Zoodak is a relatively new stock market game that was incorporated in November 2008 by its founder Jinsoo Park and two co-founders Adrian Pena and Jinee Lee. Zoodak is currently still in beta mode as at 25/02/2010 with a little over 2300 page views per day according to websiteoutlook.com. Zoodak received $580k in seed funding at the end of 2009 so we can expect big things from this website.
Account Setup:
Initial registration was easy and they only asked for the basics which was simple but after you log in you can see that your portfolio is only 17% complete. Its easy to tell the game is still in beta state because when I tried to finish registering I was sent to a new registration page several times and in the end i gave up with an account sitting at 28% registered as can be seen in the screen shot section. There is no doubt in my mind that these kind of bugs will be worked out very soon because the overall quality of the site is quite high. After you have created your account you are taken to a portfolio setup page.
Zoodak is a free and paid game so you have the option of creating up to 10 cash portfolios or 1 practice portfolio to compete in their respected tournaments. The practice portfolio is a simulated trading account with nothing to lose and ZooPoints to gain. What are ZooPoints you ask? Well ZooPoints are Zoodaks currency and are used to enter the cash tournaments. An entry fee of 995 ZooPoints are currently needed to create a new cash portfolio for entry into a cash tournament and you are given 100 ZooPoints for signing up. 1000 ZooPoints will set you back $10US dollars and first place prize for cash tournaments are $1000 or you could spend your Zoopoints in the ZooStore which is a damn good deal if your learning to play the stock market while keeping your risk down to $10.00. I was never sent a confirmation link for signing up which might change but either way I am indifferent to email confirmations.
Buying and Selling:
To made a trade in Zoodak just 1. Navigate to (My Portfolios) page. 2. Select what portfolio you want to trade in, eg.Practice. 3. Click the trade button above your portfolio summary. Zoodak impressed me with some better trade types than other trading simulators like shorting, limit orders and good untils. After entering the share symbol and the stock ticker, you are able to review your order before confirming it. Zoodak will charge you 0.5% virtual commission on each trade which is a feature I always like to see in stock market or any financial simulators as commission is a cost that needs to be watched when trading for real.
Portfolio:
Your portfolio page is broken down into value, positions, portfolio diversification with a cool pie chart plus a 1 month performance comparison chart that compares your performance with the market index and even the community. There is also a standard stock watch list down the bottom of the page. You are also able to buy and even withdraw any ZooPoints you have accumulated turning your success on Zoodak into real cash profits. Portfolios last for 20 trading days in an all out battle to see who can take the lead and first prize in one month.
Community:
Zoodak is a community based social stock market game; there is no doubt about that. You can add friends, post on your wall, make and view community predictions (the charts show they are 50% correct on average btw) and talk to other traders through their wall. You also earn ZooPoints for making correct predictions which can ultimately be redeemed for real rewards or cash.
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