Twitch plays the stock market using $50,000 of actual money
Twitch played Pokémon. Twitch played Dark Souls. And now, Twitch is playing... the stock market.
StockStream gives Twitch users a chance to move actual money around every day on the New York Stock Exchange. It's funded -- to start with, at least -- by $50,000 provided by the stream's owner.
"This is all just my money," StockStream's owner, a software developer named Mike, told PC Gamer. "I saved it up, and as for as who benefits it’ll just be me. I mean, I’m taking all the risks."
Fair, Mike. Tooooootally fair.
StockStream runs every day while the NYSE market is open, with activity divided up around 5-minute voting rounds. At the end of each voting period, the top "buy" or "sell" command is pushed through and a single share of stock is bought or sold.
For those wishing to participate, all of the instructions are included on StockStream's Twitch page. In addition to buy and sell commands, players -- this is a cooperative multiplayer game, after all -- can also find out what music is playing and look at trading activity.
There are a few rules that all players must abide by. Only stocks available through the Robinhood app are fair game, as that's the broker StockStream uses. Further, the game will end if the account value falls below $25,000; per StockStream's website, that's due entirely to FINRA/SEC regulations.
In its current form, StockStream offers no reward to players other than the satisfaction of a job well done. Though as Mike notes on the website, "in the future prizes may be offered to players with high scores."
Amazingly, this isn't even the first time Twitch users have been given the chance to play in the investment world. A TwitchPlaysStockMarket account has been dormant since 2015, but -- based on the rules printed on its account page -- it seemed to work in a similar manner.
There was one big difference, however: it didn't rely on real money.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
