Social Networking and Investing in a virtual Market – The Rookie Challenge!

Back when I was in college and for a while after I got out and went back to work at a college I took a course in investing. We had to pick stocks from the Wall Street Journal and track them ourselves and do things on paper. Wow, times have certainly changed. Now there are websites where you can do virtual investing. There are a ton of them but not all of them are equal. MyWallSt.net is a financial social networking site that allows users to create their own accounts for free and participate in a weekly rookie challenge for real money, $1,000.00 a week.

Sign up for the Rookie Challenge is very simple. I just signed up and you can visit my profile at http://www.mywallst.net/BenSpark. The thing I really like about MyWallSt.net and the rookie challenge is that unlike other social networking sites I may actually learn something important that could help me financially. The challenge goes like this. You sign up for MyWallSt.net, you get an account. Then once you sign in you click on the Rookies link. there you get 100,000.00 in virtual money to invest. You can buy and sell stocks. There is a great FAQ about the game. There you are going to learn the basic rules. For instance you will learn how the game is played and how the weekly $1,000.00 winer is chosen. It is pretty simple and way more fun than doing the virtual stock market with pen and paper.

While I was writing this post, directly after I signed up, within 5 minutes I was contacted by Darryl from MyWallSt.net to talk about the site and what my first impressions were. Well a personal call after sign up is a very good first impression. I am excited to play the rookie challenge and learn more about this company and website. And in about a week I’m going to get a welcome packet including a newsletter. I’m up for a challenge. How about you?

Back in the Day part 2…

When I worked at Cape Cod Kayak back in 2001 I spent a lot of time in the shop talking with people about the different boats. My boss Kim encouraged me to become a rep. At the time I was uncomfortable talking to people that I didn’t know and would never have dreamed of going into kayak shops to talk to kayak shop owners about products. I thought about so many factors and psyched myself right out of even trying. I’d have to get a truck and buy many truck accessories including a ladder rack to use to transport the boats or other gear.

Now in a twist of irony my job is and has been for the past year to go and talk to potential customers about software. I travel all over the country and give presentations. I guess if I had taken a chance on that sort of career long ago I probably would have done okay with going out and meeting new people and telling them about products. Live and Learn.