Re: Stock Market Simulation

From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Wed, 21 Dec 1994 22:07:07 +0000

In article <3d6k1g$lt9@blekko.pbm.com>, Rich Skrenta <skrenta@pbm.com> wrote:

>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.

Right, but this is also how the real world works. You can probably
think of many mutual funds that produced high returns for a year or
two and then sucked. Or, consider Orange County.

The way to avoid this dominating a game is to have ongoing awards for
the best 3-month, 6-month, year, 2 year, etc performance. The shorter
periods will be easier to win with luck, but not the longer periods.
Also, all mutual funds run by one player should be considered a family
of funds, and the overall return also considered.

>Increase your Influence by buying a more expensive suit.

Back when I gave stock advice, I didn't even own a suit.

I wonder if the entrepreneural groups have end-of-session stock prices
available early enough after trading ends to be the basis of a game?

References

Re: Stock Market Simulation
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Fri, 16 Dec 1994 23:40:24 +0000
Re: Stock Market Simulation
skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)
Tue, 20 Dec 1994 12:52:00 +0000