Tradergames: 50% poker / 50% trading

Hi all,
If you haven't looked at this new trading/gambling on-line site check it out.
www.tradergames.com
I joined 3 weeks ago and am hooked. I used to play on-line poker at partypoker when not trading but this is a traders dream.

You put in some money and play against 4 -8 other players using real time forex feed to place your playmoney trades. At the end (2 hours for the shortest games , 7 days for the longest) the one with the biggest pile wins the pot. I won a pot that was 570 pounds (real money) last week!


I especially like it that I can limit losses to what I pay to join a game.
Whereas trading direct a sudden move can mean one is down a whole lot.

I'd be interested hearing from other traders who have joined or traders who play poker to compare notes.

Yesterday I entered a £20 game (prize £150) and was doing well. Took an early lead with a USD/yen short and watched everyone else head south while I slowly worked up to about $2000. Then Hoagy came in with a trade and was soon approaching my level. The yen went a bit lower and looked like it might be faltering so I closed out my trade just after Hoagy closed his. I was sitting on $5450 and Hoagy on $4993.
The other 3 players were in heavy negative territory: this was the game after an hour and until about 45 minutes till the end. If things stayed like this I was sure to win.
Then the market trend started to reverse and skyline- who had been down about $50,000- was now rapidly gaining back money with a huge position in euro dollars.
I blinked. I took out a euro trade and then doubled it. The spread cost me $10,000 and then the market moved against me a couple of ticks.

At one stage skyline broker $3000 plus - and with one more tick would have won the game - but it never happened.
Hoagy toughed it out and won the game by simply staying out of the market after he closed the initial position. A lesson for trading real money too..?
http://www.tradergames.com/Results.a...viewplayerid=0

Superb idea and a good way of sorting out amongst your peers who the best trader is

My only gripe with the setup is that you can only use credit card to make a deposit otherwise would be all over this like a rash..

Hmmmmmm....maybe thats a good thing though.

It's excellent!
Why don't you ask them if you can wire funds in..

Tried that...its a no go...

Oh well............not to worry.

Is anyone interested in a private game on tradergames? Need 4 players and they give some good bonus promotion deals . Just pm or write a message here and I can make the game (all members can make games- but I spoke with them and they will put some money in the kitty for games I arrange)

What is to stop 2 people working together?

First peson goes limit long on the most volatile contract. £50 in
Second person goes limit short on the same pair same amount. £50in

One of the 2 wins, share the profits minus £50 costs.

I play poker on-line as well, and collaboration is a problem. I reported two players to the poker site and received a pleasing response from their fraud department, detailing the investigation they carried out. They look at all the games each player has been in, check if they have an unusually high number when they are in the same game, look at each game to see if there might have been chip dumping etc. In other words they take complaints seriously and do ban any players suspected of fraud.
In the case of tradergames the tactic you mention would be pretty obvious to an investigation so they will soon get caught.

But what about the games before they are discovered?
I've played about 50 tournaments so far and haven't seen any evidence of anyone doing this . I'm sure it will happen sooner or later- greed being what it is-
However, most games require several buys and sells - mainly because the market is in a range about 80% of the time - and so the tactic you mention will only guarantee a win in the case of a strong breakout trend that lasts for the duration of the game.
Other times it could quickly put one of the players out of the money but leave the other one with only a slim advantage. So they gain a slight edge but considering that most games have only 4 players they are investing half of the pot to buy this edge. Add in the fact that the cheaters are likely to be not the most skilled forex traders and the edge is cut again.
p.s. my net winning (after subtracting entry fees)- are over 1500pounds so far.