Get Started: Investor
The GolfInvestors stock markets are sophisticated and require an understanding of the game of golf, stock markets, and valuing a player's worth, be it the real GolfInvestors stock markets or the simulation GolfInvestors stock markets.
GolfInvestors offers both "Real" and "Simulated" stock markets. When you setup an investor account on GolfInvestors you will be able to trade on both types of markets. You can trade for pleasure on the GolfInvestors simulation markets. Or you can decide to risk real money to help golfers obtain their dream of playing professionally while having a chance to obtain a return on your real investment.
You will need to make sure you understand how the GolfInvestor markets work, as they have a different twist than true financial markets (i.e. a NASDAQ, or a NYSE). For one, you will be trading shares of a professional golfer (a person) and not shares of a company. In addition, the earnings calculation is not the net income of a player (net income = total revenue - total expenses), but the total revenue a golfer earns over the defined earnings period of a GolfInvestors market.
The following steps should provide you with an overview of where to begin. You can experiment with the site and its specific features on your own by following these steps. Enjoy becoming more familiar with GolfInvestors.
This method of learning is condusive for people who like to learn by 'doing' or 'experimenting'. If you are a person who likes to follow a lesson book, then it is recommended you go to the 'How to Trade' tutorial. If you are ready to begin using GolfInvestors and learn by doing, then proceed below.
Step 1: Open an Account
You will need to setup an investor account on the GolfInvestors system before you can begin trading on any of the GolfInvestors markets. During the registration process you will be able to choose your id and password for your account. Your id and password will enable you to access your account 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
[back to top of page]
Step 2: Review the Markets
Review the list of active, past and future markets to learn about their details. The main thing here is to look at the type each market is. A market can either be a 'Real' market or a 'Simulation' market. Real markets require actual money to buy and sell shares of golfers. So you will need to transfer money into your GolfInvestors account before you can trade on them. Simulation markets provide you with a set amount of fictitious cash to start trading shares of players traded on these markets. Investors can start trading immediately with this amount of cash.
[back to top of page]
Step 3: Research Players & the Activity on the GolfInvestors Stock Markets
To be able to invest rationally you will need to do your research on the players which are traded on the GolfInvestor stock markets*. You will want to find out information such as their current earnings in the tournaments they have played in, current markets the player is traded on**, the player's stock price (price per share of the last executed trade), the player's stock price history, news articles on the player, how are earnings calculated for the markets the player is traded on, and any other criteria which will help you decide if you want to buy or sell a player's stock.
There are 3 areas where you can start your research on players, with the goal of finding players you want to invest in:
Players section: This section has all the information related to a player, including articles, tournament results, earnings for each tournament, picture gallery, analyst reports, financial information, stats, background and more. In this section you will find the most extensive information on individual players.
My Account - Quotes page: This page is in the My Account section and let's you do a search for multiple players. By entering in the player's ticker symbol or last name you will receive financial oriented information for the players and which market they are traded on.
My Account - Buy/Sell page: On this page, you can enter in a player's ticker symbol and press the 'Get Quote and Holdings' link to see a player's quote (i.e. last price, closest bid price, closest ask price). The results will be similar to the results provided on the My Account - Quotes page, just not as extensive. This feature is provided on this page mainly for you to check on the price per share for the player at the time you are ready to submit an order. In addition, on this page you can select a market and click on the 'All Players Traded' link to see a list of all the players traded on that specific market.
You need to do your research so you know which players you want to trade and on which GolfInvestors markets to trade this player. After researching the player you want to trade, you need to make sure you understand the rules of the GolfInvestors market you will be trading on. In addition, it is always good to review the overall movement and activity of a market (i.e. most active stocks, top gainers, top losers, etc.). See the Markets section to review the GolfInvestor stock markets currently active.
|
Basic Understanding of a Player's Value
|
Click on the image to the right to view a movie which provides an example of how a player is valued on GolfInvestor stock markets. In the movie, Justin Leonard is the player who's earnings is used to help explain the valuation of a player over a course of 12 months.
[ view demo ]
|
Requires Macromedia Flash plug-in
Files Size: 166 KB
|
|
* GolfInvestors runs multiple stock markets. A player can be traded on multiple markets. Each market has different rules. Make sure to understand the rules for the market you want to trade on by going to the Market section.
** Not all players are traded. So you need to do your research to find out which players are traded and which players are not traded on GolfInvestors markets. In addition, you will need to find out which markets a player is traded on and which markets the players is not traded on. You can do so by going to various pages on the web site. One of them is the Markets - Players Traded page. The other is the My Account - Buy/Sell page, choosing which market you want to trade on and then click on the 'All Players Traded' link. Or you can go to the Market Cap Detail page of the market (sample: 2004 Season Market - Market Cap Detail page) and see the list of players along with their current price, earnings per share, the day's change in price, the day's volume, and more. It is best to go to the Market section, select the market you want, and then select the link on the Market Capitalization figure. As a 3rd option you can go to the Players List page in the Players section and clicking on the 'Traded' check box to which players are traded and on which markets.
[back to top of page]
Step 4: Buy Shares of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings)
Before a player's stock can trade on a market, they must perform an initial public offering (IPO). Offerings go through several stages before the shares are pushed onto the market for everyone to buy and sell them. These stages include: 'Pricing' and 'Selling off Market'.
When a player's offering is in the 'Pricing' stage, you can review the details of their offering. This information will help you decide if the offering is an offering you want to buy shares in. You can not purchase shares of the offering at this time.
Once the offering goes to the 'Selling off Market' stage, you can then begin to purchase shares of the player at the offering price. Once all of the shares are purchased in the 'Selling off Market' stage, the player's shares are then placed on the market for open trading --- every one can then submit buy and sell orders for the player's stock on the market trading floor.
You can view the list of a offering by going to the My Account - Offering section.
[back to top of page]
Step 5: Submit Orders for the Players you want to Trade
Once you have done your research, you then go to the My Account - Buy/Sell page to submit orders to GolfInvestor markets. On the Buy/Sell page you will enter the terms of your order. This would be information such as the player's ticker symbol, transaction type (buy, sell, buy to cover, sell short), quantity of shares of the order, the price per share, limit or market order, and which market to trade this player on.
Remember: You can find the latest price of the player, closest bid price, and closest ask price for the player by entering the player's ticker symbol and the market the player is traded on, and pressing the 'Get Quote and Holdings' link. If you want to check to see what players are traded on a certain market, leave all the fields blank, choose the market you are interested in, and then click on the 'All Players Traded' link.
Once you have filled out the Buy/Sell order form with the terms you want for the order, press the submit button. If you have enough funds available to execute the order, you will then be presented with a summary of your order so you can review the order before the order is submitted to the market. If the order is correct, press the Confirm Order button to have the order submitted to the market. You will then receive a screen which tells you the order has been successfully submitted to the market. If you do not have enough funds to execute the order, you will be provided a 'warning' message saying your order was not submitted to the market. The 'warning' message will have information about why you were not able to submit the order to the market and provide you the opportunity to modify the order so it can be submitted to the market successfully.
[back to top of page]
Step 6: Review your Orders
Once you have placed orders on the market you can go to the My Account - Orders and the My Account - History pages. The My Account - Orders page will show you your executed orders. The My Account - History page shows you all of your transactions which are associated with your account, including un-executed orders, executed orders, canceled orders, dividend transactions, and finance charge transactions.
[back to top of page]
Step 7: Review your Portfolio
To see the value of your portfolio at any time you need to go to the My Account - Portfolio page. This will show you your balance sheet (i.e. cash holdings, long market value, stocks shorted, cash borrowed) for each GolfInvestor stock market. In addition, you will see which stocks you own for each market on this page.
[back to top of page]
Step 8: Review your Position in the Rankings
To see how you compare with other investors playing the GolfInvestor markets, you can go to the My Account - Rankings page. Rankings are based upon an investor's Net Asset Value ( NAV = Assets - Liabilities).
[back to top of page]
Step 9: Repeat Steps 2-8 and HAVE FUN!!!!
Repeat steps 2-8 to keep trading and monitoring your activities on GolfInvestors. And most of all, it is important
you HAVE FUN using the GolfInvestors site. If you are not having fun, please let us know so we can see if we can help improve GolfInvestors to your satisfaction.
This 'Get Started' page should provide you with the basic information to begin using the GolfInvestors site. If you want more detailed information on how to use the site or want to see examples of how other investors use the GolfInvestors site, see either 'How to Trade'. If you want to ask us questions directly, feel free to contact us at any time. Happy Trading.
[back to top of page]
|
