Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Issue: 2   Editor: Nyxxie


Every Day, Black Tuesday. Aldarion
The past year, the real world suffered a huge financial crisis, the credit crunch. Even though it doesn’t happen that often, it usually does strike hard upon the people of planet Earth. On Bootleggers, things aren’t quite the same; a (stock market) company going bankrupt is almost a daily phenomenon on this game. The question then is: why would you risk your money on something that does not seem to work at all?

We were unable to get an admin reply (or verification) on this, but player research indicated that the Stock Market is not, at least not entirely, based on supply and demand. When the Stock Market was renewed, admins stated that there was certain randomness in the values of the Stocks. That randomness is necessary to prevent players making lots of money, simply using common sense. However, when several players bought a lot of stocks that were valued extremely low (Yoggie Foundation), the company went bankrupt.

So, the Stock Market seems to be a bit of a gamble, which means that a player can hardly influence the value of his/her Stocks. As said before, this wasn’t the first time that people lost investments. Should you then just ignore the Stock Market? For numerous reasons, we think the answer to that is: No, you shouldn’t just ignore the Stock Market. Thing is, most people that did lose their money invested in a single company. If stocks happen to go down, it is most likely that your investment will be lost. We will give you a few tips on how to use the Stock Market, please do make sure that none of these guarantees success, investing is still at your own risk.

First of all, make sure not to invest in just one company, spread the risk. If you lose, you won’t lose all. Second, do not invest all your money. Several players gave the example of how not to use the Stock Market by investing all, and losing all. If you happen to lose, you will have to start all over again. Third, investing in a company that is about to go bankrupt (prices between one and fifteen bucks) might turn out to a worthy investment, as stocks barely go down straight away. If you happen to lose, you won’t lose that much, as the Stock weren’t worth a lot anyway. On the other hand, if the Stocks rise by a few bucks you can make some nice cash. Do keep in mind that such stocks are very likely to crash, so you’ll need to keep an eye on your stocks if you choose for this tactic.

To conclude, The Stock Market certainly is a bit of a gamble. However, if you pay attention to the value of your stocks, and make sure not to invest all your money in a single company, it can definitely make you some good cash. In the end it still is a risk, but what fun is playing a game without taking a risk?