Stock market goes virtual

Virtual Stock Market software developed at NUI Galway will enable researchers to attempt to gain a better understanding of how financial markets operate.

It will also provide a platform with which they can conduct a series of experiments with both automated computer agents and humans. The aim is to understand the factors that underpin ‘boom-and-bust’ cycles, as well as human and software agents’ interactions.

The Virtual Stock Market is the result of a multi-disciplinary research collaboration between the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics, the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Research Unit (CIMRU) at NUI Galway.

The Virtual Stock Market lists 10 companies and has four types of computer agents trading in the market. NUI Galway students have also been invited to trade on the stock market and each participant will be given an initial endowment of 10,000 Airgead (virtual currency) and an equivalent amount of shares.