Students: Stay ahead of the game with Traderversity
Traderversity is an exciting new, free, virtual trading game designed exclusively for UK university students. The interactive online game at traderversity.com lets students try their hand at trading with real-time access to the stock market without investing any real money. Creating healthy competition, players can get to grips with the basics of trading, interact with other student traders and be in with the chance to win a share of the £5,000 monthly prize fund!
Traderversity is the world’s only free, no-risk financial trading game with real-time prices. Quick to register and easy to use, simply log in via Facebook and a valid university email address and once registered players can start buying and selling Equities, Currencies, Commodities, and building their portfolio.
Traderversity is currently running two competitions where students can win one of 5 iPad2s or a share of £5,000. The Top 50 players at the end of January will be entered into a draw and the first five names chosen at random will each win an iPad2 16Gb Wi-Fi. In addition, there is £1,000 of real cash up for grabs every week with a top prize of £250, and the Top 50 all winning cash prizes.
Designed to help de-mystify “The City”, the game can be used by students from all academic fields, from economics and finance, through to arts, sciences and humanities. Students can experience the thrill of the trade with Traderversity’s live games, competitions and step-by-step learning tutorials, and can share tips and advice with other players on what to invest in and when.
Traderversity provides a risk-free chance to play the stock markets without investing any real money. Over 600 students from across the UK have registered so far and 150 of these have won real cash prizes already!
On registering, players are awarded £1m of virtual money to use to enter live trading competitions where profits and losses contribute to the overall leaderboard. Players can go head-to-head with friends and contacts using the website’s in-built Facebook widget, as well as against other players in the wider Traderversity league. Students also represent their universities in the overall university league, which tracks the universities with the best trading talent. And with talent in mind, Traderversity works closely with leading investment firms, so students displaying trading finesse might catch the eye of industry headhunters or future employers!
Josh Harris, a first year Management Sciences student at Loughborough University has been enhancing his trading abilities on Traderversity: “I'm currently applying for investment banking internships, where it’s important to demonstrate an understanding of trading and the wider economy. Traderversity has been fantastic in helping me gain a greater insight to real trading. I’m confident the research and practice I have done through Traderversity will enable me to interview better for an internship thanks to my gained knowledge of technical terms in practice.
“I like the fact that Traderversity offers live prices without constantly refreshing like other fantasy stock games. And with real cash prizes up for grabs, it incentivises you to research the markets and formulate a trading strategy rather than guessing, making it ideal for students, like me, looking for a career in trading or finance.
“From a personal perspective, it’s a great game to play against your mates and gain bragging rights in the pub! My friends and I have become quite competitive with it, researching investments and trying to out-trade each other.”
Two London-based businessmen, Jonathan Rose and Chris Hobcroft, devised the game based on their own experiences in trading, financial services and technology. Between them, they have 15 years’ experience in the trading, financial services and technology sectors. Jonathan says: “We looked at the trading games on offer and we saw that nothing was tailored specifically to students. We saw only over simplified and boring alternatives, or those that didn’t reflect the reality of what was truly happening on the market.
“Traderversity is a fast-paced, interactive game and is extremely simple to engage with. Players can log on and place trades in a matter of minutes, and log off again as well as monitor their performance over the duration of the competition. We’re confident that within a few hours of using it, players really will begin to understand how the markets work, and make informed decisions as to where to invest their virtual money.
“For students hoping to make a career in investments and finance, Traderversity will provide real insight to the markets, and playing it will hone their skills to give them that advantage at interviews. In addition, we have many students from non-financial academic disciplines who regularly compete and succeed on Traderversity. For example, we recently awarded a cash prize to a History student from Edinburgh University, Madeleine Ash, and one of our most active players is a Modern Languages student from Birmingham, so the game appeals to all students, no matter what course they are studying.
“We have lots of game developments in the pipeline with more real-life cash prizes to come. We will be communicating with our gamers regularly to let them know about new competitions and apps so watch this space!”
To try your hand at trading, risk-free, visit traderversity.com and see how you fare on the UK student leaderboard.