Smart Car of America - Edmunds.com launches The Car Stock Exchange game.

Edmunds.com launches The Car Stock Exchange game.

Edmunds.com had gone online in 1994 on a gopher site known as the Electronic Newsstand. Gopher was a text, directory-based browser for a massive hierarchical text database.

In 1995 Edmunds launched its own web site. Edmunds now maintains four Web sites that include Inside Line, CarSpace , AutoObserver.com (launched in 2007) and of course Edmunds.com. They are headquartered in southern California.

The Car Stock Exchange (CSX) is a prediction game for new automobiles. Contestants can create a portfolio of cars and watch the value of the vehicle climb and drop just like the real thing. This new site was in development for a year.

Anyone can participate in their CSX trading game. You get $1 million in imaginary money to purchase stock in the vehicles that you anticipate will be profitable in coming months. The game has a real-time ticker across the top of the page and reveals the current value of automotive manufactures stocks.

Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds said "It's very much like fantasy baseball -- but for cars."

Contestants who participate are also helping measure the success or failure of an upcoming car.

Joining CSX involves no real money, is completely free and when you register you'll receive $1,000,000 in CSX money to start trading.

Once registered you simply try to speculate how many units an upcoming car will sell in the first 6 months the vehicle is available for purchase. The cost of the stock is based on CSX players' collective estimate of those sales for a vehicle.

"Edmunds will freely share the information it collects on the CSX with consumers, automakers and visitors to its Web site," Mr. Anwyl said.

If you think a vehicle will sell more units than the current stock price indicates, buy the stock. If you think a vehicle will sell less units you can short your the stock.

You can even buy shares in the Smart Fortwo!

Edmunds's "The Car Stock Exchange " will supply prizes to the player with the largest percentage gain each month.