There are only 25 days until Christmas! I absolutely love this holiday, but this year it seems that people aren't as excited about it. Stores in Canada have been advertising for this holiday since the beginning of November, but I haven't really heard many people talking about it... yet.

So I decided to make a list of all the things I love about Christmas, since my group isn't doing any work for economics right now anyways... I'm sure they won't mind if I slack off, after all, they're on Omegle.

• The store decorations and SPARKLES! - I love it when malls have huge pretty christmas trees that are 4 stories tall!
• Cookies, nomz, baked goods, YUM! - mmm... nomnomnom.  People's baking skills improve at this time of year, that or I just get hungrier. 
• Advent calendars - I usually eat all the chocolates within a week, but this year I'm going to try to eat only 1 chocolate a day. Funny, 'cause I really don't like chocolate.
• The Christmas spirit - people just seem happier at this time of year! Whether it's because they'll be getting presents, or because they'll be able to see their family, Christmas just lifts everyone's spirits!
• Rest - as a high school student, I have 2 weeks of vacation at that time and I get to stay up and just sleep.

So what are your favourite things about Christmas?

One good thing about being so technologically advanced these days is that there are simulations for literally everything, including the stock market. We recently started a stock exchange simulation on Investopedia for a project in my accounting class.

At first, I was incredibly excited at the prospect of being able to play with ~250,000USD~. Not knowing what was really going on (All we were told was: Financial market = bad, Healthcare = lame, Technology = spastic), I, surprisingly, got REALLY into it at the beginning, and my indecisiveness was actually an advantage! I would stare at a stock for a LONG time before I bought it, but in the end, I decided to settle for the safe bets: Google, Microsoft, and Apple. (What can I say? I love my technology!) I know, I know, I invested in BOTH MSFT and AAPL, but hey, I don't care as long as they make me money!

And they did. So I started to get more adventurous and bought shares of other companies. Companies that I had never heard of. Thinking to myself "ah, what the heck, it's just a game", I bought a bunch of other shares, although in moderation.

That moderation there ended up saving me. When I lost, I didn't lose as much, but when I won, I didn't win as much either. Still, I was making a profit. By the end of that day, I was at the top of the leader board in my class!

And then, as usual, Regina did stupid things.

I won't go into the details, but I ended up losing a thousand or so bucks on Telecom Brazil due to the 20 minute delay in the Investopedia system. I also made some other bad investments, but luckily I was able to gain at least some of it back by short-selling. We have another 3 weeks of this simulation, so who knows? Maybe I'll do better next week. :P

Anyways, I guess what I've learned from these few days is this:

• Do a lot a research before deciding to invest in a stock. Analyze their graphs and make SMART predictions.
• Don't be afraid to take some risks; you lose some, you win some. That's life. What matters is that you win more than you lose.
• I suck at predicting stocks, but not as much as I thought I did.
• GOOGLE = GOOD.
• I don't want to ever invest in stocks in my life. Ever. The last few days almost gave me a heart attack, and I'd rather invest my money in something that I KNOW is going to give me a return, such as savings bonds and GICs.

The stock market is generally doing quite well as everyone is getting ready for the Christmas season.

TL;DR: I don't like the stock market.

What has been your or your family's experience with the stock market? Are you a risk taker, or do you like to play things safe?