Redesigning the Stock Market

I had a concept about something like this about a year ago. I mocked up some draft designs for a homepage and user profile. You can see them here (although the domain is expiring soon):<p><a href="http://sharemeup.com/sharemeup/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://sharemeup.com/sharemeup/index.php</a><p>Only the tour and index page have content.<p>Basically, my concept was socializing and in essence, noobifying the stock trading process. You buy shares based on dollar amount (fractional ownership, ShareBuilder.com does it as well). Ticker symbols are accompanied by company logos, so its obvious that you're buying Apple Computer stock, not just AAPL. Your portfolio is also gamified; win achievements for doing well, get placed on a leaderboard, share with friends, etc.<p>In general, everything about trading is complicated. If you look up your favorite company, and you're overloaded with stock information about High/Low, Bid/Ask, Volume, closing price, etc. And the more investment options are given, the worse it gets (mutual funds, options, currency, etc.). Everything appears complicated, so yes, it is intimidating. To get a better grip of what a better UI would be, it would be a good idea to look at the intentions and desires of a new trader. I think the average joe wants to start trading because: a) They think they're smarter than the average person, and can make a few bucks off their stock picks. b) They think it'll be fun to learn.<p>Feel free to take any of my work or ideas.

I don't think brokerage sites are not accessible, let me disagree on that one. Players like Charles Schwab, Ameritrade and eTrade made it very simple for common people to trade online, and there are millons of individual small traders already. Also, old boards like Motley Fool helped a lot of people understand how the sistem works and encourage them to take control of their investments. Financial products like ETFs and interfaces like Yahoo finance and Google finance are visited by millions every month. What is a REAL NIGHTMARE (at least for me, a foreigner) is the paperwork related to opening an account (banking or brokerage, the same). If you can think of a way (or service) to simplify that process, you would be improving people's life.

A similar service, The Share Republic, launched this week: <a href="http://thesharerepublic.com/bananas/" rel="nofollow">http://thesharerepublic.com/bananas/</a><p>It's still bananas (not real money) for now but I now they are working hard to get the real thing running before the end of the year. You might want to signup to see what they came up with.<p>Disclaimer: I beta tested it for some weeks but I'm not part of the company.

Firstly, this is a great idea. That said, it needs to be stressed (and then stressed again!) how important it is that the simplification of the interface does not remove from the seriousness of its application; you should not lead investors to treat the market as a 'game'.<p>It is important that investors are well educated about their actions. Simplification must not lead to less-thought-out decisions.