The simulation Send an order helps you to get started with financial markets. As a SimTrader, your goal in this simulation is to send your first order to the market and to see how you've influenced the market.

At the start of the simulation, you own an account worth € 30,000 in cash and 1 000 BestPizza shares.

The simulation Send an order will be the opportunity to discover the mechanisms of a financial market: the limit order book, market orders ("MAR" orders) and limit orders ("LIM" orders).

The duration of the simulation is initially set to one minute, which corresponds to a 24-hour day. Using the TimeLine, you can increase or decrease the simulation speed at any time.

BestPizza is a restaurant chain in France, which has been doing business since the 1960s. Building on its strong reputation, the chain has more than 100 restaurants spread in the Paris area and other regions.

The development of the company took place gradually even though the recurrence of economic crises had a negative impact on the number of customers. BestPizza was initially founded by two Italian partners and was introduced on the market in the early 2000s.

The share price of BestPizza (ticker symbol: BPZ) has stayed around the same level as its introductory price of € 10 in 2000. If the stock price hasn't increased, it is worth noting that the BestPizza company has continuously distributed dividends to its shareholders.

Over the recent period, the stock price has fluctuated around € 10 depending on the bad news and the good news about the company, the food service sector and the economy.

The ticker symbol for BestPizza shares traded on the market is BPZ.

Today, the stock price of BestPizza should evolve according to the news flow, and the supply and demand for the shares.

The simulation Send an order focuses on the basics of the market: the limit order book and how to send orders on the market.

Teaching goals: the simulation Send an order will be the opportunity to understand a market with buyers and sellers, and the supply and demand. How the market will react to your orders?

Learning objectives: this simulation will help to learn the following elements of trading:

• Evaluate the impact of buy/sell order on the market: transactions and price evolution
• To be familiar with the trading platform

Before or after launching this simulation, you can learn more on the market mechanisms by taking related courses to the simulation.

Professor François Longin
ESSEC Business School