can you tell that i don't work this afternoon?

my latest obsession is playing wall street survivor. while most college kids are putting together a fantasy football team, i'm putting together a fantasy stock portfolio. it works like this... you get $100,000 in fantasy cash to spend on the market. then you tell your family and friends about how you're a stake holder in Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) and Coca-Cola (KO). you also start to put ticker symbols in your everyday writing. after you got your $100,000 portfolio setup, you turn on CNBC to wait for the opening bell, and then watch your fantasy money leave you. it's like the real thing only without all the stress and pressure of losing thousands of dollars every day.

my stock story thus far. i went for the big expensive tech stocks because i'm a nerd. large helpings of Google, Apple, BEA Systems, Sun Microsytems, plus a few other companies that i go to on a weekly basis, like target. my portfolio exploded to net me a cool $1,000 in the first hour alone. "awesome! screw this college shit. i'm going to become a stock trader!" and then i lost $2,000. so while 1g in the red, i had some time to think about why i just lost so much money so quickly without the aid of illicit drugs or prostitutes.

but hey, it's fake money and its a really cool way to learn how to invest. i can make some pretty expensive mistakes without actually risking any money. if you decide to play on wallstreetsurvivor.com, send me a message. my login name is save_mengtar.