Over the course of the day we've made just over 100 Bux and then managed to lose it all before regaining half before going to bed.

We've been playing Bux you see, a new app that taps into the world of day trading, allowing you to play certain stocks to see just how good you are at the stock market.

The difference here however is that we're not playing with real money - although that is an option - but instead fake "Bux" that takes away the risk of doing a deal that eventually means you'll lose your car, your house, your wife, your kids. We've all seen Wall Street.

The premise is simple. You start with 1000 Bux and let loose on a walled garden of company shares like Amazon, Barclays, Apple, Facebook, and Tesla. If companies aren't your thing you can bet against the performance of select countries, select markets, or simply gold or silver.

Sadly you can't yet pick any stock from any market, but that feature is coming, the company explained to Pocket-lint when asked.

The wonderfully stylish app is split for main sections: news on trades, the stocks, battles, and your portfolio.

The investments are easy to manage and make, you can hedge a bet that shares will rise or fall, and then increase the payback or possible loss with a multiplier.

Once you've taken your punt, that's it, you simply sit back and watch the market do its best or worst.

It's here that the real fun or fear starts to take effect as the game taps into real world data based on the performance of real stocks.

When do you sell, when do you buy, can you afford the commission? It's all here and all part of your decision making process you'll have to go through.

We've already found, for example, that if you follow the news you'll do well - Marks & Spencer's good results this month provided us with a 100 Bux profit and 35 per cent increase - but take wild guesses and you soon find yourself losing hundreds.

We've already had moments where not engaging with the app over a course of a couple of hours caused us a 45 Bux loss - ouch.

That missed opportunity is only highlighted further when you start trading in stocks not in your time zone. Like the real world, markets are only open for a set time, which can limit your enjoyment or stop you buying stocks you want. Trade in local markets and you'll have to watch your portfolio during your breaks.

Luckily you can set alerts to tell you if your stock is performing well or badly, but you do have to keep an eye on things.

All this real-time data certainly grounds you in the reality of it all, but you do get a sense of playing something greater than Hayday or Farmville: this is gaming for grown-ups.

When you feel you've mastered the data - there are historical charts in app to check out - you can start to prove your experience to others with something called Battles. Here you set up a Battle against other traders, be they strangers or your friends.

And this is the second layer to the game, the social aspect of seeing what trades others are doing to either help or steer you clear of certain trades.

The third is that this is the start of your training to understanding how the stock market works. The creators of Bux hope that when you've built enough confidence you'll be willing to trade your fake Bux for real cash, offering you the same "gamification" of the stock market but with the chance to earn real cash.

So far overall our pot is up 10 per cent, but we've seen wild variations in our success, and that's where it gets complicated, the design and aesthetics of app has made us feel like we should be trading stuff more than we probably should, rather than playing the long game and slowly waiting for stock to rise.

Still, if you are looking for a game you can dip in and out of, but aren't fussed with the banality of the simulation games, this can turn your interest of stocks into something fun, and if you stay in the world of make believe, give you the chance to brag without any risk if you become good at it. The only problem is that if you become too good, you'll soon realise all the money you could have made playing a game on your iPhone.