I was listening to a stock analyst from Motley Fool on the radio today. He was saying that now is the perfect time to get into the stock market. The market is down, prices are low, and if you get in now there’s profit to be made when the market goes back up.

This got me to thinking, and I decided I needed to learn more about the stock market. I have a general understanding of how the market works, but I wondered if I would be able to make money buying and selling stocks. So I thought I’d find out.

Starting today I’ve set up a virtual stock exchange game at MarketWatch. The game will run from now until December 19th. I’m opening up this game to readers of All American Blogger because I think it might be an interesting way to not only learn something, but also for us to connect with readers.

The nice thing about this game is that you can either buy your stocks and just wait and see what they do over the long term, or you can buy and sell every day and see how you do. If you want to play every day you can, and if you want to check your game once a month you can do that too. Either way, this ought to be an interesting learning experience.

To get in on the game, go to the MarketWatch Virtual Stock Exchange website and sign up to play.

The Game ID is: aab-trading
The Password: allamerican

You will start with $200,000 to invest. Trades cost $10. The player with the most money at the close of business on December 19 is the winner.