PLATO'S DISCIPLE ON WALL STREET GAME MANUAL
NOTE: This game manual is for "PLATO'S DISCIPLE ON WALL STREET" desktop edition 1.3.1. The web version (here) is simpler but can still refer to this manual.
Section 1: Main game screen
The game simulates a real day trading session in the US stock market, from 9:30AM to 4:00PM. Each bar represents 1 minute candlestick in the real market.
The price bars move from right to left. The bar popping at the right border is the latest price bar (real time price), bars at the left are history.
Main game components and their functions:
1. Main Chart Viewport
- Each "bar" in viewport means ONE minute candlestick in real stock market.
- While the game is running, the bars keep popping into the viewport from the right border. It's simulating "real time" market rolling.
- You can use mouse to drag bar chart back and forth.
- You can use mouse wheel to zoom-in or zoom-out the bars.
2. Market Running Indicator/Control
- Black "MKT ENDED", that's when you review previous game score chart.
- Blue "MKT RUNNING", the bars continue rolling into the viewport.
- Yellow "MKT PAUSED", the bars would stop rolling (because the market paused), so you have time to review chart and transactions. The game is still on, and you can see the game indicator (18) still counting.
- You can click this control to make market either paused or running, or you can use keyboard to toggle the status too (see section 4).
3. Market Rolling Speed Control
- By default, every 2 seconds, there is one bar rolling into the viewport. But you can adjust the rolling speed to 3s, 1s, 0.5s and 0.1 sec.
- 0.1 sec means you are not really trading; you just want to forward it to the end quickly.
- The speed can be adjusted by dragging the little knob back and forth.
4. Zoom-in Control. One mouse click means to add just one zoom-in level.
5. Zoom-out Control. Like (4), the one-click control gives user the granular control for zooming. You can also zoom by rolling your mouse wheel in the viewport, that's fast zooming.
6. 0:0 Control. Once clicked, two things will happen:
- the viewport will fill with the biggest bars in game, this is the default zooming level.
- If the viewport is "pinned" because only part of the chart is being analyzed, it will "unpin" now: the bars will start rolling from the right border of the viewport.
7. 1:1 Control. The control click will behave the same as (6). Just that the zooming level will dynamically fit ALL bars in viewport.
8. Check or uncheck will show or no-show of the crosshair (while mouse is over the viewport screen). Whenever crosshair line touches a market bar, the bar's detail will appear on top left corner.
9. SMA (simple moving average) on and off check.
10. Bands (Bollinger Bands) on and off check.
11. Bars Flowing indicator/Control. While the market is rolling, you can see bars moving from right to left. The indicator will show blue "Bars Flowing". When mouse-dragging the chart back and forth, you are focusing on certain part of the chart, so the viewport is "frozen" at your focused part, not rolling anymore. The indicator will show yellow "Bars Pinned". You can click this button/control again, the viewport will resume to roll again.
NOTES:
a. If (2) is in "MKT PAUSED", all bars are frozen, even (11) status is "Bars Flowing".
b. Change (2) to "MKT RUNNING" will automatically make bars rolling again, even the bars were pinned before.
c. Clicking (6) & (7) button will serve the same purpose as Note b.
d. Quickly mouse-dragging to push the bar chart to right most of the edge, will also serve the same purpose as Note b.
12. Real time market price indicator. Green/red means it is moving up or down comparing to the last minute. It is purely a FYI indicator.
13. Real time market price will float in this area. The amount is the same as (12), plus, the jumping flag provides an idea on where the price really is.
14. Sell button. Either mouse click or keyboard ">" (bigger-than keystroke) can make a "sell" trade. The order is a market order at the click moment (Market order means that the execution is at the market price at that moment).
- If you don't have any shares to sell, this control will tell you no shares to sell.
- If the "MKT PAUSED" or game over, no transaction will happen.
- 100% means you will dump all shares at once. 50% means you will only dump half of your shares at once. Etc.
15. Buy button. Either mouse click or keyboard "<" (less-than keystroke) can make a "buy" trade in market price at that moment (thus a market order). 100% means you will use all the cash to buy maximum possible shares. 50% means you will only use half of your cash to buy maximum possible shares. Etc.
16. Ledger #2 shows information on trading performance.
- "Holding Avg Cost". Say you bought 100 shares, 50 shares, 20 shares at different moments, and you are holding 100+50+20 = 170 shares. What is the overall cost of these 170 shares? Well, it is going to be 170 x "Holding Avg Cost".
- "Holding Mkt Val". Let's say you are holding 170 shares, then, real time market price x 170 = "Holding Mkt Val".
- "Portfolio Total Value" = "Holding Mkt Val" + "Cash in hand".
- "P/L%". Profit or Loss. "P/L%" = ("Portfolio Total Value" - "Start Fund")/ "Start Fund".
17. Ledger #1 has no controls. Just information for gamer to glance during the game.
18. This is the game timer. No matter the game market is RUNNING or PAUSED, the game itself still counting the heartbeat time. It shows "GAME OVER" when trading session is completed.
19. Close this screen and start a new game. The game score is saved automatically (if there are transactions).
20. Click this button to view the detail game score.
21. Buy/Sell transactions will show up here. The latest trade is on top.
22. Buy/Sell marker on the chart. The marker is tagged if mouse is clicking the transaction in (21). This is useful especially when you review previous game score and transactions.
Section 2: Stock Token Picker Screen
1. Click any stock token to play. These tokens are from the given PlayPack. One PlayPack is one trading day's data. Usually, one PlayPack has 5 popular stocks' market data in that specific day.
2. Replay the game's intro dialogue.
3. Click to open a popup window. You can see previously saved game scores (including charts). Those game scores are saved automatically, as long as there are buy/sell transactions being made during the game. The latest game scores are on top of the list. If you want to delete or archive certain game scores, please see section 3. The game score function is ONLY available to the desktop edition. The web version of this game doesn't have this function.
4. Click to pick any other day's PlayPack. The desktop edition comes with 20 built-in Play Packs. You can also manually download the latest PlayPack from here. Once PlayPack is downloaded and saved to local PlayPack folder (see section 3), it can be played offline repeatedly. If you want to delete or archive certain PlayPacks, please see section 3. The PlayPack function is ONLY available to the desktop edition. The web version of this game can only play the latest PlayPack.
Section 3: Game Menu & Game Folder Maintenance
NOTE: this section is only valid to the desktop edition. The web version of this game does not have this function.
1. Restart the game. This menu button is only enabled while the game market is running. Once clicked, the running game will be terminated, and no game score is saved (even though there might be some buy/sell trades during that game session).
2. Click to turn on or off the background music.
3. Click to turn on or off the sound effect.
4. Click Setup to open submenus. This button is only enabled when the game market is NOT running.
5. Click to see the Game Manual.
6. Click to open the Game Scores Folder in Windows File Explorer. From there, you can delete or archive (backup) the score files. For example, over time, there might be too many game score files sitting in the folder. Old historical score files can be moved (archived) to somewhere else (This relies on your own backup solution). Whenever you want to review old scores, you can manually copy them back to this folder.
NOTE: The game score file's naming convention is something like "2023-01-27_GOOG_101.sc ". The file extension "*.sc" is mandatory, should NOT be changed. Other part of the fie name can be changed, but we suggest keeping this automatic naming convention.
7. Click to open the PlayPacks Folder in Windows File Explorer. From there, you can delete or archive (backup) the PlayPack files. For example, over time, other than the original 20 PlayPacks installed by default, there might be many new downloaded PlayPacks too. You can archive old PlayPacks anywhere you like (This relies on your own backup solution). You can also copy any valid PlayPacks back to this folder, so the game can play these PlayPacks. (7)'s folder should NEVER be empty. If it is empty, the game will automatically fill it with the original default 20 PlayPacks.
Two steps on how to install the latest available PlayPack:
- Download the latest available PlayPack from here.
- Manually copy the downloaded PlayPack file to (7)'s folder.
NOTE: The PlayPack file's naming convention is something like "2023-01-27_PlayPack.pac". The file extension "*.pac" is mandatory, should NOT be changed. Other part of the fie name can be changed, but we suggest keeping this automatic naming convention.
8. Click this will reset the whole game data: the current game score folder will be purged and current PlayPack folder will be filled with the original 20 PlayPacks. Please backup data before doing this.
Section 4: Keyboard usage
Mouse only operation can play the game very smoothly already. However, Mouse & Keyboard together can make the game even more fluent and is the ideal way to play this game (Most professional traders using keyboard to trade).
1. ~, the tilt keystroke is to pause or resume the market (desktop edition only).
2. <, the less-than keystroke is for executing a buy-order.
3. >, the bigger-than keystroke is for executing a sell-order.
4. ?, the question keystroke is for testing keyboard (web version only).
5. Space keystroke is to pause or resume the market (web version only).
Section 5: Game System Requirements
1. Desktop Edition needs to run on Windows 10 or Windows 11; CPU with Intel Core i5 or better; Memory with 8G or better. Monitor resolution with 1920 X 1080 is preferred.
2. Web version of this game can run on either Windows or Mac. In addition to the same hardware requirements as (1) listed, web version also needs latest Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge to run. Other browsers can not run the game properly.
Section 6: Game Data Quality & Accuracy
The desktop edition and the web version of this game are using the same PlayPack (The web version is usually one business day behind). You can compare the data with other popular sites (such as Yahoo Finance). Despite the strong confidence held in its quality, we still can NOT guarantee its accuracy. Please read the disclaimer section below.
DISCLAIMERS:
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS GAME IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF INFORMATION OR OTHER WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT WILL THE CREATOR OF THIS GAME BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR USE OF THIS INFORMATION OR RELIANCE UPON ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIAL ACCESSED VIA IT OR ANY OTHER HYPERLINKED WEBSITE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES ARISING FROM LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR LOSS OF DATA.
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