Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away, a stock market is actually going up, unlike here on Earth, w
here the stock market has been on a downward spiral. A new application on Facebook aims to change the way people invest their money. The application is called Stock Wars from Black Swan Games. It is a virtual market simulation and portfolio management with a highly addictive social element. Here is how the game works. The goal of the game is to be the top investor on Facebook. The application gathers actual market data and integrates it into the application. When you join Stock Wars you are given $100,000 in virtual cash. You can then use that virtual cash to purchase exchange trade stocks like Google (ticker symbol GOOG) or any other traded company. For example Google is currently trading at about $300 on the NASDAQ, so you can use some or all of your virtual cash balance to buy Google shares and then hopefully sell them at a higher price. As your portfolio increase or decrease your profile is given a designation such as a ‘hedge fund manager’ or ‘day trader’. What I found interesting in the application is the fact that it teaches you how to invest without actually putting any real money into the market.
If there is a stock that you have been looking at you can buy it on Stock Wars and then track its progress without spending a penny. Another feature of the application is the challenge option. You can challenge your friends to see if you can invest better than them. The challenge work when each player agrees to a specific wager (up to $5,000 in virtual dollars) and a pre-defined period of time. The winner is determined by the player who has the largest portfolio gain. For example I wagered $1,000 with my friend Andrew, that my portfolio will increase more (in %) in the next month. If I win I get Andrew’s $1,000 added to my overall balance for me to invest in more stocks. Gordon Gecko would be proud! You can also add to your cash balance by trying out some offers the app developers include in the application. For example clicking on an offer will increase your virtual cash balance by $1,000. You can then use that cash to buy more stocks. The game itself is very educational, although I wish the developers include a detailed tutorial for less knowledgeable users, after all investing in stocks can be tricky. Overall, I think this application is fantastic, although still in the embryonic stages of growth, I believe it has tremendous potential. Look out for this one to be a big hit on Facebook. In fact, I liked this application so much, I put it in our featured application section.
Pieces of Flair
One of the most liked applications on Facebook is “Pieces of Flair” from RockYou. The application is one of the most used application on facebook with over 4.5 million active monthly users. With this application, you can send buttons with different sayings on them to your friends. It is a rather enjoyable application because there is a button for almost anything. You can choose flair with quotes from your favorite movies and television shows or you can choose flair based on various holidays. It is easy to find sayings based on almost any keyword you enter into the search box. If your friend loves bacon, just type that word into the search box and a load of humorous and fun flair buttons will come up. The best part is that it is really easy to use; simply find the button you want and then hit send. Another neat feature with flair is that you can keep all your buttons on a cork board and post it to your profile. The cork board will display flair sent by your friends or flair you have chosen to help show off your personality. You can also rearrange the flair to display in a certain order on the corkboard, or place them randomly. If you can’t find what you are looking for, you have the option of creating your own piece of flair and posting it for you and other users to use. That can be fun to see how popular your creation can be. All in all, Pieces of Flair is a fun way to communicate with your friends and have yourself a little laugh in the process.
