How LongShortGame helps your trading game
It's only a game, isn't it?
Yes, LongShortGame is only a game. However, there are insights that can be used for real trading. First, you will learn why LongShortGame is different and not real trading. Then, we'll point out a few reasons why practicing on LongShortGame is beneficial and why it's valuable for you.
Nobody in real life trades like LongShortGame
Of course, you would never trade like in real life. Some reasons the gameplay is different from real-life trading:
- You would check out what you're trading
- You would use more data than just a chart
- You would not enter and then exit exactly after 2 months
- You would adjust your trades based on new information
- You would use stop losses
- You would not risk your entire capital in one trade
- You would have to pay broker fees
But on the other hand, LongShortGame uses real stock price data of companies with large market caps. It helps you focus on one thing only: The chart.
Advantages of practicing trading with LongShortGame
No noise
We're bombarded daily with news about companies and markets and it's very hard to distill what is important and what isn't. Technical Analysis makes the point that the chart will let you know which information is important. How helpful is it to read an article that company X is doing poorly, only to have the stock go up? Technical analysis helps you to focus on price movements only as these prices can disconnect from fundamentals for a long time. You cannot get confused by noise when playing LongShortGame as the chart is literally the only thing you see.
No emotions
How often do you get emotional about a company's stock? It's the best business in the world and completely undervalued, why doesn't anyone see this? Or, the reverse, this company is an overvalued fraud that is doomed—yet it just went up another 10%? Technical analysis disregards these emotions. Still, in reality it's hard to disconnect from news flow and the resulting emotions. Since with LongShortGame you only see the chart, no chance to get emotional about the company behind it.
No (real) losses
That's the best part: Any losses incurred in the game are not real! And the game is free as well :). Play as much as you want without risking any funds.
But: a healthy reality check
Although it's just a game, it teaches you a valuable real-world lesson about trading and gives you a reality check about your technical analysis reading skills. Which is what it's designed for in the first place.
LongShortGame is a skill-based game
Originally, I developed LongShortGame just for myself to answer a simple question: Can I predict price movements by just looking at charts? Since playing the game was kind of fun and addictive, I decided to turn it into a game. One of the most interesting insights for me as the developer was that while I wasn't great at the game, many other players were. And it's not random.
The leaderboard will be online soon, and will give everyone a peek into the performance of others!