The purpose of this experiment is to observe your stock trading behavior. You will be trading a single stock (Goodyear) for 60 days. Each day lasts 20 seconds. The prices that you will be seeing are real (from past trading in the stock). Each day you can buy stock (if you have enough money), sell stock (if you have stock to sell), or do nothing. You buy or sell stock by clicking in the box above BUY SELL, then typing in the number of stock you want to buy or sell, and then clicking on the BUY or SELL buttons. The transaction takes place immediately but does not show up in the display until the next day.

If you want to do nothing, you just sit there until the NIGHTTIME alert appears (when seconds left gets to 0). When you close the NIGHTTIME alert and a new day will start and the new values for the stock and any transactions you have made will appear.

The screen you will see looks like this:

At the top left are the count of the days. At the top right is the seconds left in the day. You will see it count down from 20 to 0. When it reaches 0, an alert window will open telling you it is nighttime. By closing this alert window, you start a new trading day. Sometimes at the end of nighttime another alert window will pop up with a message. When you close this "message" alert, the message that was in the alert will move to the in the empty textbox below "Day".

Below the empty message textbox are two "YOUR HOLDINGS" texboxes. The reason is there are two is because you are going to be using two different strategies in your trading. In one strategy, you are asked to limit the number of transactions (trades) you make (your total number of buys and sells) to 10 or less. In the other strategy, you are asked to make 20 transactions (trades) or more. The "YOUR HOLDINGS" textbox on the left keeps track of your results for your "10 or less" strategy, and the "YOUR HOLDINGS" textbox on the right keeps track of your results for your "20 or more" strategy.

The information presented in "YOUR HOLDINGS" texboxes is as follows.

CASH = the amount of cash you have on hand. You have to use cash to buy stock, and you gain cash when you sell stock. The message next to your cash amount automatically calculates how many stock you can buy based on the current stock price and the amount of your cash. You start the experiment with $245 in cash.

YOU OWN = the number of shares of stock you currently own. You start the experiment owning 7 shares.

WORTH = the current price of stock multiplied by the number of stock you own. This value changes every day as the price of stock changes. And, it would also change if you bought or sold stock.

TOTAL ASSETS = your worth plus your cash. You begin the experiment with total assets of $490 ($245 in cash and $245 in the form of seven shares of stock at $35 per share). You total assets immediately change because the first screen you will be shown in the experiment reflects the first day of change in stock prices.

The two textboxes below the "YOUR HOLDINGS" texboxes are "TODAY'S PRICE" and "TODAY'S PRICE CHANGE". TODAY'S PRICE tells you what the stock is worth that day. If you buy or sell, this is the price you will be changed if you buy or that you will receive if you sell.

TODAY'S PRICE CHANGE tells you the direction the stock moved from the previous day. If the stock dropped in price, you will see a negative number. If it rose in price, you will see a positive number.

Below the "TODAY'S PRICE" and "TODAY'S PRICE CHANGE" textboxes are the two areas in which you make your trades (transactions). The area on the left labeled "OPTION #1: 10 trades or less" is for buying and selling in relationship to the "10 trades or less" strategy. Any buying or selling you do in this area will be displayed in the left-hand "YOUR HOLDINGS" textbox. Try to make no more than 10 trades (buy/sells) in this area.

The area on the right labeled "OPTION #2: 20 trades or more" is for buying and selling in relationship to the "20 trades or more" strategy. Any buying or selling you do in this area will be displayed in the right-hand "YOUR HOLDINGS" textbox. Try to make 20 or more trades (buy/sells) in this area.

Remember, you buy or sell stock by clicking in the box above BUY SELL (in either of the two trading areas), and by then typing in the number of stock you want to buy or sell. After you have the number in the buy/sell textbox, you click on the BUY or SELL button, and your transaction is complete. You will know that the transaction has occurred because the number will disappear from the buy/se// textbox. The transaction takes place immediately but will only show up in the display the next day.

You can make a trade in only one of the trade areas, or you can make a trade in both the "10 trades or less" and the "20 trades or more" areas on the same day. These two transactions can be for the same or different numbers of stocks. You can do the trades in any order. Remember, you do not have to make a trade in either trade area. Just don't do anything and wait for the nighttime alert.

Your goal is to make as much money as you can over the 60 days. To make money, you should sell stock at a higher price than you bought it for. Hopefully, you can make lots of money, and the money you make will be equal for both strategies. It is also possible that one strategy could work better than the other.

You should not focus on trying to make the strategies come out equal. Also, you should not try to favor one strategy over the other. Just do the best you can with both strategies (sort of like you are two different people, both doing the best they can).

At the end of 60 days, the program will ask you to click the submit button to see your results.

When you have read and understood these instructions, Please click on the word START below, to begin.