Fake Worlds, Real Money: The Sims Effect

Of the 1.4 million people that supposedly bought The Sims 3 this past week, making it EA’a biggest PC launch history, I don’t know a single one of them. I do know however that EA stock has dropped almost two full dollars in the last five days, which I find very curious. I would think that such great sales would raise the company’s worth. Curious indeed.

Maybe some Wall Street suit played it and thinks it sucks and he’s spreading his negativity to all of his financial friends, effectively de-valuing the stock. Stop it, jerk, I’m trying to save up for some porcelain X-men figurines!

Fake Worlds, Real Money: Decisions, Decisions

Right now I have about $156 just sitting in my Scottrade account waiting to be invested. There has been a nice little market rally happening lately, and my three stocks, Microsoft, EA, and Activision, have all been doing quite nicely, so now I think it’s time to put those stagnant dollars to use.

Since both are doing well, I’m trying to decide whether to buy more EA stock or more Activision (Microsoft is a little too unstable right now). I can buy twelve shares of Activision at $11.68 each, or I can buy six shares of EA at $21.57. Electronic Arts has a steady stream of hot sellers like Madden and Rock Band, but that seems like a good bet, but at the same time Activision has Modern Warfare 2 on the horizon which is sure to like crazy, and word is that Blizzard is about to announce something big.

I’m leaning towards Activision right now, but what do you guys think I think I should do?

Fake Worlds, Real Money: EA’s Buck O’ Seven

I put up a Tweet last night saying that I had $320 to invest in either EA (ERTS) or Activision (ATVI), and the first reply I got would get the money. Luckily, our fashionable friend @GiangC came back quickly with some very sound financial advice, and said that I should put my money in EA because they have “definitely upped their game recently.” Her pun turned out to accurate, and today EA stocks shot up a recession-busting $1.07 per share! To be fair, Activision went up, too, but only a bindle-packing nine cents.

So, thanks to GiangC for his advice, and out of fairness, I owe him 10% of what I made.  The check is in the mail.

Fake Worlds, Real Money: Arts and Cash

I thought I’d start off the new year by doing something I haven’t done in a long time, which is buy some video game stock.

We’ve all been hearing for months now that the economy is in the crapper and that we should all start ripping the gold out of our mouths and melt it down, because soon paper money won’t mean anything as the world is thrown into social and financial chaos, but I’m a little more optimistic. It’s a fresh calendar, in three weeks someone else will be crapping in the White House toilets, and honestly, the world has more room to grow right now than it does to fall.

Residing in said world is a little video game company called Electronic Arts (ERTS). When I first began trading video game stocks back in March, the world was a different place. I would have loved to buy EA stock back then, but at the time everything was chicken and waffles, and it was trading at over $50 a share! I could not afford that. As of the closing bell on Friday, though, it was selling for a very affordable $17.44, so I bought seventeen shares, which cost just over 300 clams.

This is definitely a gamble though, seeing as how a few of EA’s big games (Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space) didn’t exactly sell like hotcakes over the holidays, resulting in many layoffs. For investors though, layoffs can mean good things, because it usually signifies restructuring in order to be more efficient (a.k.a cha-ching). Also, if when sequels come out for these games, and maybe even Army of Two, they will almost definitely sell much better, making the sub-$18 price tag a steal right now.

Fingers crossed!

Fake Worlds, Real Money: Remember This? Edition.

Since the Xbox 360 price hack-and-slash last week, my Microsoft (MSFT) stock has been rising faster than John McCain’s tiny little arms when someone asks, “Who wants to meet Matlock?” It’s gone up almost a buck and half since last week, and hopefully it will keep going.

Joystiq reported that Xbox 360 sales have double since the price drop, but I think that it has more to do with those hilarious Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld commercials.

FWRM: Midweek Movement

Last night I sold off all of my sinking THQ (THQI) stock. In retrospect, I should never have bought it in the first place; that company really has nothing going for it right now. I sold it at the perfect time, too, because it was reported today that THQ layed off about 200 of its employees, causing stock to drop about $1.15 per share.

I used the money I got back to buy more shares of Microsoft. MSFT stock actually went up after the failed Yahoo takeover, and now I hear that they are dropping hints of trying to acquire Facebook. I wonder what’s going to happen when Bill Gates leaves the company, though.

Fake Worlds, Real Money: Missed the Bus Edition

My big expectation didn’t really come into fruition this week. I was hoping Take-Two (TTWO) would Take-Off, but it stayed just about the same, and actually lost money on a few days this week. I think the market already accounted for the GTA cash cow when the stock jumped almost $10 back in February, when I assume the launch day was announced.

Good news, though, Sony (SNE), won’t stop gaining. The PSP is rolling, and the PS3 gathers more momentum every day. Microsoft has been down overall, much of that having to do with uncertainty over the Yahoo acquisition, but when that digital dust cloud has settled, it’ll bounce back.

One more quick surprise, Atari (ATAR) shot up about 12 cents on Thursday, probably because of the news that Infrogrames is going to acquire the rest of the stock it doesn’t own. Atari’s future looks good. See ya next week!

FWRM: GTA4 Edition

It’s 12:23am in Hawaii right now, and Russ is up way past his bedtime standing in a GTAIV line somewhere in Pearl City. I really wanted to go out and meet him there (and take advantage of the fact that his Xbox is currently broken, and mine is just fine), but I got off of work late and didn’t feel like driving.

I’m most curious, though, to see how Take-Two’s stock is going to perform tomorrow. RIght now it’s $26.47 a share, and I own about $132 worth of it. Has the market already taken into account the fact that a zillion copies are going to be sold, or is the stock going to start rising like the yodler from The Price is Right? Only time will tell.

fake worlds, real money: atari edition

This was actually a really good week for me, other than Wednesday when the investing monster (I call him Investocon) burst into my apartment, took 20 bucks out of my wallet, and ate it.

I did do something this on Tuesday that many money-savvy types are going to think was stupid; I bought Atari stock. I picked up 20 shares at $1.02 each (I’ve blown that much money on far less valuable things). Obviously, the company has fallen on some very hard times, but if you look at the graph above, five years ago, it was trading at $50! I don’t see it getting back up there, but now with video game industry golden boy Phil Harrison calling the shots, and some buzz-worthy games in the pipeline; I think Atari will be relevant again soon.

 

fwrm: quick update

Update: The first day of trading after I bought this saw every single one of my stocks drop except this one. I am one shrewd dewd.

I just bought seven shares of THQ Interactive (THQI) stock. Last week they held their annual Gamer’s Day, and showed off some games that I think are going to sell pretty well, like Red Faction: Gorilla Guerilla, Saints Row 2, and Battle of the Bands for Wii.

Currently at $22.50 a share, THQ’s value has been steadily climbing since a sharp drop in February. In early 2007, though, it was up over 35 bucks a pop. Hopefully it can get back there and beyond this year.

fake worlds, real money: pretty good start to the quarter edition

 

This was a fairly good week over all, one that saw some lows, but also contained the best single day I’ve had yet (on Tuesday I made $16), punctuated with a minor ($.95) gaining Friday.

Looking back:

I’m proud of my stocks, every one of them managed to finish n the plus side of things this week. Activision (ATVI) was very busy, peaking (like all of my stocks) on Tuesday at just over $27.50, but took a bit of a dive on Friday and finished the week only 5 cents higher than it started (hey, profit is profit). Take-Two (TTWO) climbed a steep mountain that reached $26 at the end of Tuesday, but fell like a dying giraffe through the next two days. It did a little redeeming on Friday and finished about 20 cents in the plus for the week.

Microsoft (MSFT) had a great week by going up an entire dollar on Tuesday, and stayed there pretty steadily throughout. Sony (SNE) was the week’s biggest success gaining almost 2 bucks. This may have had to do with the reports of very strong PSP sales in Japan.

Looking forward:

I like how the new quarter is starting, and I hope the trend continues. The PSP has been picking up a lot of steam (finally!) in Japan and the U.S., and analysts are optimistic about the gaming industry for the rest of the year.

Also, I’ve been thinking about buying stock in one of the companies that are a little down on their luck right now, like Midway (MWY), or Atari (ATAR). They have nowhere to go but up!

Hit the jump for the final breakdown.

fake worlds, real money: first friday edition

I’m turning my stock news into a weekly feature, and hopefully post on the weekly activities of my video game stocks. If I don’t post on Friday, you can assume that I’ve lost everything and jumped out of my 32nd floor window…or that I have too much homework.

Looking back:

Let me start the first week by saying that I’m glad it’s over. Other than Tuesday, I was down every day this week. Luckily, the losses were never that great, and today’s loss $2.45 was actually the biggest of the week. Retail was down across the board, so none of this is a big surprise. Interestingly, the big boys, Microsoft and Sony, were both down on the week, and the publishers, Activision and Take-Two, both ended up.

Looking forward:

Not only does today mark the end of this week, it marks the end of this abysmal quarter. An analyst on CNBC just said this was one of the weakest quarters he’s ever seen, so I’m actually glad I bought in when I did. I feel that the market is going to slowly crawl its way back up for the rest of the year, beginning in May when the government starts sending out free money. A lot of that cash is going to be spent on games, especially the PS3. Things are looking up.

Here’s how it ended. The share numbers are how many shares I own, and the dollar amounts are how much money I have invested in them. Green means they finished the week up (yay!), and red means they finished down (boo!).

Sony (SNE) 5 Shares $203.20: Started the week at $41.50, ended at $40.53.

Microsoft (MSFT) 5 Shares $139.55: Started the week at $29.26, ended at $27.83

Activision (ATVI) 5 Sares $136.45: Started the week at $26.85, ended $27.30

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) 5 shares $126.65: Started the week at $24.49, ended at $25.31

you win some, you lose some

Thanks to some very shrewd trading on my behalf, yesterday was a great day for my stocks. Both Take-Two and Sony were up, and the night before I bought five shares of Microsoft, which seemed to be in the low point of a trough on the charts. It ended it going up yesterday, too, and ultimately I made my first double-digit gain ever, pulling in almost $12 at the closing bell. And then came today.

Red arrows pointing down are all that I woke up to. My three stocks, as well as a handful that I’m watching but don’t own, including Gamestop, Activision, and Apple, were all way down. Yesterday the Fed cut the interest rate, which caused the small spike, but today everyone must have forgotten all about it. I’m only $9.95 down at the closing bell today, so it didn’t completely wipe out yesterday’s goodness, but there sure as hell aren’t any steak dinners in my near future.

a very red st. patrick’s day

Closing Bell Update: Even in the last 45 minutes of the trading day, my stocks went from $6.15 down, to only $4.10 down, and then at the very end back to $6.10 in the red. I’m staying positive, though, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Well, maybe a half-marathon.

The week is not starting off on a positive note. Right now I’m down $6.15 with about 45 minutes left of the trading day. Above is the Sony stock for the last five days. I’m sticking with it, though, at least through the Metal Gear Solid 4 release when I think there will be a spike in PS3 sales.

Take-Two isn’t looking much better, right now down 35 cents a share. I plan on hanging on to that until GTA IV comes out in April. After that, though, TTWO doesn’t have anything good coming out for a long time, so I’ll probably try to unload when I feel that it has peaked.

a rough day

After a promising first day on the market yesterday, where I took in a life-changing $3.40, today was a much different story.  Stocks were falling across the board, apparently mainly due to problems with some major investment banks. The two stocks I own, Take-Two and Sony, both fell; TTWO dropped $.35, and SNE fell $1.35. Actually not too bad compared to how much some other stocks lost today. As of the closing bell, I’m $8.52 in the red (red=negative).

This week as a whole was bad for Wall Street across the board, and hopefully next week will be a little more lucrative. I am glad I started investing when I did, though, because the market is relatively low. Hopefully, when the economy gets back on track, it’ll be dolla-dolla bill, ya’ll.