Stocks are an investment that people can't easily approach unless having knowlege about it. However, with the appearance of paper trading, which resulted from the  growth of the Internet, people who have been interested in stocks but have dared not experiment are now able to give it a try.
 Paper trading is a program where people can practice buying and selling stocks. Although participant's actions don't influence the stock quotation in reality, the quotation of paper trading depends on that of reality.
 Many securities firms provide paper trading services. Most paper trading services are done the same way as real investments, but they are often done differently depending on each firm. In paper trading, cyber money is used instead of currency. Altough people can't actually earn money, people can try to test techniques and theories about stocks and can undergo trial and error. It means that beginners can invest in stocks after practicing enough through paper trading.
 There is a club 'Wiz' for paper trading in CBNU. Wiz, saying that their purpose is the investment and understanding about stocks and bonds, has been concentrating on the paper trading. Only a year has passed since its establishment, but it has won awards four times in paper trading competitons through vigorous and continuous activity.
 Paper trading is useful in many ways. If people win an award, they can earn a large amount of money as a cash prize, and the experience of winning a prize will be helpful to find a job, especailly a job in the financial field. Even if people can't win an award, they can gain experience in investing and develop a sense of the economy.
 Latley, paper trading contests have tended to be diversified and subdivided as young people's interest about stocks has grown. In the case of the Economic Universiade contest, which Wiz has won a top prize in, it accepts only participants who are university students and holds various contests related to the economy.
 There are plenty of chances to invest. Just searching 'Paper trading' on the Internet, lots of information about it immediatley shows up on the monitor. Methods of participation are also quite easy; people can easily participate in the contests by just filling in an application form on the official web site of each firm. There is no need to worry about the entry fee because most securities firms hold the contests without accepting an entry fee. Why don't you give it a try?
 
*Paper trading: sometimes also called "virtual stock trading"