[nbd]

I also saw your demo at the HNDC meetup last night - nice job, and kudos for being brave enough to get up in front of a room full of critics.

Some feedback:

- Without seeing the demo, I'm not sure I would easily get what the site is about from a quick glance at the home page. You have some nice wording -- "A free and enjoyable way to learn about investing" -- but it's part of a scrolling animation and doesn't jump out at you. I also don't see the word "game" anywhere on the front page. It seems like your two key themes are "fun" and "learning" and those don't quite stand out enough.

- The actual game mechanics are a little confusing - why would users actually care about being the "executive" of a company? As an investor, I might care about learning more, or being exposed to good advice, but to assume that people will be motivated to win a game just because you created it seems like an overreach.

- Why would StockYoyo picks be better than one of the million other investing sites out there? For that reason, why would it be better than the ultimate "wisdom of crowds" valuation -- the market itself?

I could imagine that one of the numerous self-managed investment sites out there would benefit from having a compelling, easy to use game where aspiring investors could learn but then also easily transfer their picks into real money when they are ready. I'm thinking of the online poker model -- a .net site to learn with play money, a .com to use the real stuff. There might be some significant regulatory hoops to jump through to get this working but I can see real potential there.

[anactofgod]

I made the comment at HNDC last night that "Are crowds wise? That's arguable. But it definitely moves in herds."

The value of a well executed stock "betting" game is that, since what is being wagered is of little or no value compared to an actual market position, the herd may reveal it's intentions in the game before a similar movement is noticeable in the actual market.

For this to to be true, though, two necessary, but by no means sufficient, pre-conditions need to be satisfied: a sufficiently large and well-informed herd; playing a game that maintains the proper balance of care-free (not too much at risk) -vs- care-full (enough is at risk) gameplay.

[jaredmck]

Why would the crowd reveal its intentions earlier in a game than in the actual market? It seems historically, the herd does the opposite. The game is an "easier" market than the real market; much like how play money poker is far easier than real money poker games.

[m311ton]

Why would StockYoyo picks be better than one of the million other investing sites out there? ... My impression is the real value of this website is play versus plan. Other sites are more heavy and technical but this one is more light and fun.