Sunday, January 22, 2006

Learn about stock markets without investing in them !

While I was surfing the net I found this amazing game, that is a must for any finance starter. It is called the "Wallstreet Raider" by a company called Roninsoft. It a simulation game on stock markets and the field of investment banking. A free shareware version of this software is available here.

Following are the features which I liked the most -

1. Allows to analyze companies, although not a very exhaustive analysis.

2. Allows to analyze the sectors and how they are expected to do in the near future.

3. Lets you take companies private (LBO's, MBO's, hostile takeovers. Even greenmailing is allowed).

4. One can also list his/her company, after taking it private for a few years. This is typically what happens in a leveraged buyout.

5. The software also lets you sell assets/restructure assets/buy new assets.....etcetera.

It has everything in it to excite a finance starter and is also very addictive. The shareware version allows you to play it only for two financial years, but if one does well (which means make more money) than it allows an extension of another three years. The fully-paid version will let you play for 30 odd years. A must for any starter in finance and stock markets.

A drawback: The stocks listed in this game belong to the US markets which means one cannot really relate to the companies in this software. But, nevertheless, it is worth playing.

A tangent thought -

In a country that boasts of a great number of software professionals why is it that we do not produce a world class IT product (that can be a game, a software like word or excel, or for that matter an operating system). C'mon Mr.Murthy and gang, use those humongous free reserves that are lying in your balance sheets and give us a world class IT product that we can be proud of ? Atleast, make a beginning .... ?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

C'mon Mr.Murthy and gang, use those humongous free reserves that are lying in your balance sheets and give us a world class IT product that we can be proud of ? Atleast, make a beginning .... ?

And that too in Finance
http://www.reveleus.com/

Anonymous said...

thank you for giving the software that is usefull in learning about stock markets but i think you need to provide some reference books name or an article for learning about the stock markets for those like me who want to know what is finance but have no information about it.