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16-11-2012, 12:24 AM
Be careful of "games" involving the stock market! Most, if not all, don't teach the proper ways of investment. The first rule I learnt is - don't follow gurus, trust yourself and your own analysis! 
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Nov 15, 2012
Stock market game offers expert tips
A NEW mobile stock market game developed in Singapore aims to piggyback on the expertise of successful investors.
The soon-to-be-launched game, called Trade Hero, with access to 14 stock markets around the globe including Singapore, operates a bit like Twitter.
"Trade heroes", or expert investors, attract followers keen to replicate their success by mimicking their investment strategy.
Co-founder Dinesh Bhatia said: "Successful investors usually trade in companies they have followed for a while. They've developed insights about these companies, and done their research. So when they buy stocks, they're likely to make money.
"If we follow them, picking up tips from their blogs or tweets, our chance of being successful trading in the same stocks also increases."
Trade heroes get half of the US$1.99 (S$2.40) monthly subscriptions that followers pay.
The more successful the trade heroes, the more followers they will have and the higher their share of the subscriptions.
The game will rank trade heroes by their successes, which can be sorted by exchange, industry, quarterly or monthly returns.
Followers choose whom they want to follow, and pay US$1.99 a month to follow each expert.
They may switch only at month's end. Their trade hero's real-time trading information will be sent to their smartphones.
Trade heroes and followers can be anywhere in the world.
Initially, the experts will have to prove their worth. When they sign up, each will get $100,000 in virtual currency to create their own stock portfolio. They can place virtual trades on any of the companies listed on the 14 stock exchanges.
"We want to make investing simple for the man on the street who's only interested in making money. And for the trade hero, he may be a part-time investor who knows one company very well. Now he can 'monetise' his expertise. This wasn't possible previously," said Mr Bhatia.
There are no live stock transactions on the site. Investors have to call their brokers or go online to do this.
"We want to increase trading volume, which will benefit anyone. We're creating a new business model, we're not going to take away business from any bank or brokerage."
Co-founder Dominic Morris said the biggest challenge had been to get live feeds from the stock exchanges.
"But we've managed to do that now and we'll be adding more exchanges next year," said Mr Morris, a specialist in online banking who has worked for banks such as Standard Chartered.
Trade Hero was founded about 18 months ago. Recently, it closed its seed funding round when TNF Ventures invested $600,000.
Mr Bhatia was a pioneer dot.com entrepreneur about 15 years ago. Among the firms he founded was EdgeMatrix, which produced Wapman, a microbrowser for personal digital assistants (PDAs). However, the company was a victim of the dot.com bust.
He made headlines again in 2004, when he was caught for consuming cocaine, and was jailed for eight months.
In the last few years, he lived in the United States and invested in stocks and shares. It was his loss of about US$300,000 when he invested in Palm, the maker of PDAs and smartphones, that led him to the idea for Trade Hero.
"I believed in the company. It had good technology but was slow and was overtaken by other companies. If I'd known that it would be slow in executing its strategy, I might not have invested in it at all."
Trade Hero's app for the Apple iPhone and iPad is expected to be available soon. Android and Windows 8 versions will follow next year. Those interested can visit http://tradehero.mobi
GRACE CHNG
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Nov 15, 2012
Stock market game offers expert tips
A NEW mobile stock market game developed in Singapore aims to piggyback on the expertise of successful investors.
The soon-to-be-launched game, called Trade Hero, with access to 14 stock markets around the globe including Singapore, operates a bit like Twitter.
"Trade heroes", or expert investors, attract followers keen to replicate their success by mimicking their investment strategy.
Co-founder Dinesh Bhatia said: "Successful investors usually trade in companies they have followed for a while. They've developed insights about these companies, and done their research. So when they buy stocks, they're likely to make money.
"If we follow them, picking up tips from their blogs or tweets, our chance of being successful trading in the same stocks also increases."
Trade heroes get half of the US$1.99 (S$2.40) monthly subscriptions that followers pay.
The more successful the trade heroes, the more followers they will have and the higher their share of the subscriptions.
The game will rank trade heroes by their successes, which can be sorted by exchange, industry, quarterly or monthly returns.
Followers choose whom they want to follow, and pay US$1.99 a month to follow each expert.
They may switch only at month's end. Their trade hero's real-time trading information will be sent to their smartphones.
Trade heroes and followers can be anywhere in the world.
Initially, the experts will have to prove their worth. When they sign up, each will get $100,000 in virtual currency to create their own stock portfolio. They can place virtual trades on any of the companies listed on the 14 stock exchanges.
"We want to make investing simple for the man on the street who's only interested in making money. And for the trade hero, he may be a part-time investor who knows one company very well. Now he can 'monetise' his expertise. This wasn't possible previously," said Mr Bhatia.
There are no live stock transactions on the site. Investors have to call their brokers or go online to do this.
"We want to increase trading volume, which will benefit anyone. We're creating a new business model, we're not going to take away business from any bank or brokerage."
Co-founder Dominic Morris said the biggest challenge had been to get live feeds from the stock exchanges.
"But we've managed to do that now and we'll be adding more exchanges next year," said Mr Morris, a specialist in online banking who has worked for banks such as Standard Chartered.
Trade Hero was founded about 18 months ago. Recently, it closed its seed funding round when TNF Ventures invested $600,000.
Mr Bhatia was a pioneer dot.com entrepreneur about 15 years ago. Among the firms he founded was EdgeMatrix, which produced Wapman, a microbrowser for personal digital assistants (PDAs). However, the company was a victim of the dot.com bust.
He made headlines again in 2004, when he was caught for consuming cocaine, and was jailed for eight months.
In the last few years, he lived in the United States and invested in stocks and shares. It was his loss of about US$300,000 when he invested in Palm, the maker of PDAs and smartphones, that led him to the idea for Trade Hero.
"I believed in the company. It had good technology but was slow and was overtaken by other companies. If I'd known that it would be slow in executing its strategy, I might not have invested in it at all."
Trade Hero's app for the Apple iPhone and iPad is expected to be available soon. Android and Windows 8 versions will follow next year. Those interested can visit http://tradehero.mobi
GRACE CHNG
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
