# Teeming Millionaires - Round IV **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575 "2001-04-19T18:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/1 "2001-04-19T18:49:08Z")
Well, it seems like we’re actually learning something! In case you missed them, let me tell you about the **Teeming Millionaires Stock Market Challenges**. We’ve had three so far. We’ve been through a bunch of stock market websites, we’ve hammered out rules and we’ve seperated the financial whizkids from the rest of us. **pantom** won the first round, **Bibliophage** took the crown in an ugly second round and **Paul the Younger** just finished making most of us look bad in the third round. Round IV will begin soon… Here is the info you need: [ul] [li]The games are played at [http://www.MarketPlayer.com](http://www.MarketPlayer.com). The **Competition ID** for Round IV is **SDMB-IV** and it is case-sensitive.[/li][li]The competition runs for one (1) month, from Thursday, April 26, 2001 until Friday, May 25, 2001.[/li][li]Before you play, you will need to register with MarketPlayer. Once that is done, you create a portfolio and enter it into the competition.[/li][/ul] **IMPORTANT** You must register for the competition before it begins. Once the game starts, it is closed to new participants. You must join by Thursday, April 26, 2001 to participate. The game’s home page can be found [here](http://www.marketplayer.com/comp/competition/competition_home.html?competitionid=SDMB-IV). Good Luck to all… see you on the trading floor! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/2 "2001-04-19T21:12:46Z")
Count me in… Too bad we missed yesterdays Big Suprise, but I’m sure there will be more surpises ahead… Anything we can do to get the number of contestants up? (Or at least making sure that 30% of the contestants don’t sleep through the next one?) Paul ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/3 "2001-04-20T16:35:05Z")
Hey…were are you guys? Whazzamatta, gotcha scared? Don’t think you can take me, huh? C’mon you … I mean…Bump ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/4 "2001-04-20T16:55:46Z")
Forgot somethin’… the sig! | V ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/5 "2001-04-20T16:57:22Z")
Well, count me in…again. I’m with **Paul** , could we keep a running total, either of placed finished or cash at closing, across the Challenges? Simply a matter of curiousity, mind you, since I wasn’t in TM-I, but would like to see how people do over the long haul. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/6 "2001-04-23T06:11:10Z")
To get anyone else to play, we need to bump this thing. What do you people need? It’s easy, it’s fun, and you can learn things you didn’t know about the stock market before playing this game. I don’t know about you, but that’s all the reason I need. If everyone else wants to be putz’s and chickenshit’s, well… then that’s their perogitive. But I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/7 "2001-04-23T15:20:51Z")
And the market goes…BUMP Hey guys, try adding it to your sig. V V V ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/8 "2001-04-23T17:48:04Z")
Well, It sounds like fun, but what the hell is it? A game, I see, but how easy/difficult is it to play? How much time does it consume? What kind of game? From what you’ve posted it seems you are only looking for persons who already know all about it. That’s not me. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/9 "2001-04-23T18:13:34Z")
Heck, I’ll give it a shot. ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/10 "2001-04-23T21:19:16Z")
Just filler until someone better at descriptive detail comes along…\…I believe _ **Paul** _ is the designated tour guide (it’s part of his duties.) Anyhow, what this is is a simulated bout of day trading. We all start off at the same time with the same capital, usually $100,000 (US), and make a go for as much as we can over a specified time period, be it one month or whenever. You can buy, sell, short and/or cover whatever you want, but be advised that most games limit you to 20-minute market lag, so don’t expect real-time performance. The only limit to the numer of trades you make is the number of trades you make, so go nuts [sub]For a case study, see **CNoteChris** [/sub] but rememeber that, much like real life, each trade incurs a cost, but it’s a measily $8 or so, so feel free to ignore it until you hit 500 or more trades. 🙂 Think of it as a risk-free trip into the world of high-stress, white-knuckle stock/bond/mutuals trading. Woohoo! ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/11 "2001-04-24T00:35:48Z")
Real cash? Just playing? Real stocks? Made up stocks? Assuming it’s not real money, but is real stocks, do you actually go by what it’s selling for today or is that made up? Do you get access to any information or just wing it? Do you need to really do any homework or are you just guessing? What if you don’t actually know anything about day trading? Would you still be able to follow it do you reckon? ---
**Author:** ![SouprChckn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@SouprChckn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouprChckn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/12 "2001-04-24T05:13:16Z")
Its all fake money based on the real stock market valuations as you trade (w/ some short delays). You get access to as much information as you want. Pretty much you “buy” whichever stocks you want based on whatever you feel. You can guess or do research. It doesn’t really matter seeing as how crazy the market has been recently. A little knowledge about the stock market goes a long way but they have a lot of info on the site itself. I picked it up pretty easy and I’ve never day traded in my life. Also, you dont even have to actively trade to make trades since you can set up limit orders. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/13 "2001-04-24T05:18:06Z")
I’m getting a “server unavailable” message…does it go down often? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/14 "2001-04-24T14:29:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boscibo \* > \*\*I’m getting a “server unavailable” message…does it go down often? \*\* If you tried in the middle of the night, it may have been updating it’s numbers for the day (they have many, many competitions running at once.) Try again today and let us know if it’s still not working. As **SouprChckn** said, there is a lot of info on the site, as well as hundreds of other good sites on the net for stock and market info. Two of my usual stops are [Yahoo!Finance](http://finance.yahoo.com/?u) and [CBSMarketwatch](http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/default.asp?siteid=mktw). At Yahoo you can get Real-time ECN Quotes for many stocks, and take a bit of the guesswork out of the twenty minute delay, tho not the delay itself (it takes about 20 - 25 minuted for a trade to go through.) > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by thinksnow_ > \*\*…\…I believe Paul is the designated tour guide (it’s part of his duties.) \*\* I like to think of myself more as a “carnival barker” 😃 Seriously…I don’t think those of us who have played already have any problem answering questions as the game progresses…c’mon, you’ve got nothing to lose! ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/15 "2001-04-24T17:30:27Z")
I’m in! Was out on vacation over the weekend, so didn’t get a chance to join. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/16 "2001-04-24T18:09:53Z")
Like, wow! Didn’t notice that banner before. Like the idea of having my name on top, natch! Keep up the good work, sdimbert. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/17 "2001-04-24T22:36:11Z")
Thanks for the compliment, **pantom** , and welcome back. As for the rest of you… thanks for filling in with information while I was gone. You see, from time to time, I actually have to _work_. :o Anyway, you have all explained most of the questions people have asked pretty well, so I am not going to do much except make two points: [li]The gist of the game is this: Imagine that you had $100,000 that you didn’t mind losing. What might you do with it in the stock market? That’s it… just try to get rich. :)[/li][li]Most of the answers people gave so far mention “day trading.” I just want to point out the (hopefully) self-evident fact that day-trading per se is not required. You can make one trade during the contest or one million… or anything in between. As a matter of fact, my personal bias goes _against_ day-trading. Of course, it’s hard to win a month-long contest by buying and waiting, but good what is good strategy in life is not always good in a game.[/li] Welcome, new folks! Come one, come all! **REMEMBER:** You must join by Thursday, April 26, 2001 to participate. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/18 "2001-04-24T23:01:03Z")
I’m in…this is also my 400th post…Rah! Anyway, I know nothing about the stock market, but this sounds like fun. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/19 "2001-04-25T13:17:10Z")
Wow, my name in lights! Nice job on the banner, **sd**! Paul ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575/20 "2001-04-26T11:26:52Z")
I’m having a problem trading. The same, “Above Max Trade Percentage” message that came up before is happening again. DON’T PANIC new players- It’s an easy problem to fix, but I don’t have the privileges to get in and do it myself. When **SD** sees this, he’ll make the change. Good Luck! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teeming-millionaires-round-iv/62575.md?page=2)