Member Article

Financial trading game aims to educate public

Two entrepreneurs have used their combined experience in City trading and technology to develop an innovative new online financial trading game.

Traderpeople is the brainchild of Jonathan Rose and Chris Hobcroft, and provides simulated financial trading for everyone from inquisitive novices through to experienced traders.

With investment backing from Blenheim Chalcot, and the help of a team of four developers, TraderPeople have created a game that aims to be accessible for all.

In December last year, the pair launched Traderversity, a similar free-to-play trading simulation, aimed specifically at the UK student sector.

The two games allow players to invest £1m of virtual money, with any profits or losses contributing to their place on a leaderboard.

Players are encouraged to challenge friends and contacts to go head-to-head, using the site’s in-built Facebook app.

Using the game’s bespoke platforms, it can be “reskinned” to create different distinctive games, aimed at individual users, offering varying complexity, competition and levels of socialising within the game play.

All the platforms give players a taste of real world trading, using live financial markets, with the aim of educating people in making informed investment decisions.

External websites can have the game integrated, providing an opportunity for businesses to drive traffic to their website.

Jonathan Rose commented: “This is an exciting time for TraderPeople, our TradePlay venture is proving popular and the launch of Traderversity, specifically targeting the student segment, will certainly boost our gaming credentials and allow us to really make our mark on the financial game scene.

“We have witnessed a global gamification of financial markets and we can now create educational, social trading games based on real world trading activity.

“Financial markets have been historically viewed as inaccessible, with a perception that they are too complicated for the everyday person.

“Since the recession, trust in banking institutions, and the stock market has declined massively, and caused a negative impact on how the nation views the markets, and namely those who work them.

“We want to educate people on how to invest their funds wisely and hope that by teaching some of the basics of trading, people’s confidence in making their own real financial investments will grow.

“We feel that the public’s awareness and knowledge of financial trading is in need of an overhaul and we have developed an innovative way to teach people about the marketplace and how to make informed trading decisions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .