Tycoon: The Commodity Market Simulation

Tycoon: The Commodity Market Simulation is, as the name suggests, a simulation of the commodities market.

The game puts you in the shoes of a commodities trader who buys and sells various futures (a popular kind of financial derivatives) for a living. Although you can trade futures on over 10 commodities (including gold, soybean, pork bellies, and coffee), you can also trade financial futures, including the S&P stock index, 1-year T-bills, and Japanese Yen (be careful on that last one, or you can lose your shirt ;)).

The game is turn-based, with each turn representing one week. During each turn, you can take a position on a futures contract of your choice (either long (i.e. buy) or short (i.e. sell) position). You can also look at graphs that show futures prices of each commodity over time, liquidate your position (hopefully for a profit, of course), read the news (all of which affect futures prices one way or the other), and read short descriptions of each commodity. The game is quite simple, but reasonably realistic.

Students of finance or professional traders who can't get enough of their real job (EG) will probably find Tycoon an accessible and interesting simulator of this underrated market where traders who lose their shirts aren't as famous as stock market investors who lose the same amount of shirts ;) Highly recommended!

Review By HOTUD