PhotoDude.com

Wed. Apr 23, 2003

BlogShares

BlogShares – I finally got into online gaming, but via an unexpected path. For the past month or so, there’s been an online stock market of sorts, and the stocks are web logs. It’s been in beta, but it’s been great fun.

When it started, I took a quick peek, but as you might recall, there was a war going on. I went back later and registered as a player, just to see what the deal was. I got a $500 stake for registering, and I was able to “claim” PhotoDude’s Web Log as my entry in the market.

Starting with that $500 and 1000 shares of a 41 cent stock (my web log), in about three weeks I’ve amassed a small forture of $8,611.07. And I do mean small. As good as it might sound, [1] there are players with vast portfolios that dwarf mine, and [2], there’s no way to cash out this Monopoly Money. But as I said, it’s still great fun.

I started out by spending 4/5 of my stake on a fairly wide range of stocks, on the theory of a diversified portfolio. 10 shares here, 25 there, all chosen based on familiarity and the fact I liked sites I was buying. This resulted in quite meager gains, and some learned lessons. No matter how much I like Michele’s web log, her stock is a dog. And it woofed all over me.

Meanwhile, I watched the value of my 41 cent stock (my web log) soar. Relatively. Within days, it tripled in value to about a $1.30, and eventually peaked at $2.53. Since this was reflected in my portfolio via my 1000 shares (later increased to 2000), I had new buying power. Heeding some advice from a guru (one so successful and generous he gave me 1000 shares of my own site), I sold my dogs and bought some new stocks. When one of them had doubled my investment, I sold it and bought something else. I also “claimed” PixelPile as another of my sites, and thus got another 1000 shares in my portfolio.

Then last night I got an e-mail from the site saying that the beta period would be over on May 1, and when the “game” is reset, only cash assets would be carried forward, not your portfolio of stocks. So I went on a selling frenzy, retaining only 500 shares of each of my web logs and a few small dogs. Then, on a whim, since PhotoDude’s Web Log had fallen from $2.53 to $2.20, I split the stock. Overnight, my 1000 shares of $1.10 stock has increased in value 40%.

I’ll sell that off sometime in the next few days, and have all the cash carried over when the site re-launches May 1. I learned a lot in the beta period, and had a lot of fun. But in a week, it gets serious.