Erstwhile

Erstwhile is a daily investing game where your mission is to grow a $10,000 pot by betting on stocks, commodities, and cash during a hidden stretch of market history.

Each puzzle shows how a handful of assets performed in the most recent year, along with a real news headline from the time. Your job is to work out roughly when you are, then spread your money where you think it will grow. Everyone plays the same puzzle, so your result is a fair test against the crowd.

• Split your chips across the options, with a limit on how many can go on any one.
• Use the price moves and headline to guess which era you're in.
• Return as time moves forward and adjust your picks if you change your mind.
• When the final year is revealed, you see how your result ranks against other players.

Why we like it:

• ✅Real headlines and real market data make every puzzle feel like a small history lesson.
• ✅Hindsight is no help here, so it rewards reading clues over chasing last year's winners.
• ✅Everyone gets the same puzzle, so the leaderboard comparison is fair and fun.

Hint: Treat the headline as a time stamp first and a stock tip second. Once you have a rough guess at the year, ask which assets that era's events would help or hurt, and don't forget that cash is a perfectly respectable move.