The experiment consists of a sequence of periods. At the beginning of each period, you either are given a fresh supply of securities and cash, or you carry over securities and cash from the previous period. You may trade some or all securities in electronic markets called jMarkets. The markets remain open for a fixed time span. Your earnings depend on the liquidating dividends on the securities when they expire, and on your cash balance. The liquidating dividends depend on the random drawing of one out of three states. When securities and cash are carried over to the subsequent period, we reveal the identity of one of the two states that were not drawn. This information is displayed in the "News" page (which everybody can see).

There will be two sessions. Session 1 is a practice session, meant to familiarize you with the setting and the trading interface; Session 2 is where you earn money.

Important: to participate remotely, you need Java 1.5 (aka Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0)! You can get your upgrade by clicking at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp. If you have a Mac, you need OS X 10.4 (Tiger); download Java 1.5 from http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/java2se50release1.html, and change the default Java version to 1.5.

• For detailed information on the experiment and help with trading, click on the link Instructions to the left.
• Latest news is announced in the link News to the left.
• To participate in Session 1, the practice session, click on the link Participate In Session 1 to the left. You will be sent to the jMarkets Experiment Site where you can sign up. You will be asked for your email, your name, a phone number, and a password. If you do not have a password for this experiment yet, create your own (and remember it!). Choose a password with 6 to 12 alphanumeric characters and type it in. The server will tell you whether your password is valid. If so, it will provide you with a link to participate in the experiment. If you click on that link, you'll connect to the markets interface jMarkets. Choose DCSession1. After connection is established, you may not immediately see the markets - that only happens when everybody has connected and the experiment starts. Please be patient. If you accidentally disconnect before markets start, you cannot log back in until markets have started.
• To participate in Session 2, click on the Participate In Session 2 to the left. Use your email and the password you used for the practice session to connect to jMarkets. Now choose DCSession2.
• If you want to try out the trading interface, click on jMarkets Demo. Use email=markets*@clef.caltech.edu (where * is any number from 1 to 10) and password 162534 to log into jMarkets. Choose DCDemo. You will be able to submit orders, and if others have submitted orders, you will be able to trade as well. The demo won't be available until 9 hours before the experiment.

°jMarkets was developed at Caltech's Social Sciences Experimental Lab (SSEL) by Walter Yuan (technical project supervisor), Raj Advani (lead programmer), Peter Bossaerts (scientific supervisor) and William Zame (scientific advisor). jMarkets is the result of a project to develop open-source, Java-based software for large-scale, web-based markets experiments. Financial support is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and by grants from the R.G. Jenkins Family and William D. Hacker to Caltech.