A Money Game For Grown-ups

 

You have $40,000. You can keep it in cash, or you can assemble a portfolio of any stocks you choose. Trading is about to begin, and your job is to manage that portfolio while serving as a specialist -- a market maker -- in a stock you have been assigned. As the trading progresses, you will have to deal with such unpredictable external events as changes in interest rates and you will have to watch closely what your colleagues are doing. Your goal: to end the exercise with the highest net worth of any player.

No the game is not life. It is Stock Market Specialist, a board game developed by Marcia Kramer, director of marketing, research, and planning for the American Stock Exchange, and produced by John N. Hansen Co. of Millbrae, Calif. Designed originally as a learning tool ("it came from my own desire to understand trading better," Kramer says), the game is actually used by Shearson/American Express Mortgage Co. in the company's MBA training program. But it has been growing in popularity among recreational users, too, with an estimated 10,000 copies sold.

To be sure, the game is not for the faint of heart. The instruction manual runs 18 pages, Hansen spokesman Bob Zimmerli warns, and would-be players should count on a couple of hours' study before rolling the dice. Still, if you have always wondered how the real-life traders do it -- or if you know a young person who hankers after a financial career -- you may want to pick up a copy. It is available at most department stores, Zimmerli says, for $20.