<p>As a 12th grader, I've been busy with college applications for a while, and I have a question about some online extracurricular activities. Since 9th grade, I've held an account on UpDown (updown.com), an investing simulator where you start with an imaginary portfolio of $1 million and buy/sell different companies' stocks. The site limits you to trading the NYSE's offerings, but you're able to make most of the trade types that real platforms allow. I didn't spend hours upon hours tending to my portfolio, but I adjusted it pretty consistently, even though I was away from the site for a while after the Lehman crash during my sophomore year and took hits that put my portfolio's value near $700 thousand. Without resetting my portfolio to $1 million (the option was given to me) and starting fresh, I have brought its value over $1.1 million, which isn't a huge gain but is still better than what you might call the average. Using other platforms, I also started trading currencies and stocks with virtual portfolios. Both of those have grown as well. Trading is something that I do more for fun than for experience, but I have learned some things and been able to keep on top of financial news. Later this year, I intend to join my school's first yearlong virtual stock trading competition. Even though finance and quantitative majors aren't necessarily my top choices, should I include this in my college applications, or would doing so hurt me? If I can list it, should I give the reader specific numbers about my performance?</p>
<p>I didn't include it above because it isn't as serious as the others, but I'm a bit curious about this next one. Last year, Monopoly launched an online promotional game called Monopoly City Streets that allowed you to buy real roads and highways, build buildings on them and collect rent, and sabotage other users' properties. I did pretty well there, making it to the local leaderboard after joining in the last few weeks of the game's duration. Would this also be eligible to list as an extracurricular commitment?</p>