Trade the Crash
Press kit
Real companies. New names. Historical prices.
A single-player trading simulator set during the 2000–2003 dot-com crash. Trade real companies under fictional names, manage $50,000, and keep your family afloat as the market falls.
The game in one paragraph
Trade the Crash puts you inside the dot-com boom just before it unravels. Each stock represents a real company under a fictional name and ticker, with that company’s historical candle data behind its chart. Start on February 28, 2000 with $50,000, pay your family’s bills, and try to reach June 2, 2003 with capital intact.
Quick facts
- Genre
- Single-player trading simulator
- Store
- Steam
- Historical setting
- February 28, 2000 – June 2, 2003
- Starting capital
- $50,000
- Roster
- 59 unique instruments across five career paths
- Study Hall
- 86 in-game lessons
Who’s behind the names?
These examples connect the names viewers see in the game to the real companies whose historical stock data they follow.
| In-game company | In-game ticker | Real company / ticker |
|---|---|---|
| QuantaGrid Software | QGRD | Microsoft / MSFT |
| ParcelPeak Retail | PPRK | Amazon / AMZN |
| EmberSilicon | EBSI | Intel / INTC |
| Redline Beverages | RDB | Coca-Cola / KO |
| PrismCore Graphics | PCGR | NVIDIA / NVDA |
| MarketArc Commerce | MKAC | eBay / EBAY |
How the historical prices work
Each stock maps one-to-one to its real counterpart’s historical candle data, preserving recorded opening, highest, lowest, and closing prices. The game simulates movement within each candle; it does not replay every individual historical market tick.
Company names, tickers, and company-specific news are fictionalized. Your trades and their effect on your portfolio are part of the simulation.
An opening for your coverage
“It’s 2000. You recognize the companies—but can you survive what happens next?”
Introduce the familiar businesses, explain the changed names, then show what it feels like to trade their historical charts while the household bills keep arriving.
Brief & media
Questions about coverage? Contact the team.