Stock Game Merges Fun of Fantasy Sports Pools With Stock Market

NEWS – ProspectingJournal.com – There are many correlations between Fantasy Sports Managers and Stock Portfolio Managers. Both do extensive research with regards to how they fill their rosters and each group seems to be on the cutting edge of reacting to breaking news.

But over the last few weeks a divergence in attitude has separated these two groups into the optimists and the pessimists. To Poolies, this September/October has represented the return of NFL and NHL fantasy drafts. For the investment community, managers have had to endure bleaker storylines that include Greece, Wall Street Protests and QE3.  Yet for some stock enthusiasts a crossover stock game has emerged that combines the relative risk-free excitement of a sports pool with picking stocks. It’s called StockPools.com and it’s bringing some fun back to the market, while providing stress-free research and education on stocks, not athletes.

Launched late this summer, StockPools.com has already gained attention and sign-ups from experts to amateurs with its ease of entry, exposure to multiple sectors and above all the lure of the prize. Each week $1000 is up for grabs to the winner whose picks performed the best, while a grand prize of $25,000 in physical gold is dangled to the player crafty enough to pick the top performer in each category.

In the first official tally upon the launch, Vancouver resident Eric Kaczmarowski surged in the dying minutes of the market day to clinch the inaugural $1000 prize. A boost from an unlikely candidate in Athabasca Uranium [UAX – TSX.V], which gained 2.5% in the closing minutes of the market, pushed his “team” of stocks (under the username squeak) over the edge to make him $1000 richer.

 “It was kind of cool to see because I wasn’t doing very well through the week until the very last day,” says Kaczmarowski. “That’s when I saw myself earlier in the day moving up from about 50^th place at the start to the top at the very last moments of the trading day. I didn’t pass into first place until the last two minutes of the market. They contacted me by email about 30 minutes after it closed and I received my prize within a week. I was really impressed by their turnaround.”

Unlike stock trading simulators, StockPools simplifies the categories by allowing even the most novice traders a chance to win. Like an office hockey pool, players must select their picks from each of the categories: Gold Producers, Gold Juniors (North America), Gold Juniors (Rest of the World), Silver Producers, Silver Juniors, Agricultural, Uranium, Oil, Base Metals and Copper Juniors.

At first, the sign-up for Kaczmarowski was done for fun, but the lessons learned through his playing did eventually impact his own personal portfolio. The push from Athabasca Uranium’s last minute surge did eventually lure Kaczmarowski to pick up real world shares since accepting his winnings. Along with Athabasca, some of Kaczmarowski’s picks included gold producer Nevsun Resources [NSU – TSX], silver producer Great Panther Silver [GPR – TSX], copper junior Crazy Horse Resources [CZH – TSX.V] and base metal explorer Tirex Resources [TXX – TSX.V]

“Generally the companies I’ve been investing in have been small cap mining companies, but being that there’s ten different sectors to choose a company from on the site, and the fact that you have to choose at least one from each sector, it does bring you contact with a lot of different companies that I wouldn’t have gone after or started looking at.”

Based out of Vancouver, StockPools.com is set to begin October on a philanthropic theme, with $1 for every sign-up going to the Canucks Place Pediatric Hospice Palliative Care charity. The target is for $15k to be donated upon the close of the campaign, and based on the site’s referral incentives the group should meet its target.  A referral bonus of 10% on top of the winnings already going to the winner is given to the referrer of that winner; thus giving potential of $100 or even $2500 if the referrer refers a perfect portfolio picker.

“I have referred some friends, but unfortunately none of them have won yet,” says Kaczmarowksi. “That said, when one of them does, I’d gladly surrender the bragging rights, which I probably wouldn’t do in a sports pool.”

“I’ve won sports pools before, but those winnings didn’t carry the same monetary value. One thing I do really like about StockPools is that it’s a stock game that you don’t have to put anything in, other than enter your email address, sit back and make good picks.”

G. Joel Chury
ProspectingJournal.com