Is VSE (the Virtual Stock Exchange) good practice for the real thing?

Ivan: Is VSE (the Virtual Stock Exchange) good practice for the real thing?
I’ve never traded stocks before in my life (I’m 18 and have no money to do so) but, to be honest, I want to go on to make loads of money, and I figure getting into finance and economics is the best way to do that. I’m very interested in becoming a speculator and decided to start playing the Virtual Stock Exchange to get some practice. It seems to me to be an accurate simulation, since the stock prices and the rises and falls in the values of particular stocks are in the simulator exactly what they are in real life. In other words, if a certain stock rises or drops by, say, 3 points in the real world, that same stock will increase or decrease in value by that same amount in the simulator. Anyone not familiar with this who wants to know what it is should just google “Virtual Stock Exchange.”

I joined a game about a week ago and so far, I’ve made exactly $ 2,151.46 in profit so far. I hear the learning curve for a speculator is about 3 years but – at least this is how it seems to me – I’m doing pretty well. So my questions are: is the Virtual thing an accurate representation of the real, and can you give me any general or otherwise useful pointers about stock trading?

P.S. I’ve taken a lot of time to read up on and learn economics independently, and I know the subject very well. I’ve read ’em all: Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Hayek, Friedman, von Mises (Human Action was pretty tough to get through, but I did it), Menger, Rothbard, Knight, Buchanan, Hazlitt and a few others as well. I guess all I’m worried about is the transition from theory to practice. I understand that experience in finance, speculation and entrepreneurship (which I’d also like to do) is vital, but it seems like a lot of important things can be gleaned just from regular ‘ol common sense. Anyway, any pointers on any of this at all would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Here’s my portfolio on VSE:

NEM – 200 shares
GOLD – 100 shares
NBIX – 2000 shares
ARBA – 50 shares
CMSB – 100 shares
VG – 100 shares
GSB – 100 shares
UXG – 250 shares
LMNR – 100 shares
AXN -200 shares

Answers and Views:

Answer by brad
No, it’s not practice. The only real thing is when you have hard cash involved. We all have those worthless watchlist portfolios.