Making child's play of playing the market

It's one thing to find the money to send your children to a private school or college

It's one thing to find the money to send your children to a private school or college. But what about getting them to pay for it themselves? One interesting new US Website, www.mainxchange.com is aiming to do just that: to teach children all about high finance by integrating colourful cartoon characters and an online simulation in which the kids are given $100,000 "fun" dollars with which to trade in any publicly quoted company.

The game tracks the young tycoon's investment progress on a monthly basis and gives out monthly and quarterly prizes to the best performers.

Being a US operation, MainXChange is also about marketing: the companies traded are mainly clothing, toy and music firms with high market awareness; parents should be aware of the dual advertising function of the Website. The site and games are open to anyone, but the prizes, including airline tickets, toys and CDs, brand-name sportswear and leather jackets are only available to US residents.

MainXChange goes to great lengths in easy-to-understand kidspeak to explain the legalities and rules of the game. It warns players not to replicate their game moves with real money on the stock market, but "if you do it anyway, we're not going to take the credit if you make money, but we're also not going to be responsible if you lose money. Our lawyers are also not going to be responsible."

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On the matter of lawyers, the game's creator also warns that "our lawyers are always thinking and new issues might come up" and might update the terms and conditions and copyright rules of the game.

Family Money went onto the site with our resident 4 1/2-year-old, who thought the cartoon characters who answer questions and guide the player around the game board were "funny". But the stock-picking strategy was beyond him. alas not for him.)

When told he'd have to wait maybe until Christmas or even later before he'd know if his companies had made any money, MainXChange lost whatever fleeting appeal it may have had. "Let's just go to the bank and get some money," he said. The stock market, as they say, was history.