The Neopian Stock Market Change: Good or Bad? by jamezbfod |  |
Early this week, as just about everyone knows, there was a change in the Stock
Market. Stocks can no longer be bought under 15 points per share! This
came as a surprise to most, and I'm sure that if you regularly check the updates
page and buy from the Bargains page that one of your major ways of making Neopoints
was destroyed. Although I have not written to The Neopian Times before, I will
now, to tell all of Neopia the pros and cons of this change.
One loose end, which prompted me to write this article, in fact, are those
"Something Has Happened!" random events in which Nigel
the Chia asks if you've been thinking about buying a certain stock.
I usually would have bought the stock, but the last time I tried to buy it,
I found out I couldn't, because it was under 15 points per share. I was slightly
amused, and the idea of writing an article about it came to be.
Now for the cons of the Neopian Stock Market. Of course, poorer Neopians will
no longer be able to participate in the stocks as much as they used to. And
many stocks just plain went bankrupt. I'm sure that many Neopians are outraged
at this change, as were my friends and I when we first realised what was going
on. "Laissez-faire!" I screamed at my monitor, grumbling about yet another new
interference with the Neopian economy. This was yet another way that the economy
was being changed that would interfere with our Neopian lifestyles.
Before I start the potential pros, let me point out that the economy is dropping.
As the stock market was a major source of income for many people, we can expect
that even millionaires will soon have to get used to being average. It's all
relative, though; if everyone was a millionaire, that wouldn't matter, because
we'd have billionaires, trillionaires... followed by a lot of made-up names
like "bazillion katwillionaires." And if NeoPets put a cap on how many Neopoints
we can get, it wouldn't be any fun anymore, would it? Everyone would have the
same amount of money.
After a day or of grumbling about the change, I calmed down and then came
an epiphany. This was really just a way to make NeoPets a little better. The
point was, among other things, to stop Neopians from buying stocks at 6 points
per share (they didn't go below that) and unloading them when they hit 9 or
10. I had used this basic (and rather lazy as I look back) strategy for a while
before the change, but I would wait until the stocks were in the teens before
I usually would sell. Although in the week before I had been toying with a new
strategy which I thought would be more profitable: buying stocks that were well
out of the Bargains range. This would be so that those using the table and selling
when the stocks went up a meagre few points would no longer prevent any stocks
I had from going up significantly. While more daring, this method also has more
potential for making Neopoints
Don't lose hope: there's still other things, like Switch-A-Roo, Destruct-O-Match,
Meerca Chase, and some of my other favourite games still give out points, so
if the market crashes, there are other alternatives towards gaining Neopoints.
That probably won't be totally necessary, although it is still a good idea to
play games.
I don't think anyone understands, however, why this change came about.
It's safe to assume that it was to make multiple-account people drop their accounts.
One of the only reasons people would have 4 or more accounts would be to buy
more than 1000 shares of stock. Therefore, by making the stock market more challenging,
more people will probably stick to one or two main accounts, making the game
equal for everyone else. Also, some people might quit, giving Neopians a better
chance at Money Tree give-aways, the opportunity to buy more in shops, less
NeoPets ending up in the Pound, and better odds at winning the Caption Contest
or Better Than You. In other words, NeoPets could be more challenging, with
a lot of new options.
I firmly believe that this will be an improvement on the Stock Market, but
only to those who can realise the new potential. Although there is no longer
a sure way to make Neopoints on the Market, there never should have been. The
stock market is in the Luck/Chance category for a reason. It was created to
be realistic, and the real stock market is never a sure thing. So quit grumbling
about how you're going to lose money, and take a risk. Check out the Neopian
Stock Market now. |
