Getting started

The Champion Investor Game is a FREE live stock market simulation that mirrors the actual price movements, trading patterns and volumes of the real market. You will start with an initial £100,000 of virtual cash to invest. Once you have validated your entry (see below) you can have as many or as few long or short positions open as you like, or you can simply choose to stay in cash at any time after the initial validation.

Registration

Before you can start playing and winning, you will need to register your details with us, you should note that entry to the game is limited to one entry per person (if you are a prize winner and we find you have made multiple entries, all of your entries will become invalid). The registration process is simple to follow and requires some simple personal details including the selection of a username. If you find your entry rejected, it might be because the username you have chosen has already been selected by another player, or because we have identified multiple registrations from you! Once you have registered you are ready to start playing the Champion Investor Game.

How does it work

Prices and trades are generated for the game by a live contended* price system supplied by MoneyAM. Every time there is a change in the quoted price for a stock in the real market the prices available to trade in the game will reflect this.

Each player will be able to buy/sell/short shares from any of the listed companies on both the London Stock Exchange and AIM markets. N.B. Warrants, pref.shares etc are excluded. If in doubt about which shares are available, simply search by company or EPIC.

You will have a starting pot of £100,000 in cash. To start playing the game and to validate your entry, you must open two positions (buy/short stock) in different companies, each position must be for a minimum of £10,000 and a maximum of £50,000 each. Once you have fulfilled these minimum requirements you will see "Your entry is valid", on your "My Account" and you will be entered into the Leagues.

After the initial purchases you can have as few or as many stocks open at any one time with no minimum values.

As a player you are permitted to make as many trades each day, theoretically, you can change your entire portfolio in a day. However remember, just like the real market, you will be charged a commission and stamp duty.

Getting a quote

When you are ready to trade simply click on the "Trade" button in the top menu. You will be taken to the Trade System, here you will be presented with a quote form on the left and a brief summary of your account on the right. For more information about the account summary see "My Account" below At the quote form, simply enter the Epic code of the stock you want to trade. If you don't know the Epic code of the company you wish to trade in, you can click on the "Search for a Company Epic" link.

Get Quote Screen [Enlarge]

Making a Trade

After you have made the get quote request you will be given a trading ticket. On this ticket will be displayed the current buy and sell price for that stock together with an indication of the number of shares you can buy/sell/short etc with the funds you have available. Enter the quantity you want to trade and press the buy or sell as appropriate. If the volume you have entered is accepted, you will be shown a confirmation screen that will have all the details of the trade. If you are happy with what you see then click the "Confirm" button and the trade will be completed, otherwise click "Cancel" and obtain a new quote. Please note that this live trade ticket will only be valid for approximately 30 seconds after which time it will be cleared down.* You will then not be able to obtain a new quote for at least 1 minute.

Trade Ticket [Enlarge]

Commission and Stamp Duty

Each trade (buy or sell) will incur a broking commission of £10 per trade. Each buy or buy-back (on a short) will also incur Stamp Duty at 0.5%.

Trade Size Restriction

Your trade volume is restricted to a maximum of 3 times the normal market size for any stock. The normal market size is shown on the trade ticket.

Trading Hours

During normal market hours you will be able to trade live.

Auction - Backwardation

At open and close of business and other times of day when the bid/offers are reversed the system will not let you trade.

Out of Hours Trading

After market hours and at weekends you may place buy and sell orders and these will be filled at or around 8.10am on the next trading day at the prices prevailing at that time.

How does the short trade work?

As in real trading you will be selling first on the bid price and you will have to buy back within 28 days on the offer price. We will debit the cash equivalent of your initial short from your available funds and credit you account balance with the same after charges and/or stamp duty. Once you have closed this position we will re- credit this amount to your available funds, and debit your account balance the same after profit/loss and charges/stamp duty.

Keeping Track of it all

My Account

This is the most important area for your game administration - here you will find your current status and your performance rankings.

Here is a brief explanation of the different sections you will find in your "My Account" screen

Please Note that all values regarding current market prices are displayed as 15 min delayed.

Account Summary

This will provide you with information on your current assets, liabilities and cleared funds as well as your overall position. In the example above we have one long positions open (VOD) and one short position open (CAT).

We started the game with £100,000, to validate our entry we bought VOD and shorted CAT. VOD cost £14,758.38 after stamp duty, commission and spread. CAT cost us £13,810 after commission (stamp duty will be charged when we buy back).

The net stock value (current value) for VOD was £14,675, this is based on the current bid price in the market. This value makes up the total "Portfolio Assets". A short is generally deemed to be a credit, as money is received through a sale, however as in real life, the short position will reduce your spending power in the markets so we are treating it as a liability until the position is closed. The value of the CAT short is based on the current offer price of the stock(697.5p) giving a "Portfolio Liability" of £13,950.

Current balance

This is the balance of cash in your account, however this does not mean that you can go and spend all of this, the cash takes into account long and short positions (Shorts are a cash credit) : £99,051.62

Cleared Funds

The funds available to trade with. All trades are deducted from this total, shorts are considered as a cash debit not a credit as with the Current Balance : £71.41.62

Portfolio assets

The current value of the stocks you hold as longs (based on the current bid price): £14,650

Portfolio liabilities

The current value of the stocks you hold as shorts (based on the current offer price) : (£13,950)

Portfolio Value

Assets less Liabilities: £700

Total

This is the cash value( current value) plus Portfolio value: £99,751.62 and will be the value displayed in the league tables.

Performance

Simple tables showing your performance ranked against all other competitors, along with a simple 30 day chart of your end of day portolio value and your current league table rankings.

Open positions

This table shows all your current open positions, the cost of opening those positions and their current values. The columns also display the profits and losses on each trade excluding any commision or stamp duty related with closing the position.

If you wish to close the position you can simply click on the buy or sell buttons.

If you wish to see a summary of your previous positions or a more accurate forcast of your current profits including commission and stamp duty related to the close of the position then click the "view position summary" link.

If you wish to see a stock chart detailing the end of day performance of your open positions from the date you opened them, with concise price details then click "view micro charts" link.

Last 5 transactions

This displays the last 5 transactions. With time/date, charges and a running balance of debits and credits.

To view all your trades click on "view all trades" link.

* The game runs on contended system, which will allow a fixed number of game players to see a live price at any given time. Typically a player will only be able to see a live price for about 30 seconds after which the price will have timed out and you will need to make a new request.