A Case of U-Mart Experiment by Human Agents

Abstract

Recently, an online investment with a low transaction fee has been popular for growing rate of Internet, and many people so-called a “private investor” have entered stock trading. Comparing to other western countries, Japan has a low percentage of direct finances in aggregate amount saved. In such a sense, this phenomenon may be what should be welcomed. However, it is true and regretful that there is a trend to have a fun with a money game being unable to appreciate the importance of production activities and productive technologies of manufacturing sectors. The U-Mart system has been developed for research, but also as a helpful educational tool for understanding financial futures market. Experimental participants are able to deepen understanding of futures market through a practical trading experience. However, the objective of the understanding of futures market does not aim for producing the winners in such a money game; rather, it aims for hoping and contributing to a healthy development and maturing of stock market. The U-Mart also includes such a meaning. Hence, this experiment is primarily conducted for the purpose of improving the students’ understanding of futures market. In addition to this experiment, the experiment we conducted had another two objectives. The first objective was to examine what effects the availability of order book had on the humans’ trading behavior as a trader. The second objective was to collect useful data such as environmental conditions for experiment in conducting the U-Mart experiment by humans. The experiment by humans, compared with that of the programmed machine trader, requires relatively high cost due to the necessity of preparation and restriction on experimental period.