Today’s a good time to discuss my absolute favorite Facebook application, FSX, as they just upgraded their services from best to better, and the level of volatility in the stock market makes it a great time for people to play around and test their skills with zero risk. FSX is a fantasy stock market on Facebook where users start with $10,000,000 and get to trade stocks alongside their friends.

Yesterday, FSX announced to its members that it has upgraded its services after a merger with Silicon Valley start-up KaChing. They promise bug fixes, better services, prize giveaways, and some much needed services.

Before yesterday’s overhaul of the service, I had already been a huge fan for quite some time. I like to buy stocks I’m watching on FSX before I do so in real life. It makes it feel like every lost dollar in my FSX portfolio is a dollar saved! It lets you keep track of your portfolio well, and you can chat with other traders on the message board and see what they’re doing.

Now, they’ve added real time trades (no more 15 minute wait); a new, more reliable data provider; they’ve put an end to some cheating schemes (why do people bother?); they’ve added stock watch lists, as well as stock walls for people to chat.

I’m mostly excited for the stock walls. Ideally I would like to see a rating on each stock that says whether people think it will go up and down, and a ranking of that rating based on the accuracy of the guessers. This thing could be a virtual open and free market adviser and I like it!

- Jonathan Kleiman