The Differences Between the Game and Real Investing
The number one difference, in my mind, was the elemental difference of virtual money vs the money that buys a loaf of bread when you're shopping at the grocery store. Simply put, I took careless risks that I never would have done if it were my own money I was investing. I learned a lot from the game and from my decisions, but if I were going to invest $10,000 - three summers of working 50 hours a week - you can bet I would know my companies better than their CEOs.
A big difference was the nonexistance of commissions. I'm ambivalent about whether it was a good idea to forego a vitual commission: on one hand, commissions are part of investing, so ignoring them is ignoring a part of investing; on the other hand, if we had to pay for commissions, I don't think we would have made many trades, which I believe was the most worthwhile part of the Challenge.
Another difference was our ability to buy stocks whenever we wanted. For example, when I wanted to buy IMAX, the market was closed and the official ticker price was at around $4.00. When the market opened, however, it didn't sell for under six dollars the entire day.
