Cantr II Discussion Forum

Anybody who is interested in trading celebrities/politicians/businesspeople, is invited to come and trade free at http://www.peoplestocks.com

It's an online trading site with charts, alerts, dividends, splits, etc. A great way to practice trading strategies.

http://www.peoplestocks.com

don't they call that slavery?

Slavery / stock market


What the hell is that??


SPAM!!

It's not slavery; merely a bad idea. It would be interesting, albeit unoriginal (there are dozens of these "stock market" games out there, many more popular and well-designed than this one), if the market prices had any actual connection to the performance of the celebrities being traded.

Sho wrote:It's not slavery; merely a bad idea. It would be interesting, albeit unoriginal (there are dozens of these "stock market" games out there, many more popular and well-designed than this one), if the market prices had any actual connection to the performance of the celebrities being traded.

I'd be interested to see some with better design. I find all of the popular ones too flashy and packed with unnecessary info.

Some would say wasting time in an alternate virtual world is a bad idea, but to each his own.

Sometimes I wish the Nasdaq had an actual connection to the performance of the companies that are traded. I remember some internet startups that were trading at a rediculous market cap. Nothing to do with actual performance. The fact is, stock prices are not directly tied to company performance in any market. They work off of basic supply and demand principles. It's the people who do the research and decide what companies they want to invest in that tie the price to the real company. But this connection is often absent because a stock can be hyped up beyond any 'reasonable' price point. Similarily, people can do research on a person and decide who they want to invest in based on potential earnings. The difference is that companies have to disclose their earnings information publicly so it's easier to do serious research. However, people in the eye of the media have their 'earnings' disclosed in one way or another whether they like it or not. We all know Mel Gibson did quite well with his Passion movie for instance.

Granted, the real stock market can sometimes become disconnected from fundamentals. But in general the earnings of a company (for example) have a significant effect on its valuation. On Peoplestocks I don't see any mechanism to tie the market to anything external - a stock's price is only affected by its past performance. Dividends are determined by market capitalization. The stocks have nothing to do with the celebrities - they could be named "Stock 17," "Stock 289" and so on, and it wouldn't make a difference. While the FAQ suggests that "For example, if the oscars are coming up it's likely that the nominated actors will see a spike in their share price," there doesn't actually seem to be a reason that should be the case.

Earning only have an effect based on "the street's" expectations.
If the company releases earnings info that is worse than expected there will possibly be some sell pressure pushing the price down. There is no FORCED mechanism to push the price down in the event of bad earnings. It is all done because of the expectations of the traders and their subsequent actions.

In the fictitious market, we also have expectations. If someone is expected to win an oscar and they don't, that could trigger selling pressure in exactly the same way. There is no need for forced mechanisms to push the price down here either.

If you named the stock "Stock 17" there would be no expectation in people's minds about what that stock should be doing and how it should perform. I'd have no idea whether I should expect that stock to be doing well or poorly and I wouldn't know how it compares to "Stock 123". In a fictitious market I know that some obscure actor should not be as desireable as an A list celebrity. Then again, maybe I'd be wrong, because the obscure actor could be set up to jump into the mainstream all of a sudden (i.e. the new james bond actor).

Waste your time on something productive, mate.