Goal of the Game
Market Movers is a fictional turn-based investment-management simulation set on the US Stock Exchange (USX). Choose a career starting level, manage a mandate, and trade through changing economic expectations, credit cycles, company strategies, IPOs, acquisitions, financial distress, and formal benchmark reviews.
Your objective is not only to make money. Build a credible record, control risk, satisfy the mandate, outperform the USX 250 Composite Index, protect your reputation, and earn promotion into larger and more demanding institutions.
All companies, prices, securities, and news stories are fictional. This is a game, not financial advice.
Career Mode
A new market begins at one of six career levels. The selected level determines starting capital, concentration limits, diversification expectations, liquidity controls, benchmark pressure, and the possibility of investor inflows or redemptions.
| Level | Starting Capital | Typical Challenge |
|---|
| Retail Account | $10,000 | Build an active record and learn to control losses. |
| Small Investment Partnership | $250,000 | Deliver absolute returns while managing concentration and partner withdrawals. |
| Regional Asset Manager | $5 million | Beat the benchmark with meaningful diversification. |
| National Mutual Fund | $100 million | Manage redemptions, tighter position limits, and a long-biased portfolio. |
| Institutional Fund | $1 billion | Respect strict liquidity, benchmark, sector, and risk-budget constraints. |
| Major Global Investment Firm | $10 billion | Produce consistent excess returns despite severe capacity and market-impact limits. |
Performance is reviewed every quarter. The review compares your flow-adjusted NAV with the USX 250, checks mandate compliance, updates reputation, and can trigger investor inflows or redemptions. Promotion requires sustained performance, adequate reputation, compliance, time at the current level, and active portfolio management.
How the Screen Is Laid Out
Top BarShows the exchange name, current simulated date, market status, advance buttons, and the How to Play link on larger screens. On mobile, these controls move into the floating Menu to preserve screen space.
Ticker TapeShows fast-moving stock prices and daily percentage changes.
Headline TapeShows recent news headlines in a scrolling wire beneath the ticker tape.
Quick NavAmber jump buttons below the ticker/headline area jump directly to major gameplay panels. On mobile, navigation moves into a compact floating Menu button so the trading panels keep most of the screen.
Left RailShows portfolio, portfolio-vs-index chart, market indexes, largest stocks, watchlist, macro regime, public sentiment, and import/export tools.
Center StageFollows the main trading flow: Security Monitor, candle graph, Company Fundamentals, Selected Company Earnings Report, All Listings, Order Ticket, Holdings, Options Book, and Trade Blotter.
Market IntelligenceBelow the trading workspace: MM Newswire, Best / Worst Performers, Earnings Calendar, and Note.
Turns & Time
The game advances by simulated trading days across a fictional U.S.-style market universe of 405 listed companies in eight sectors. Weekends are skipped automatically.
Launchpad: The dense terminal workspace is available from the desktop Launchpad control and from the floating mobile Menu. On phones, swipe horizontally between Launchpad panels and use the same Menu button to return to Standard view.
| Button | Effect |
|---|
| Advance 1 Day | Runs one trading day and shows major, medium, and low news. |
| Advance 1 Week | Runs five trading days. Low news may be hidden, but still affects the market. |
| Advance 1 Month | Runs about 21 trading days. This is useful for long-term portfolio testing. |
Each turn updates prices, liquidity, spreads, benchmark levels, macro and global conditions, the yield curve, scheduled expectations, corporate actions, IPO and merger timelines, distress, news, earnings, options, shorts, investor flows, reputation, and portfolio NAV.
Benchmarks, Portfolio Chart & Watchlist
The Market Board shows the USX 250 Composite Index and sector indexes as actual index levels with daily movement and since-seed performance.
USX 250 Composite IndexThe float-adjusted market-cap-weighted benchmark made up of the 250 leading companies across the USX universe.
Sector IndexesEight sector indexes help show where money is flowing across technology, financials, communications, discretionary, health care, industrials, staples, and energy.
Portfolio ChartThe small chart under Portfolio compares your account performance against the USX 250 Composite Index.
WatchlistAdd the selected stock to the Watchlist so you can track important names without searching the full market every turn.
The benchmark is formally reviewed every quarter. Float-adjusted capitalization, liquidity, public float, viability, and entry/exit buffers determine additions and deletions. Projected changes can attract anticipatory flows, followed by heavier closing-auction volume on review day.
Trading Shares & Shorts
Use the Order Ticket to select a stock, action, and quantity. The estimate includes the simulated spread, liquidity, and market impact before execution.
- Buy Shares: purchases stock and reduces cash.
- Sell Shares: sells stock you already own and increases cash.
- Short Sell: borrows/sells shares, creating a short position. You gain if the stock falls.
- Cover Short: buys shares back to close a short position.
The portfolio panel tracks total equity, cash, day P/L, total P/L, margin used, borrow fees, and a small performance chart.
Orders no longer assume perfect frictionless execution. Thin securities and institution-sized orders can receive material slippage. Short positions also accrue borrow fees. If portfolio equity gets too close to required short margin, the margin desk may warn you or force a partial cover when cash is available. Shorting is useful, but it is no longer free risk.
Options
The game supports simplified call and put options.
- Buy Call Option: profits if the stock rises above the strike enough to overcome the premium.
- Buy Put Option: profits if the stock falls below the strike enough to overcome the premium.
- Sell to Close: closes an existing option position before expiry and credits the current option value to cash.
- Expiry: options automatically settle for intrinsic value when days to expiry reaches zero.
The Options Book shows symbol, type, contracts, strike, days remaining, premium, current value, P/L, and close controls.
Scheduled Expectations & Economic Calendar
Major economic information is scheduled before it is released. The calendar tracks previous values, market consensus, an estimate range, positioning, actual results, revisions, and importance.
Scheduled reports include policy decisions, inflation, employment, GDP, consumer spending, retail sales, housing, manufacturing, confidence, and unemployment claims. In the days before an important release, positioning and volatility can rise. On release day, the reaction depends on the result versus consensus, revisions, crowding, inflation risk, and the active economic regime.
A strong number is not always bullish. Strong employment during an inflation shock may increase rate pressure, while the same result during a recession may reduce fears of a deeper downturn.
Macro Regimes
The Macro Regime panel shows the current backdrop for the whole market. Regimes can affect daily market drift, sector drift, public mood, and the kinds of headlines that appear.
| Regime | Typical Feel |
|---|
| Expansion | Constructive market tone, stronger consumer demand, moderate support for cyclical stocks. |
| Slowdown | Demand weakens and risk appetite fades. Defensive sectors may hold up better. |
| Recession | Broad pressure on earnings, credit, and discretionary demand. |
| Recovery | Market tone improves after stress, often helping financials, technology, and consumer names. |
| Inflation Shock | Higher rates and cost pressure can hurt growth stocks and consumer discretionary names. |
| Credit Stress | Financials and leveraged companies are at greater risk. |
| Tech Boom | Technology and communications sentiment improves more than the rest of the market. |
| Energy Shock | Energy prices, inflation, fuel costs, and energy-sector earnings move sharply. |
The macro panel also tracks GDP growth, unemployment, consumer spending, housing starts, the 2-year and 10-year yield, investment-grade and high-yield credit spreads, the dollar index, developed- and emerging-market growth, and trade friction. These indicators are part of the simulation loop: the macro backdrop influences prices, and sustained market strength or weakness feeds back into economic confidence, credit stress, spending, and housing activity.
Macro regimes do not override company fundamentals, earnings surprises, or random noise. They tilt the market so the simulation feels less like isolated headlines and more like a persistent environment.
Company Strategy, Corporate Life & Liquidity
Companies now make consequential decisions. Dividends, buybacks, equity issuance, debt financing, refinancing, debt repayment, acquisitions, asset sales, spin-offs, capital spending, restructuring, and market entry change the company’s actual cash, debt, shares, growth, margins, segments, geographic mix, or fair-value profile.
The exchange also evolves. Prospective listings move through filings, prospectuses, roadshows, pricing, and an opening auction. Newly public companies face their first report and, for traditional IPOs, a later lock-up expiry. Acquisitions, spin-offs, defaults, restructurings, and delistings can add or remove securities.
Every company has competitors, suppliers, customers, commodity inputs, revenue segments, and domestic/developed/emerging-market exposure. News can therefore move connected companies rather than affecting every sector peer equally.
Liquidity matters. Each security has an average dollar volume, typical spread, liquidity tier, short availability, borrow rate, and market-impact coefficient. Large orders in thin securities receive worse execution and can move the displayed market. Distressed or crowded shorts can become expensive or unavailable.
News & Market Impact
The news engine creates market, sector, and company events using a large fictional commercial-newswire library. News is divided into three tiers:
| Tier | Meaning | Typical Impact |
|---|
| Major | Rare events such as policy shocks, geopolitical developments, large legal rulings, or systemic risk. | Can affect the whole market or multiple sectors for weeks or months. |
| Medium | Meaningful company or sector events such as guidance changes, credit actions, cyber incidents, contracts, labor disputes, regulatory updates, commodity data, or sector checks. | Can move a company or sector for several days or weeks. |
| Low | Frequent smaller headlines such as analyst notes, local reports, minor contracts, shelf filings, traffic data, or small delays. | Usually short-lived but helps create daily volatility. |
News creates immediate price pressure and persistent shock memory. A headline can continue affecting a stock or sector after the first day, but the effect decays over time.
Quarterly Reports & Earnings Screens
Every company has a scheduled quarterly reporting cycle. These reports are one of the most important parts of the simulation because they connect stock prices to fundamentals instead of only random headlines.
Where to Find Quarterly Report Information
Earnings CalendarLocated in the secondary market-intelligence area. Shows the next companies scheduled to report, the number of trading days until the report, the upcoming fiscal quarter, and the most recent prior report if one exists.
Company FundamentalsLocated directly beneath the Security Monitor and candle graph. Shows Revenue TTM, EPS TTM, Net Margin, Guidance, Last Report, and Next Earnings for the currently selected company.
Selected Company Earnings ReportLocated beside Company Fundamentals when space allows, or directly below it on narrower screens. It now sits immediately below the Security Monitor/candle graph in the selected-security diagnostics flow and shows quarterly report history, revenue, EPS, surprises, report date, and estimated market shock.
Quote Card SnapshotThe selected security area also summarizes recent earnings and the next report countdown so you can see report risk without scrolling.
MM NewswireMeaningful earnings beats, misses, guidance changes, and earnings-season digests appear as news stories and can affect prices beyond the report day.
Security MonitorThe diagnostics strip includes event overhang and earnings countdown context for the selected stock.
How the Earnings Calendar Works
The Earnings Calendar lists upcoming reports across the market. Each row can be clicked to select that company. The D value means trading days until the next scheduled report. For example, 12D means the company is expected to report in about twelve simulated trading days.
The calendar is useful before advancing by a week or month. If a large position is close to reporting, the next few turns may carry more risk than a normal trading day.
How to Read Company Fundamentals
| Field | Meaning |
|---|
| Revenue TTM | Trailing twelve-month revenue. This gives a rough sense of company scale. |
| EPS TTM | Trailing twelve-month earnings per share. Higher EPS generally supports stronger valuation, but expectations still matter. |
| Net Margin | Profitability after costs. Higher-margin companies usually have more room to absorb bad news. |
| Guidance | Management’s forward-looking tone. Positive guidance can support the stock; negative guidance can pressure it. |
| Last Report | The most recent quarterly report and its approximate shock impact. |
| Next Earnings | Trading days until the next scheduled report. |
How to Read the Selected Company Earnings Report
The Selected Company Earnings Report panel is the deeper report-history screen. Once a company has reported at least once, this panel shows recent quarterly prints for the selected stock.
- Quarter and date: identifies when the report occurred in the simulated universe.
- Revenue: the reported quarterly revenue.
- Revenue Surprise: how reported revenue compared with expectations.
- EPS: reported quarterly earnings per share.
- EPS Surprise: how reported EPS compared with expectations.
- Shock percentage: the estimated positive or negative earnings shock applied to the stock.
Surprise matters more than raw growth. A company can grow revenue and still fall if investors expected even stronger results. A struggling company can rise if expectations were very low and the report is less bad than feared.
How Reports Affect the Market
Quarterly reports can change more than one number on the screen. A report may affect the company’s price, future drift, guidance, company sentiment, sector sentiment, and sometimes peer stocks through read-through effects.
| Report Type | Possible Market Reaction |
|---|
| Beat and raise | Revenue or EPS beats expectations and guidance improves. The stock may rise and related sector sentiment can improve. |
| Beat but cautious guidance | The quarter looks good, but management lowers expectations. The stock may fade despite decent reported numbers. |
| Miss and guide lower | Results disappoint and guidance weakens. The stock may drop and create negative event overhang. |
| Mixed report | Revenue, EPS, margin, and guidance point in different directions. Price movement may be moderate or choppy. |
Practical Play Tips
- Check the Earnings Calendar before advancing one week or one month.
- Review Company Fundamentals before making a concentrated trade.
- Use the Selected Company Earnings Report panel to see whether a company has a history of beating, missing, or reacting sharply.
- Remember that options become riskier around earnings because surprise moves can help or hurt quickly.
- Large-cap reports can create sector read-through. A major technology, bank, retail, telecom, health-care, industrial, staples, or energy report may influence peers.
Large earnings surprises can create visible MM Newswire stories and persistent shocks. Those shocks decay over time, so the first move is not always the end of the reaction.
Save, Export & Restore
The game auto-saves locally in your browser using local storage. This means your game persists on the same browser and device, but it is not stored on the webserver.
Export Universe
Use Export Universe to download a JSON file containing your current simulated market, holdings, prices, news, earnings history, macro state, watchlist, benchmark history, portfolio chart history, and portfolio state.
Import Universe
Use Import Universe to restore a previously exported JSON universe file.
Reset
Use Reset to remove the current local save from your browser. Export first if you want to keep the universe.
