Pretend money, real prices
$100,000 of pretend money buys real companies, funds and a handful of coins at real prices. Nothing is redeemable or transferable, you cannot deposit, withdraw or lose money you had, and nothing here is advice.
The week is the game
Every Monday at 09:30 New York time everybody starts again with $100,000. You trade weekdays from 09:30 to 16:00, and the week is scored at Friday’s close. Nothing carries over.
- Whole shares only
- No borrowing or leverage
- Cash earns nothing
- American listings, in dollars
- $1 a share or more
- Coins trade the same hours
Measured against the market
Your week shows what you made and how it compares with the market: up 2% while the market rose 3% is a bad week, down 1% while it fell 4% a good one.
Home’s what moved today shows the largest real moves among well-known names and anything you hold. It is what happened, not a shortlist and not advice.
Leagues
Signing up makes you a private league with a code, and nobody can find or join it without one. Inside is everybody’s week and who is just ahead of you, by how much.
Once a week settles, everybody’s book is opened in the record room: what each of you held at the close and what it cost. Never while it runs.
Each week you can name a goal: beat the market, finish up, finish top three or show up every day. It earns nothing, and your league sees whether you made it.
Battles
A second contest in a league, with its own rule book, length and scoreboard. Any member can start one; everybody is in it and starts level, one runs at a time, and it never touches your record, streak or season.
Rule books
- Open market
- Any company, fund or coin, as much of it as you like.
- Silicon
- Only the twenty-four semiconductor companies on the list.
- Upside down
- Every position is a short. It gains what the price loses, and a name can never cost you more than you put into it.
- All hours
- Only the twelve coins on the list, and the market never shuts, Saturday and Sunday included.
- One shot
- One company at a time. You may sell it and choose again, but you can never hold two.
- The big seven
- Only Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla.
- Spread
- No more than a quarter of your starting money in any one name.
- Oil and power
- Only the twenty-four energy and utility companies on the list.
- Pills and trials
- Only the twenty-four health companies on the list.
- The banks
- Only the twenty-four financial companies on the list.
- The loud ones
- Only the sixteen on the list, and no more than a third in any one of them.
- Funds only
- Only funds. No individual companies.
- What's for lunch
- Only the sixteen restaurant and coffee companies on the list.
- The garage
- Only the twelve car companies on the list.
- Dad's book
- Only the sixteen household names on the list.
- Smoke and drink
- Only the sixteen tobacco, drink and gambling companies on the list.
- Two names
- Two companies at a time. Sell one to buy a third.
How long it runs
- One day
- One week
- Two weeks
- A month
- A quarter
- A year
When anybody may buy
Selling is never shut. Any day is the default.
- Any day
- Buy and sell whenever this contest's market is open.
- Mondays
- On Mondays only.
- Monthly
- On the first session of each month.
- Quarterly
- On the first session of January, April, July and October.
- Opening day
- On the first session of this battle only.
- First half hour
- In the first half hour after the open.
Ready-made recipes (12)
Rule book, length and buying window mix freely. A recipe is a name for one mix.
- Silicon week
- Chips, five days, buy whenever you like.
- A year of chips
- Twelve mornings to change your mind. The rest is living with Nvidia.
- The nap
- Funds only, bought on day one, left alone until Christmas.
- One name, twelve chances
- One company at a time, for a year. Each month you may pick another.
- Lunch money
- A week of whoever is making the sandwiches.
- Dad's quarter
- The boring companies, for thirteen weeks, one morning a month to admit it.
- A month in the garage
- Cars, for four weeks, and you may only buy on a Monday.
- Smoke and drink, one day
- Tobacco, booze and betting. Settled tonight.
- The first half hour
- The loud sixteen, and you may only buy from 09:30 to 10:00.
- Two bets
- Two companies. That is the whole book.
- Seven until Christmas
- The seven everybody already owns, four mornings a year to reweight them.
- Monday club
- Anything you like, for a month, and the book only changes on a Monday.
When it ends, everybody is told where they finished and every book is opened, as with a week.
Draft night
A battle can be drafted: you pick in turn off one board, and a name somebody takes is gone for everybody else.
- Order
- Seats are random and the order snakes: last in round one picks first in round two.
- Fair shares
- Everybody gets as many names, and every pick is worth the same money.
- Clock
- Each turn is timed. A missed turn takes the top name left.
- Then
- You hold what you drafted: no trades until it settles, all bought at one opening price.
The weekend
Between Friday’s 16:00 close and Monday’s 09:30 open, line up to 8 companies to be bought at Monday’s opening price.
Everybody fills at that price, so timing gives no edge. It locks at the open. Anything that could not be bought, for want of a price or cash, is left alone and says why.
What keeps going
- Streak
- Market days you opened Arena to look at your week. Weekends and holidays never break one, and results do not matter.
- Record
- On your profile: every week played, what you made and how it compared with the market, settled that Friday and never touched again.
- Season
- A quarter of weeks, ranked on how far ahead of the market you finished per week. Play 3 weeks to be placed.
- Splits
- Applied the morning they happen: ten for one makes 100 shares 1,000 at a tenth of the price. Part shares are paid in cash.
- Rewards
- Titles, flair and themes change no score. Nothing that changes a result can be bought.
What Arena sends you
Only things that happened to you, each a switch on your profile.
- When somebody passes you
- Only while the market is open, and only in a league you are in.
- When a result comes in
- Your week on Friday evening, and any battle your league finishes. Once each, whatever the result was.
- When your league starts a battle
- You are in it either way, so this is the difference between playing it and finding out afterwards.
- When your streak needs today
- Late afternoon, only if you already have a streak going, and once for each day it is actually at risk. If you do not come back, we stop.
Never more than 3 a day, never between nine at night and eight in the morning where you are, and off means off at once. No “come back”, no invented countdowns, and nothing is ever sent about a bad week.
A minute a day, ten on Sunday
- Sunday
- Read last week, line up two or three companies, start a battle if the week feels stale.
- Monday
- Your lineup is bought at the open.
- Any weekday
- See where you are, who is just above you, and what moved.
- Friday
- Scored at the close, with a card to send your league.
Forget it for a week and you lose that week only. Nothing decays, and a missed day never costs your place.
What Arena is not
- Not a broker, and not linked to any account you hold.
- Not real money, in or out, ever.
- Not advice or a recommendation to buy anything.
- Not a prediction: prices are delayed, and pretend wins say little about real ones.
- Not gambling: no stake, no payout, nothing to win but the argument.
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Not financial advice. Questions: app.support@upthink.ee.