I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with csinnings idea, on the one hand it would be fair for everyone. On the other hand the stock market should in no way be fair. When I play this game I play it fully expecting that I'll lose tonnes of money and end up quitting, or instead of quitting try and work my way back up.
I think part of the fun might be trying to find a method that works for you.
@ daedalus, But it looks like people are willing to risk it. Over 42,000 shares already bought! What you describe isn't any different from a stock in the real world.
Woz recently got involved with a company that wouldn't even disclose what the company is planning to do. Yet investors poured into the IPO just because Woz is involved with it.
Same thing here. All we know is it's a Mario platformer. But we do know every Mario platformer is gold. History tells most of us that this will sell more than 4.5 million copies. If you disagree, short it =P.
@seebee, the Glossary's definition of Short Sell is pretty good if you don't know what it is. The rest of the help section assumes you know what it is already and just applies it to the simExchange game.
@csinning, I think that is the trend we are going in eventually. For those of you who haven't been involved in an IPO of a real stock or bond, you can submit your bid before hand for like a couple days. On the IPO day, they calculate from the bids what the final price is and those people who bid high enough get shares or bonds. However, everyone who has a winning bid gets it at the same price. In recent years, the day after the offering when everyone can trade it, the stock still spikes a bit.
@orkeater, there's no reason to artificially limit a stock due to a number (like 200 DKP). If Google did a 5:1 split and the stock went down to $100, woult it be any more attractive? That price would still predict the same EPS and therefore wouldn't be any more "cheap."
WAY too high for an IPO. It may sell more eventually, but people aren't going to risk it. This price is built completely on the Mario's and the Wii's reputation. We have no idea how good it will be, so why risk it based on hype?
Shorting a stock is selling shares you do not actually possess. Therefore, to liquidate your position, you'd have to buy the number of shares you shorted. To make money off shorting, you want the price to continue dropping past the price you shorted the stock at.
Locking the price for a day is an idea to remedy the problem that happened with Spore--a few people logged on right when the IPO happened, and several new members were able to double their net worth in a short amount of time. Locking the price for a day means you don't have to be at your computer right when the IPO occurs, and this also will reduce server load (which has been a big problem recently). I think this can be combined with a bidding process to determine the initial price, though.
I agree w/ csinning 100%. It just doesn't make sense to release the IPO and freeze the price for an entire day. I like the bidding idea too. btw. the volume has more than doubled since i jumped on Mario, what effect is that going to have?
Now there is a good idea. That would ensure that the stocks are fairly priced at launch of the new ipo and also that everyone has their chance to get in on a piece of the action.
@ Adam540 I think the idea is that some people where upset with other IPOs in that others made a lot on stocks by being on when it became available, or soon after where as others who were not online at that time didn't have a shot. What I think needs to be done is the offering has to have an initial number of shares availble and allow people a day to bid on them. At the end of the day the availble shares are sold to the top bidders. Thus the price fluctuates but anyone can still get in at the beginning when the stock hits the open market.
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I think part of the fun might be trying to find a method that works for you.