Welcome to MoneyInvest! The idea of the project is that you can invest in a simulated, semi-realistic economy. To start, you may want to put your money into the savings account because that has no risk. As you let time progress, try paying attention to the news, economic indicators, and prices that are provided. You may be able to glean some information. You can also look right below here for a list explaining the economic data & terms used. Update 9/16/2022: Added more severe & different recessions! Unfortunately there seems to be a content limit on the project that I have bumped up against, so there will almost certainly be no more updates besides bug fixes.
Here is a list of economic data used in the project, along with some complicated terms. Bills, notes, bonds: These are all ways to loan money to other people. You pay someone an amount of money for a bill, note, or bond. That person you bought it from will pay you interest over time. Interest is a percentage of the money you paid to buy the bill, note, or bond. The percentage you get is listed when you are buying the bond. In this game, interest is paid every 3 months. Bonds & other interest instruments are some of the least risky ways to make money. They are a safe place during market recessions. Stocks & dividends: A stock share is basically like owning a small part of a company. If the company goes bankrupt or doesn't do very well, you could lose a lot of money. On the other hand, when the company is doing well, you will make a lot of money. In the short term, anything could happen with the stock price. The risk of having stocks is much higher during a recession, though some believe recessions are the best time to invest... Some stocks also pay you dividends. In this game, dividends are paid every 3 months, and they are basically your share of the profits. However, some stocks don't pay dividends at all. Inflation: The rate of decrease of your money's value. Generally, over the longer run, the supply of money increases. Because there is more money available but still the same amount of goods (food, energy, etc) the goods become more expensive. The amount by which they get more expensive is inflation. Unemployment rate: The percentage of the population that is not retired or a child that does not have a job. This can go up a lot during recessions. Real GDP: Gross domestic product is essentially the value of all the services & goods a country produces. When adjusted for inflation, it becomes real gross domestic product, or real GDP. It's very useful to look at the growth of real GDP. When the growth rate is relatively high (in this game, 5-7% is strong growth) the economy is expanding and businesses are prospering. However, if growth is negative, the economy could enter a recession - a prolonged period of negative growth. Stocks often do very poorly during recessions - you should try to watch out for them in this game! Fed funds rate: The interest rate that the Federal Reserve (a central bank that manages the economy) charges other banks for lending money. It is generally the ultra short-term interest rate in the economy. The Federal Reserve changes the interest rate to try and regulate the economy. A higher interest rate will lead to lower inflation and lower growth, but a lower interest rate does the opposite. Yield curve: Normally long-term interest rates are higher than short-term ones, but when the markets are not confident in the economy the long-term rates will become lower than the short-term rates. This is something you will want to watch out for - it often foretells a recession in the next few years. Revenue: The amount of money a company took in. This is just the total number of sales. Earnings per share: The net income (revenue minus expenses) that a company took in (per share) Example: You sold a $50 glass of lemonade, but it cost you $40 to produce. Your revenue would be $50 and net income $10. Pro tip: You may not even want to pay too much attention to the short-term recessions! Over the long run, the stock market could make you a lot of money because the economy usually grows during that time. Perhaps you could even get enough to beat the ambitious investing goal (but probably not...)
