The TLZone Stock Market Game

[crashtd]

since there's been a few posts on the market lately, and I know there's a few people here managing their own portfolios (and others interested). I thought we could play a little virtual stock market game to pass the winter with.

follow the link here
password: tlzone

the game ends in the middle of march, and there's 100k to play with, you can join anytime

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[Duken4evr]

My orders are placed.

A a couple of those trades (at least the symbols if not the amounts) are pending in my real account



Off we go. About my picks and why:

1) Short Sell nVidia - Video card maker - took a healthy drop recently, seems to recover to $36 range and die to $32. Trying to play
this short term trend.

2) Buy Ensco (ESV) at market. Encso is an oil driller I am very familiar with and $53 is a very good price. This stock usually trades in
the $57 to over $60 range. I am buying 100 shares of this for real on Monday at market open.

3) Dodge & Cox International Stock Mutual Fund (DODFX) A core holding for the long haul to balance in some foreign exposure. Dodge
and Cox has been around since 1965 and they are consistent. I own shares this for real, bought at $42 awhile ago, it is around
$47.50 now and then there are dividends payable soon too

4) SiRF - Dominant makers of the "brain" chip in GPS phones and devices. I own this for real, bought at $19 a awhile ago, at $26 now,
I see it going to $40 eventually as every cell phone gets a GPS and they make the chips. Their last earnings report was much
higher than expected by Wall Street.

5) Hansen (HANS) Makers of Monster energy drink. They missed their earnings by a small margin and got hammered. The current
price is an over reaction and a bargain. I scooped these up for real last week at $41.

6) Apple (AAPL) Apple is going to be a $200 stock soon, end of story. I have a trade in for real on them at $163.75 for Monday.

7) Prudent Bear Fund (BEARX) Bear market mutual fund. I raised my holdings in this for real in October. When the market is high a the Bear fund to get cheaper so I buy a few shares. 2008 worries me. These guys will help ease the pain if the market tanks and they don't lose too badly if the market goes up. If the market tanks, I will sell them and make money to offset other losses. A hedge
investment in case of calamity.

8) Owens Illinois (OI) Glass maker. Your wine probably came from one of their bottles. They have an uneventfully rising chart and their
price has doubled in a year. Even so their numbers look good value wise. A good solid long term investment.

9) Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) A mercenary play. They range from $114 to $130. Trying to get in on the cycle for a short term hit.

10) Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) Another cycle play, they ranged from $103 to $117 during the last two weeks. Considering the "Mastercard Maneuver" on this next week if it hits $103, depending on what other order go through and if I have available funds to
pull it off.

[crashtd]

i was doing great until i made all my trades day orders....*sigh*

edit: oh well

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[crashtd]

duken, did you leverage your equity as well?

here's what i'm rolling with.



i'm hoping for some high gas prices, google taking over a little bit more of the world, an approved merger, and christmas to get me through the next month or so.

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[MotoTiller]

Which one of those games are y'all playing?

[Duken4evr]

Exxon Mobil sounds good to me as does Apple. Both are unstoppable licenses to print money

Google pisses me off. I have sat and watched that stock go from $200 to over $600 a share, never bought any, thinking it was too expensive the whole way.

Unless all my trades go through (highly unlikely) I should not go into margin. I want some dry powder (cash) for future developing bargains that become apparent. I hate being fully invested with no cash and then seeing something I want to buy and not having money to pursue it and then being faced with selling something else.

I don't run margin for real on long term holdings, but I have used the added buying power of margin briefly to pull off the short term "Mastercard Maneuvers" as the stock costs $180 a share. This does discipline me to stick to my pre-decided stop loss targets. The last thing I want to do is be in a big losing position on borrowed money

Investing for me has been interesting. It has taken awhile to not beat myself up when I am wrong and to move on without remorse quickly when it is apparent that I picked a bad entry point. On the other hand, it has also taken awhile to not give myself too much credit when I am right. I think investing is kind of like golf. Just when you think you have the hang of it, you slice one big time and bounce it off some rich guy's mansion on the side of the fairway. Given my golf game, it is better to stick to cheap public courses

Oh, and combine your Chevron orders into one - you don't want to incur commission twice unnecessarily

Edit - a few more trades entered. Whee!



1) KongZong (KONG) Chinese company, this is an ADR (American Depository Receipt) Kong is a purveyor of ring tones for cell phones in China. The Chinese seem to love this crap. Anyway, Kong has an earnings report coming out tomorrow. The stock is down off a high of almost $10. If their earnings hits, it could rocket. If it misses it could tank down to $3.50 or so. I don't have the balls to play this one anymore in real life. I opened a position on it at $5.75 and stopped out on it with a $400 or so loss last week. Given that background, I fully expect it to go up 70% tomorrow. That would figure If it does, at least I get to virtually kick ass with it

2) FTO Energy (FTO) A Rocky Mountain oil company, very profitable. I sold them too soon awhile ago and regret it. I must quit cutting off my winners legs by selling them. Gotta let them run.

3) Crocs (CROX) CO based company, maker of stupid looking rubber shoes. Also insanely profitable. They could not make them fast enough and missed shipment targets and their stock tanked hard from $75 all they way down to $38. People like Crocs. I think it is a good buy at this price. Considering this one for real.

[crashtd]

Originally Posted by MotoTiller

Which one of those games are y'all playing?

right here Ed: http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Star...aspx?id=tlzone

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[MotoTiller]

nevermind, had a blonde moment.

[crashtd]

XMSR/SIRI - their stockholders just approved a merger of the two companies, which now is up for review by the feds. I suspect it'll go through as they have a good case on how they're not a monopoly. Combining their programing will encourage user that were otherwise on the fence.

GOOG - took a pounding this week, i expect it to get to at least $750, likely $800, and maybe $850

AAPL - xmas is coming, i suspect we'll see strong sales for people buying new computers. iPods are still popular gifts, and now the iPhone and iTouch. I'm with yah, $200 here we come.

GE - had to throw in something a bit more stable. NBC has a good lineup now, and green is in.

PPL/XOM/CVX - I think this winter will see all-time high gas/oil prices, and big oil is going to reclaim their margins. $4.00 a gallon i'm sure.

i leveraged everything, failure is not an option.

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[crashtd]

duken, i don't see you joined in the game...are you in the right one?

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