in the stock market who like to learn from the power of community and who want to have fun without the risk,” says Park.  If you want to play stock market games, improve your short-term stock investing skills, share your stock market analysis ideas, build a network to learn from and compete against others in a virtual stock exchange, all while making money doing it, Zoodak is Your New Exchange.

Adrian Pena is Zoodak's Co-Founder & CMO with management experience in Marketing, Capital Markets and Finance at Irwin Home Equity. He holds a BS in Mathematics from UC Santa Barbara and is a board member and marketing chair of the Diablo Valley Montessori School.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/the-next-generation-in-fantasy-stock-trading-1383735.html

Day Trade Like A Pro

Volatility Is The Key To Day Trading

Successful day trading requires the ability to spot trends and patterns quickly, and act on them. It's tough to know which stocks to watch, but once you have learned the skill, you will be ahead of the game. You should maintain a watch list!. These are a cross section of stocks that you keep an eye on. Many stocks have recognizable patterns, and with a little experience at watching the same group of stocks , many traders can make educated guesses about whether the stock is about to move up or down. Most day traders, at least the successful ones, make trades from their watch list. There are several criteria for choosing stocks for your watch list!

Probably the most important is liquidity. I always look for stocks that trade at least 250K shares daily. If the stock isn't trading well, you may have trouble selling when you need to get out. If you can't sell the stock, you're obviously not going to make any money. I would rather trade stocks that are moving over 1M shares a day, but certainly never less that 250K. If the stock is too thinly traded, the market makers can manipulate the price too easily.

You will also want to look at volatility. Volatility is the rate at which the price of a security moves up or down. A $20 dollar stock that moves up or down by $5 in a day would be considered highly volatile. Large price swings are where knowledgeable day traders make money, and others lose money. In my opinion this is one of the most important criteria. Good stocks , at least from a day trading perspective, are volatile. Day traders make money when the price moves dramatically over a day, or a few days. Avoid high dividend stocks . We are not in this for the long term, so the dividend is irrelevant, and these stocks tend to have high prices and low volatility. There is certainly nothing wrong with dividend paying stocks , but they should be part of a long term investment strategy, not a trading medium.

Big board stocks can have high volatility and large price swings. But measured by percentage, nothing has the volatility (and risk) of pinksheet stocks or "penny stocks ". These low priced stocks trade for under a dollar, and at times can have huge volume. Some stocks make moves of as much as 100%-200% or more IN A DAY. There is obviously a tremendous amount of risk here. But you can start out with only a few hundred dollars. As long as you pick well, you can actually make money. I know people who make their entire living from trading (mostly) penny stock.

Put together a list of 30 - 50 stocks , get to know everything about them. What market factors affect their movement. What news items cause them to move up or down. This is your stock farm, cultivate it. Once you know what moves your stocks , you will be able to trade like a pro.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/day-trade-like-a-pro-1382753.html