Holy Smackaroos!
I play the Stock Market Game on YoungMoney.com. They give you virtual $1,000,000 in funds for you to buy and sell. It's in line with the real stock market in real time so it's a good learning curve for investing, and it's fun ;)
Anyways, I started playing in January. I bought and sold everyday, watched the market like a hawk. Now I've just let it sit and I decided to check it today and HOLY MOLY, I'm up 32%!!! So I could sell all my shares today and walk away with over $315,000 in profit for 8 months of investing. Man, I wish I really had a million dollars to invest :P
But one of the stocks I "own" is Priceline.com (PCLN) and it's 88%!!!! That's insane! I bought 1,390 shares at $81.32 per share. Their now worth $153.72 per share as of this morning! I've made over $100,500 on these stocks alone! I looked at Priceline's history and the last time it was this high was during the summer of 2008. So apparently, if I really wanted to invest in Priceline with a few hundred real dollars, I should try buying in the early part of next year (if the trend stays the same). Of course, looking at their 10 year history, their shares were worth over $500 per share in 2000. Insane.
Anyways, if William Shatner keeps working his mojo then I might just have to invest in PCLN and hopefully (knock on wood) make a profit! I'm probably not going to invest a few hundred, maybe a hundred. I consider investing money "play money" anyways. Same as for casinos. If I lose it, oh well. It was fun and tried. If I make a profit, then sweetness!
I own a couple shares with Sharebuilder, one is Amazon.com (AMZN) and that's up 24% so that's not too shabby. I don't own any with dividends though so I might look at more options. Weeeee! :)