Folks, I came across this website called Yalicoo (http://www.yalicoo.com/), and it is a virtual stock trading platform that allows you trade, via a provided real-time feed, to win cash prizes (vis PayPal). If you are a frequent reader of my Blog, you know very well that I am no expert in stock trading. Yet, out of curiousity, I decided to sign-up and check it out.
First, what I learned is that you have to pay to join the game. For those on-line Poker Players out there, this is very similar to the Poker Tournaments online, or even Sit-n-go games on-line. You pay a 'buy-in', and you are ready to roll. You can choose between a Day, Week, or Month game. In trading terms, that's more like Day-trade, Swing-trade, or 'longer'-Swing-trade.
I randomly selected a game called "NASDAQ Largest 750 Companies Monthly" game to look at the details. You can see that it shows you how many participants there are, and the rewards... which is US$1350. Basically, if you come up to be the top earner among these few hundred participants in a month's time, you will win $1000. (The remaining $350 is split between the 2nd and 3rd position winner.) Oh, and the top 10% winners will get a free-entry into other 'games.'
So how much is it to join a game like this? It turns out that it costs US$15 to join this game. (Day-game and Week-game are cheaper.) My first reaction was... what the hell? I rather spend my $15 on commission doing real-money trade! (More on that later!)
Let's see what other rules are there for this particular 'game'...
After reading all the details (I think I got everything covered so far), these are my thoughts...
- At first, I really thought that this idea is stupid. Then, I thought... hey, there are so many 'wanna-be' traders out there that do NOT have the captial to start trading, yet, maybe these people do have to skills! How else can the participate except for Paper Trading? Yeah, the rewards are nothing compare to what you'll get from wall street, assuming 'absolute success rate' of course. But if/when you have limited capital, the possibility of investing $15 for a potential of $1000 return is not that bad! And if you think about it, you are looking at a risk of only $15!
- My second thought is... if online Poker is forced to made illegal (or somewhat inoperable) in the US, how is this site/model different from online Poker? You pay a 'buy-in' to play the 'game.' You win money from the 'game.' Also, the continuous debate over a Game of Chance vs. a Game of Skills in (on-line) Poker, is so applicable to Stock Trading. Some may argue that it's 'skills.' But plenty do think that it's 'chance.'
Last but not least, if you do plan to sign-up and try it out, I would like to ask that you send me an email first! It says on the web-site that for every person that I referred, I will get 3 free entries. So just email me from the email address that you are going to use to sign-up, and I'll send you an invite from my Yalicoo account. Disclamer: I do not get commission money from them. I do not have any ownership or investment in this company. I just want to earn some free-plays.
My email addres is Closetdaytrader at Gmail.com
Regardless if you are going to let me gain your referral, I would still very much like to hear from you on your view of this site. Signed-up or not. Meanwhile, I think I'm going to give it a try. I'll post my results and experiences here.
