Amazing Apps: Buy, Sell, Hold

Fintech firm Troutwood has launched the second in a series of apps designed to give Gen Z, Millennials and new investors a knowledge advantage with the introduction of the Buy, Sell, Hold! App.  An investment education tool that gamifies investing and saving to take the mystery out of building wealth using real-world, historical data.

The app, which is free and available for Apple and Android devices, does not require users to pay to register or open any bank or investing accounts. It’s purely a fun, fast and educational way to get savvy on saving and investing by tapping the power of gaming and simulation technologies.

Users can test and develop their skill and knowledge (and luck) that they can then apply in their own savings and investing programs.

How it Works

Users take turns and make a choice as to buy, sell or hold. The game uses real stock market data, and just as in the real world, users’ “investments” can increase or decrease in value depending on the decisions made.

The first step is for the user to assign a dollar value for how much to invest daily, and to then choose a historical cycle, at which time to start the game.  The game will tell the user how much cash they have to start investing.

So, a user could start with $3,650 and decide to invest $10 per day for their working career. From there, the user decides to buy, sell or hold with each turn.  The price indicator for each transaction is simply the market price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio.

“Players do not choose individual stocks, nor do they learn how to try to time the market,” said Troutwood CEO and co-founder Gene Natali.  “Instead, we teach two critical long-term investment skills.  First, to buy early and often early in your career.  Second, understand how much risk you are comfortable taking later in the game, or your career.”

During development of the app, Troutwood hosted a “lunch and learn” session with college students who were competing against one another on the app. One of the major takeaways was that app users who know the investing climate in those historical cycles do better.

“The career cycle that ended in 1999 triggered a very different emotional response than the cycle ending in 2008,” Natali added.  “We had to talk about what happened in 2008, so that they understood the risk they took buying at every stage, late in the game.”

The Buy, Sell, Hold! app is programmed with algorithms that reflect actual stock market history, during the time period the user selects.

“This allows an educator or advisor to have students/clients play cycles that include events like the Great Depression, the Vietnam War or the Financial Crisis,” said Natali. “In the process, the user learns how to manage a long-term investment through some of the most difficult periods in history.  It’s great preparation for real life.”  

Each game consists of 42 “turns” or chances to decide whether to buy, sell or hold as the game progresses.  The user can gain a sense of how the market is behaving and can sharpen their investment analysis in “real time,” improving their instincts and learning more about their own risk tolerance. 

“In our beta trials, we’ve seen that it takes users about 10 rounds of play to begin to understand that buying often equates to a higher score,” said Jeff Davidek, Troutwood’s Chief Strategist and co-founder. “What this effectively does is show users how to grasp some pretty complex business school lessons in just ten rounds of a fairly simple to play game. As a result, they can start to understand what happened that influenced their investment performance and why.” 

“In turn, we hope that this increases their confidence to then go do it in real life,” adds Natali. “With retirement plans in America shifting from the employer directed Defined Benefit plans to employee directed IRAs and 401(k) type plans, it’s an important skill to understand.”

Troutwood’s Tools

To date, Troutwood, which was founded in 2019, has already created a portfolio of educational tools that teach the basics of student loans, auto loans, credit cards, Roth IRAs, 401 (k) savings plans, the S&P 500 and general investment know how.  The firm’s first educational app, the Troutwood Time Portal, was introduced earlier in October.

About Troutwood

The Troutwood Buy, Sell, Hold! app is available for free at the Apple Store and at the Google Play Store. Troutwood is not a financial advisory firm and does not market financial advisory services. Its focus is on providing users with the tools they need to chart their own course before they’re ready to hire a financial advisor, or in some cases to do it themselves.  For more information: www.Troutwood.com.