COSMIC Your Finances to the Moon!

     or, How Something that Sounds So Good Can Go So Wrong

     The Stock Tips Chat, board 12, is generally a pretty chill place. Stocks get bought, we wait, we sell. No competition in stocks for the most part, just topics posted with ticker titles tracking movements, and an established Stock Guide or two linked to those who need it. We have the Post Your Port topic where we are encouraged to show others our stock holdings. Occasionally we have a panic topic asking about selling, and of course the speculations on KSON and VPTS. (yes people buy them, no there is no pattern)

     But every couple of weeks it seems, someone who has just dipped their toe into the Stock Market pool gets the idea that the 1000 shares per day limit should be lifted to INFINITY. Unlimited buy power. This article is to hopefully help explain how implementing this simple wish could go so very wrong.

     First we'll cover the basics, buy low and sell high. Here is the best Stock Guide available; if you're unfamiliar with the Neodaq Market, please read this guide, you'll discover how easy it is to make effortless neopoints, and it explains the history of the market and how best to invest. Thank you to dark_shadow202020 for maintaining this guide!

     Stock Market Guide

     //www.neopets.com/~SilverCyanide2

      Neopets Stock Market is simple.

     The basic gameplan is that you can sell as many shares at any time that you wish. The 'fee' of 20 neopoints for a sell is negligible and is disregarded in most discussions in the SM game. The limit comes when you buy, which is 1000 shares per day.

     Now here comes the new player, who wishes they could buy more than the set limit - and not only buy more, but have unlimited buy power. Anyone who has played Stocks here in Neopia can attest to how easy it is to make a lot of profit, so it's not hard to think that the more invested, the more you make. It sounds fun, doesn't it? It would be fun, for about a day. Let's look at how it would work. We'll take it small to begin.

     Normally we buy 1000 shares at 15 (10 with a boon/perk), we wait for days, weeks, or months for it to go up, then sell. Let's say 60 for the sell.

     Now suddenly we have unlimited buy power, now combined with unlimited sell power, and now our game has no limits. I feel that the Neopian Stock Market as it is now is a Neopoint Generating Machine with the 1000/day policy, if we add unlimited buy it would be insane. Let's see how it would be used.

     Increase your buy from 1,000 to 100,000 shares at 15 and instead of waiting for 60, sell at 16. Easily done in a single day. That's an investment of 1,500,000 for 100k profit, in probably a single update or 30 minutes. No risk, no gameplay, just rote clicking. How about doing that all day? How about buying 500,000 shares? How about a million shares? How about investing a million shares and waiting for 17 instead? Or waiting for 20? Those numbers are easily reachable in a single day. You hardly have to wait, there is potentially no risk as you can buy and sell in the same day, no reason at all to leave your neopoints in the market, you can withdraw them and keep them in the bank until you want to generate more neopoints by sitting and clicking. Plus you get the bank interest. Billions a day for anyone willing to sit and click all day. There is no limit, and everyone can do it.

     Ok there would be a limit, the limit of time. It takes longer to sell stocks than when you buy them, so you could buy and sell until your arm falls off, and then do it again tomorrow. Millions, billions for you every day, for you and for everyone else. When neopoints are so easy and fast to make for everyone in the game, they become worthless. There is a limit on the site of how many neopoints you can hold and keep in the bank and this would be easily reached by anyone, everyone, probably within 24 hours.

     So you see, the 1000 shares per day is what keeps the Stock Market Game an actual game, instead of having so many neopoints floating around they would in effect be worthless. They would essentially destroy the game with generosity.

     The idea that bankruptcies would balance the game is something we discuss often on board 12, and could be used with the unlimited buy power. However, we have not seen a bankruptcy in many years. JCK was last to go bankrupt. We speculate that bankruptcies were implemented manually by TNT who have chosen to leave all companies running without a failure since 2004. There is no official word that bankruptcies are no longer possible, it's just that we have not had one for some time.

     But back to the subject of unlimited buys, it's possible we could balance the unlimited option with bankruptcies. It would mean stocks going to zero with no hope of recovery and all invested neopoints lost. The difference with unlimited buying is there would have to be the chance of bankruptcy on every update (which means every 30 minutes) otherwise, the bankruptcy option would be useless in curbing the influx of unlimited neopoints. Because that is what unlimited buy-power would mean, unlimited neopoints. Ok, limited only by your carpal tunnel!

     Next time you're frustrated with the game limit, keep in mind it's still the easiest/laziest way to make neopoints out there. Raising the buy limit to 2000 per day is a discussion we can have another day.

     Read the guide I posted in the link above, it's so easy to play the market and essentially zero risk. Build your portfolio, and don't forget to buy every day! Peace out - DT xXo0