Build a Risk-free Stock Portfolio on We Seed [ARTICLE]
Looking for a way to keep the kids busy this summer? Hoping maybe they will learn a little something along the way? Check out We Seed, a website designed to help people better understand the stock market. It features real stocks in real companies at their real prices, but it uses fake money.
Who is behind We Seed?
We Seed was born out of serious business. A major Chicago-based options trading firm called PEAK6 Investments, L.P. started the site and uses the technology of OptionsHouse, another PEAK6 company, to provide up-to-the-second stock prices. The site has a single motive: to educate people. There are no opportunities to buy real-world stocks and the site promises to protect your privacy.
You will notice some advertisements. The auto-generated, text-only ads don’t get in the way of the We Seed experience, and in most cases you’ll barely notice them. We Seed encourages its investors to choose stocks that match their interests, hobbies or hometown, which could affect a person’s brand loyalty—positively or negatively—depending on how seriously you treat your We Seed money.
Signing up for We Seed
We Seed is completely free, and all you need to get started is an email address and your birth date. If you have a child younger than 13 who wants to join the site, he or she will need a parent’s permission. Basically, instead of setting up an account for the child, you will set up an account for yourself then create a sub-portfolio for the child—you can make up to five sub-portfolios. This lets you safeguard the child and lets the site comply with federal laws.
Getting started on We Seed
Each We Seed user starts with $10,000 to invest. Jump in and start shopping for stocks or follow the three-level learning program that includes quizzes and a report card. With each concept introduced you can read a case study that shows hot the concept works in real life. Concepts range from “What is money?” to “P/E ratios.”
Share the Experience
If those topics have you saying, “Huh?” join in the fun with your children or grandchildren. And, if you happen to be a world-famous portfolio manager, join the fun and share your wisdom. (Please?)
We Seed makes it easy to invest as a group. Decide if you want your group to be public or private and then the site will combine the stocks in each group member’s portfolio. You can still see how your stocks are performing compared to others in your group, which makes for great online banter.
Alternately, you can form a team where everyone works together to build and manage a single portfolio. This might be a great way to participate in We Seed with your grandchildren, no matter where they live, or with a group of kids at a camp or in a classroom.
You also can follow individual investors on the site. Find friends by searching for their first or last name, username or email address. Or, help a friend get started by sending them a customizable invitation provided by We Seed. Once you are following someone, you can see their portfolio and its performance as well as a history of when they bought or sold the stocks.
Good to Know
After you’ve had an account set up for a few days, the home page will show a chart of your portfolio performance so you get a quick look at whether your stocks are gaining or losing.
Something you might miss if you don’t know it’s there: We Seed gives you free We Seed Cash! Go to your Portfolio page and select the tab that says “Manage Funds.” From there you can add $10,000 at a time up to $1 million. Not bad. Now see if you can turn that $1 million into $2 million!
