My experience (only 2ish resets, so if this is no longer the case let me know!) is that stocks and bonds largely sit unsold on the primary market, and even moreso on the secondary market. Players can’t fundraise effectively. This is due to lack of capital, a clunky way for price / value to be determined (basically lack of demand), and lack of reward. (I would be interested in hearing someone’s experience playing solely as an investor… is it even possible? Maybe I’ll try that next reset). Basically, I don’t see much of a benefit in buying / selling stocks or bonds in the current set up.
My idea is this - create some AI functionality to replicate the hedge fund managers, retirement plans, individual investors etc who should also be interested in your stock. This could be quite sophisticated or quite simple. You could have it look at company fundamentals, program in some irrational exuberance (or apathy) or whatever. You could start with a low demand and finangle it to ensure that the game doesn’t unbalance. The stock and bond system needs a way for value to be determined and transferred like it is in real life - almost instantaneously (a slight oversimplification, but work with me).
The best part is, the game kind of already does this in another area. This would in essence be the same as the current functionality for the actions of consumers of retail goods! The imaginary consumers would buy and sell the securities, moving the price up and down (instead of the boring flat line that every stock or bond currently has) and creating some engaging gameplay, while giving players an actual ability to fundraise and give more tangible reward for players who want to deal in stocks / bonds.
So in summary
-stocks and bonds should be demanded by AI consumer
-this means that:
–stocks and bonds should be bought and sold constantly (even if its slowly)
–stocks and bonds should be experiencing price changes game day by game day
–a player should be able to buy or sell a stock instantaneously to / from the AI consumer at any time… for the right price, determined by demand
Thanks for your thoughtful suggestion. You are right that there needs to be more activity and liquidity on the markets. We have been considering some type of market maker role, AI based as you suggest.
One of the challenges is making sure the price stays realistic so any AI-based priced fluctuations would have to be tied to Equity as price is now.
Adding into this conversation, At the moment, the share market evolved in the other way. Some big holdings have big capital and are able to buy a IPO stock launch immediatly. This results in a primary market which is always empty.
At this moment I can buy all share that come availabe on primary and secondary market becuase I have too much cash.
I limit the amount of stock I buy to leave others the possibility to buy stock as well. But it is tempting somethimes to just buy all available stock
Therefore, a mechanic which allows for some stock to become available form time to time would be nice for smaller players who would like to invest in other holding companies.
This could indeed be an interesting feature in the middle stage of the game.
But at this moment (late stage) I would be able to buy all stock available on primary and secondary market. I have enough cash to buy all the companies (except for numbers 2 and 3).
Due to drones business, the gap between rich and poor companies has become huge.
By the time you get to 14.000 bxp, you will probably have established good cooperations with a couple of players. Therefore, I find the drone business low risk at the moment. That is, until my partners decide to quit.
By opening a bank I enjoyed guiding startups and investing in them via loans or stocks. So that is already a good dynamic to spend money for billionaires.
It would be nice to have a new goal in the game to spend my 15 billion in cash. But it would have to be something that would be even more profitable. As this remains the main drive to keep playing the game. However, this would again widen the gap between the top and bottom so perhaps that is not what we want either.