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Help/FAQ

Help

The stock market is an important source of capital. Publicly traded on the stock market, corporations sell shares of company ownership, allowing them to raise additional capital for expansion. The liquidity of stocks allows investors to quickly and easily sell securities. This attracts investors to stocks, compared to other less liquid investments like real estate.

The price of shares reflects investor confidence in an economy. When stock market prices are rising, an economy is considered to be up and coming. Further, the stock market is often considered the primary indicator of a country's economic strength and development. Rising share prices, for example, are associated with increased business investment. Share prices also affect the wealth of households and their consumption. Therefore, central banks tend to monitor the control and behavior of the stock market and the smooth operation of financial system functions.

Exchanges also act as the clearinghouse for each transaction, meaning that they collect and deliver the shares, and guarantee payment to the seller of a security. This eliminates the risk to an individual buyer or seller that the counterparty could default on the transaction.

Market Orders

A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the current market price. The advantage of a market order is you are almost always guaranteed your order will be executed (as long as there are willing buyers and sellers). The disadvantage is the price you pay when your order is executed may not always be the price you obtained from a real-time quote service or were quoted by your broker. This may be especially true in fast-moving markets where stock prices are more volatile. When you place an order "at the market," particularly for a large number of shares, there is a greater chance you will receive different prices for parts of the order. In this game, transactions occur instantly, so you do not need to worry about the same kind of delays you may experience with real brokers.

Stop Orders

A stop order is an order to buy or sell a stock once the price of the stock reaches a specified price, known as the stop price. When the specified price is reached, your stop order becomes a market order.

Buy Stop Order: Investors typically use a stop order when buying stock to limit a loss or protect a profit on short sales. The order is entered at a stop price that is always above the current market price.
Sell Stop Order: A sell stop order helps investors to avoid further losses or to protect a profit that exists if a stock price continues to drop. A stop order to sell is always placed below the current market price.

The advantage of a stop order is you do not have to monitor how a stock is performing on a daily basis. The disadvantage is that the stop price could be activated by a short-term fluctuation in a stock's price. Also, once your stop price is reached, your stop order becomes a market order and the price you receive may be much different from the stop price, especially in a fast-moving market where stock prices can change rapidly.

Short Sales

A short sale is generally the sale of a stock you do not own. Investors who sell short believe the price of the stock will fall. If the price drops, you can buy the stock at the lower price and make a profit. If the price of the stock rises and you buy it back later at the higher price, you will incur a loss.

When you sell short, your brokerage firm loans you the stock. The stock you borrow comes from either the firm's own inventory, the margin account of another of the firm's clients, or another brokerage firm. As with buying stock on margin, you are subject to the margin rules. Other fees and charges may apply. In this game, you do not incur any additional charges for shorting. See FAQ for more information on how we simulate shorting.

Resources

While we have introduced you to the basics, check some of these resources below to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NOBE Stock Game?
The NOBE stock game is a stock market simulation game designed and programmed in-house by the NOBE Illinois IT Stock Game Team. The NOBE Stock Game was first launched in 2002 and has undergone many changes since its initial release. In Spring 2009, the game was rebuilt from the ground up to incorporate new features and improve stability and performance. In Spring 2010, the NOBE Illinois Stock Game is going national. For the first time, all chapters will be able to participate in the game.
When does the game start?
This semester's game will run from Monday March 8th at market open until Friday April 9th at market close.
Who sponsors the NOBE Stock Game?
The Stock Game sponsor changes from year to year. Spring 2010 sponsors have not been finalized.
Who can play?
Anyone can play! There is no charge to participate in the game. Players must register on their chapter's website.
What are the prizes?
Prizes have not been finalized for the upcomming game, but there will be both local chapter and national winners.
Can I win the prizes?
While anyone can register online and participate in the game, in order to win cash prizes, you must have paid the registration fee or be an official member of NOBE. To become an official NOBE member or to pay the registration fee, please contact an executive board member from your chapter.
I found information that differs from your search results. Why is that?
Different financial sites update at different times. Our game uses real time data available from Google Finance, and we reccomend using this source for your financial decisions.
What types of orders are allowed?
Four orders are available in the NOBE Stock Game: buy orders, sell orders, buy stop orders, and sell stop orders. Check out the help page for more information on different types of orders.
Am I allowed to trade penny stocks?
Yes. Penny stocks are defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as stocks trading below $5.
What is shorting?
Check out the help page for more information on shorting, but in this simulation, we follow the following criteria.

Before the short order can be executed, you must have 50% of the stock value plus commission fees. Next, you borrow a stock from someone and immediately sell it for profit, which is stored in an account separate from your holdings. The profit is the total value of the stock, minus the commission fees. Finally, you must pay back whoever you borrowed the stocks from. To simulate the arbitrary nature of repayment terms, you have a randomly generated number of days between 5 and 10 to repay the borrowed stocks. Try to pay back the stocks when market price is below what you originally paid. Otherwise, the stocks will be repaid automatically-regardless of market price-at the end of the time period. After you pay off your borrowed stocks, the positive (or negative) change between the original and repaid stock values will be added to your holdings account.
How do the commission fees work?
A $7.00 commission fee is added to every buy order and subtracted from every sell order. An additional fee of 1% of the trade principal is added for trades involving penny stocks.

For example, if you were to buy 10 shares at $10 dollars a share, the total cost of the transaction would be $107 dollars. If you were to then sell the same 10 shares the next day at $15 dollars a share, you would receive $143. Your total profit from this transaction would be $36.00. Similarly, commissions are added to stop orders at the time the order is fulfilled.
I am receiving an error message, noticed a bug or glitch, or saw something that just does not look right. What should I do?
Most error messages you may encounter involve user input errors, such as entering an invalid stock symbol. If you encounter one of these errors, just go back and try again. If the error message is something else or you notice a bug/glitch, please contact David Grochocki. Please note that the current version of the stock game officially supports Internet Explorer and Firefox only.
Who works on game development?
The NOBE stock game was designed and is maintained by NOBE Illinois IT Stock Game Team. In the most recent revision of the game, David Grochoki, Andrew Lambert, Rob Kopp, and Jason Blalock worked together to develop new features and migrate the game to the national stage.
I have an idea to improve the game, wish to help with development, or want to report a problem with the game. Who should I contact?
We always appreciate any feedback. Please contact David Grochocki.

Rules

Each player will start the game with $100,000 to invest as they see fit.
If a player loses all their money, then that player is eliminated for that round (gives you a chance to get your finances in order).
The goal of a player is to maximize their net worth by the end of the game.
Buy and sell orders will be executed in real-time.
Special orders (Buy/Sell Stop) will be executed every 10 minutes during regular trading hours.
Shorting will work as follows: Before the short order can be executed, you must have 50% of the stock value plus commission fees. Next, you borrow a stock from someone and immediately sell it for profit, which is stored in an account separate from your holdings. The profit is the total value of the stock, minus the commission fees. Finally, you must pay back whoever you borrowed the stocks from. To simulate the arbitrary nature of repayment terms, you have a randomly generated number of days between 5 and 10 to repay the borrowed stocks. Try to pay back the stocks when market price is below what you originally paid. Otherwise, the stocks will be repaid automatically-regardless of market price-at the end of the time period. After you pay off your borrowed stocks, the positive (or negative) change between the original and repaid stock values will be added to your holdings account.
Stocks may only be bought from the following domestic exchanges: NYSE and NASDAQ.
All transactions have a commission fee. See FAQ for more information.
Available orders include buy orders, sell orders, sell stop orders, and buy stop orders. See FAQ for more information.
All pending transactions will be canceled and all outstanding short orders will be fulfilled at the end of the game before final results are calculated.
Transactions can be made during pre-market, regular, and after hours trading. The pre-market hours begin at 7:00 AM and end at 8:30 AM. Regular hours begin at 8:30 AM and end at 3:00 PM. After hours trading begins at 3:00 PM and ends at 5:30 PM. These times are in Central Standard Time. The market is closed on the weekends.
Players must register their account with their real name and a valid email address to be eligible for prizes. A person may only have one account. Those who are discovered to have more than one account will have all accounts suspended and will no longer be eligible for prizes. Accounts with identical orders at approximately the same time are considered identicle accounts.
Executive board members can play (and show up on leaderboard) but cannot win prizes at the end of the game. Junior board members are eligible for prizes.
In the event that a player signs up for an account but makes no trades (or negligible trades such as buying and selling at the same time), that person will not be eligible to win prizes, even if a score of $100,000 (or approximately $100,000) is one of the highest scores among active members.
NOBE maintains a policy of ethical play among members and reserves the right to reset or terminate any accounts of players perceived to be exploiting flaws in the game. In cases of exploitation, the decision to reset or terminate accounts will be decided upon by the National Technology Director and the rest of the National Executive Board. Decisions are nonreversible. In such cases, players who have their accounts reset or terminated will be notified and sent a detailed explanation of the offense. We have done this in the past. If you find a bug/flaw, please contact an executive board member as soon as possible to ensure your account does not get deleted.

*Rules are subject to change up to the launch of the game.