MarketHero - no risk stocks trading

A few years back, there was a site called Bollywood Stock Exchange (bwsx.com). This site was built on the idea of creating an online stock exchange where the stars and the movies can be traded with a virtual online currency. Being the bollywood buff that I am, I was totally hooked on to it. Sadly, after a year or so, that site was shut down. I don't know if the close down was because of the lack of users or funds or both but I really liked the idea of creating a virtual online stock trading site simulating the real world market. There hasn't been any other site, using this concept after bwsx and I always felt that this is a potential idea for a fun web2.0 site.

Today, when I was checking out some random blogs, I was pleasantly surprised by the site markethero.in. Its an online game, which simulates the Indian stock market with all the prices and indexes updated from the real world stock exchange. And its has almost all the features that I had in my plan.

It intends to be a fun site with easy and free way to get a hang of the stocks trading without any risk involved. One can buy and sell stocks traded in the Indian markets virtually and maintain a virtual portfolio. As soon as your account is created, you are given a million of virtual rupees to start off with. You can perform all the trading with your virtual money and can earn profits to rise up in the leader board. I not sure about the rules yet, but I guess, its about earning highest profits and win the title of 'market hero'.

The site looks like an internal launch and is in its initial stages of testing and fixes. Their blog says that the site, with the focus on the stocks and trading, would also have some social networking features, like ability to add friends, marking favorites and online chats.

The site has a clean and nice design, with Web2.0 mainly in focus. I wish if the navigation could be a little more intuitive, the only source of information is the blog and I couldn't really locate any contact information about the owners of the site.

On the whole, for me, it would be fun to get into virtual trading and hone up the trading skills, before I can actually start investing in the real market.

The registrations are by invitation only and i haven't got an invite yet. I will update my experiences here, once I manage to get in and explore further.

RIA calling

i have been reading and talking to a few ppl recently about Web2.0 trends and upcoming technologies, and RIA has been one hot topic in all of my findings..

Well its not that i have got to know about this for the first time ever.. i have been playing around with a lot of RIA tools on the net but now I'm getting attracted to build a few apps on my own..

I feel that this would be good for my personal and professional growth as well.. as a .net developer, the best option looks like learning FLEX and get of the bandwagon this way.. but i am still unsure if i should be learning PHP too.. i mean, its not essential for RIA or Web2.0 but still its one of the favorites with the developers..

I'm considering my options .. lets see what i get on with..

So thats your blog.. huh?

I had created this blog long back.. without targeting anything in particular to write about.. i just thought that it would be good to share my feelings about the day to day life with the world.. and probably would gather a few online frends..

Web2.0 and technology had been always a topic of fascination for me.. and after developing the initial docstoc.com .. it increased exponentially.. so the initial few posts had that in focus.. although Web2.0 wasn't (rather isn't) too rosy at that point in india and hence my exploration grew..

then... i joined twitter.. and met a lot of like minded ppl. I got a chance to read their blogs.. and i was like.. hell I'm just wasting my blogspace. These ppl inspired me to continue writing my blog.. but again the classic question.. what do i write about.. ?

i cant really write about my personal life .. (not yet.. i still have to gather a lot of courage to be honest..) .. so the other things which impact me are technology and bollywood..

I wouldnt rather write about bollywood.. i dont want to start a gossip column.. and for technology.. there are again a few unanswered questions...

i don't have any other sources of info than the web itself.. and most of those sources are already popular.. so informing about the new stuff.. which is already published doesn't sound like a good idea..

most ppl write about their experiences with the new stuff in technology.. but till now I'm just rediscovering what others have already discovered... sigh!. Wait a sec.. this can still be a good option.. i can have a different experience with the same thing.. hmmm.. alright, this one is kept for re-consideration..

there has to be something else with which i can safely make my mark.. if i want to be among the first ones to get the info about new stuff.. i would probably need to explore more avenues.. as opposed to just relying on the internet for updates.. And this one sounds fine... more resources.. regular updates.. new stuff to share... Good! i'll try this approach..

but, till then... yeah... this is my blog..

long time no see..

hey.. Mr. googlebot (i know, no one else reads my blog...) :) im sorry for being away for so long...

life can get tricky sometimes... i have been ported to bhopal these days for a project .. and i dont have a clue of when i can get back to b'bay..

anyway... now tht im a little settled here and the project work too has been running smoothly... i woul try and update this area more frequently ..
keep watching