Re: Stock Market Simulation

From: skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)

Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 12:52:00 +0000

The problem with traditional stock market picking games is that
they (randomly) reward a big risk taker.  The fellow who wins is
someone who bet 100% of his cash on some crazy option that paid
off, then rolled the winnings over onto another crazy bet.

Real people who do this lose all of their money.  But if 1000 people
play a stock picking game, one of them is going to have a gazillion
percent return and win.  Since fake money doesn't matter, and there's
only one winner, all the flavors of losing taste the same.

Perhaps an open-ended game which modeled more than simply buying
and selling stocks could address this.  You could have risky attempts
to gain "insider info", which might land you in jail or fined by
the SEC.  Perhaps every player would have to be a member of one of
the brokerage houses (player alliances).  Use your Telephone Charm
rating to wring cold-call money from retirees; build your firm's
investment capital with a Public Offering; maybe even make a big
play with money you embezzled (if you won, you could pay it back...)
Increase your Influence by buying a more expensive suit.

Yeah, it could be swell...

References

Re: Stock Market Simulation
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Fri, 16 Dec 1994 23:40:24 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Stock Market Simulation
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Fri, 16 Dec 1994 23:40:24 +0000