Fiat: Rules of the Game

Rules of the Game

• There are 2 types of postings:
  1. Fiats, posted by me. These represent announcements or adjustments to rules agreed upon by all parties in the game; they are posted by me simply to keep the post history cleaner. Fiat posts titles must be prefixed by the text "Fiat:".
  2. Trades, posted by any of the participants in the game. One post must be created for each trade. Only one stock may be involved in any trade post. A purchase trade's title must begin with the prefix "Buy:". A sale trade must begin with the prefix "Sell:". A participant must describe the trade and list the state of his portfolio and bank account after the trade is completed in every trade.
• Participants may use the "comments" feature to post additional comments to Fiats and Trades -- either theirs or those of others.
• Each participant in the game must choose a fictitious name; no participant may refer to himself or any other participant within a posting by anything other than that participant's pseudonym. The point here is to preserve some degree of privacy for us.
• Trades can take place any day or time. If markets are closed, share price is the share's closing price on the exchange it traded. Otherwise, share price is the most recently available price. The source of the share price must be referenced in the trade (e.g. Financial Post, globeinvestor.com, &c. &c.
• All fictitious dollar amounts are in imaginary US dollars.
• Each trade is handled by the imaginary brokerage of Tempting Freight and costs a flat fee of $15 which must be payed from the participant's bank account. A sale ("Sell:") converts some or all of one of a participant's stocks into money in the bank. A purchase ("Buy:") converts money in the bank into a specific stock.
• If a participant hasn't enough money in the bank to pay for a trade, the trade cannot be made. However, the participant may make a formal arrangement with another participant to borrow money. The arrangement will be told to me and posted as a fiat.
• No interest is paid on money in the bank. It's just too complicated. Also, this makes the game more realistic. Uh, hello, Toronto Dominion.
• Participants may buy any stock that is listed on the NASDAQ, NYSE, and American Stock Exchange, as long as the company has a market capitalization of at least $10 million.
• Each participant begins with $75,000 in fictitious money in the bank by way of starting capital. The goal is to finish the game with the greatest amount of money in the bank: on the last day of the game, any capital a participant holds in stocks is liquidated according to that day's prices.
• The game runs for approximately four years: it begins as soon as the list of players has been finalized and ends May 1, 2010 at midnight. Players are ranked from first to last according to their final capital. The reward for winners is as follows:
  1. Each player ranked second or below pays $100 in real, Canadian money to the player ranked first.
  2. Each player ranked third or below pays $50 in real, Canadian money to the player ranked second.
  3. The players ranked first and second reach an agreement between themselves as to how they will pay for taking the entire group of participants out for a very expensive dinner replete with steak and wine and such. This dinner is to be given sometime in the year 2010.

Infractions

Participants are responsible for not breaking the rules and not making mistakes. If at any time they determine they have made a mistake, they should bring it to my attention so that I can cite them with an infraction. Likewise, if a participant determines that another participant has made an error, the mistaken participant should be notified so that he can let me know about it.

If a player is cited with an infraction, he must immediately pay a fee of $1000 from his bank account. If the player does not have enough money in the bank, he must sell enough stock at the going rate to generate the money necessary to pay the fee.