Do you invest in stock market shares?

[Ser_Bunnylot]

I just had two pretty successful scenarios where I experimented with investing in shares.

My findings:

Consumer and Industrial Goods are very much worth investing in. Food and Raw Materials yield smaller returns, but returns nonetheless.

Everytime a production building is upgraded or just produces alot of materials stock prices go up.

In the beginning of the game you will focus almost exclusively on consumer goods and this is a good time to buy these shares. In my game they started off at $2-3k and by the end of the game they were worth $40k.

Industrial goods start increasing once your cities grow and you start to produce and ship more advanced goods like gasoline, tools, chemicals, etc. I invested heavily from around the 2 year mark, still before the map was covered with these industries and after 4.5 years into the scenario they were worth about $30k. I sold all my shares and had enough cash to buy out two competitors at once.

Food and raw materials never went above the $15k mark.

Was it worth it? Should I have invested that money into more tracks and trains? I dunno. What do you guys think? I just missed getting 20/20 for time score in one scenario :(

[chaney]

Nice post, thanks. I only played with stock a little. I wasn't seeing a lot of return from the manipulations I tried, so I stopped.

Your example where value goes from $2k to $40k over the full game suggests to me that you are better off putting the money into operating infrastructure if you can. At some point in my games, it becomes difficult to spend the money as fast as it comes in, so at that point investing in stock makes sense.

[Doc Savage]

Yes I do... I use them as a rainy day fund. The impact of them end of game is drop in the bucket, but having that shot of cash you need to get over the hump is helpful.

The real cap of these stocks is how many are available. They're just a mini game side show ATM. In a game where you end up being worth hundreds of millions of dollars half a mil is pocket change and hardly worth knee capping yourself for early on when you really need that cash to do something else.

Unless they up the number available and make returns rely more heavily on player actions to benefit, they'll just be a little leg up early to mid game if you have the extra cash to "invest".

Cheers..!

[Dray Prescot]

Do those stock market shares, in commodities not the other AI Rail Companies, generate any yearly income? Or is it "Just" capital gains (and LOSSES) from the prices of the shares going up (and down) and you only make/lose any money when you sell them?

I already know that Rail Company shares do NOT generate any quarter or yearly dividen income paid out by the Company (which is totally unrealistic).

[Thineboot]

If you're really into micromanaging they are absolutely worth. The problem why I don't use them is you would have to click day in, day out to check their value. While I like micromanaging and a slow pace in the early game this is simply too much even for me.

Investing for rainy days or increasing their value over a long period just binds money you could spend on sunny days and rainy days with low stock prices, too.

When Dray states that company shares don't generate dividends it confirms my observation.
A quick free game test: buy 4x 100% shares and just let the game run. When the stock market values change your company value changes. And that's it.

@devs: the value of your company won't be updated unless you leave and enter the page.

[chaney]

I tried the high frequency trading method, too. It does work but I agree it isn't satisfying or interesting. I too like to micro, but this kind of stock simulation does not make for any interesting decision making so is pretty unsatisfying even when it works.

Building infrastructure gets a very high return and involves doing appealing things, so that's how I play. Do what you find fulfilling :)

I agree with all functional claims above.

[Dray Prescot]

A really old Apple II GS (and other types of PCs) game that was interesting because it handled stock and bond prices and payoffs including floating new shares in brand new companies, along with wild fluctuations in the Economy from Panic, Depression, up to Boom, was a game that I think was called "Rails West". Players could own stock and bonds in and control (or not control) several Rail Road Corporations. But it was written in the 1980s to run on Very Much smaller/slower computers with floppy disks and very small memories (less than 1 Mega Byte). I had to print out my end of turn results on a Dot Matrix printer to examine what happened and decide what to do for my next turn.

I think the play by mail company Flying Buffalo, back in the 1980s, had a railroad game that started east of the Misissipi River, and then opened up a second stage west of the river. I never actually played that game. Back in the 1980s, I spent a LOT of money and time on games like Beyond the Stellar Empire (1981 to 1991 in ONE game) and Empryean Challenge (starting in 1979) (multiple games with various start/end dates), that were play by mail and computer moderated with up to hundreds of players in one game. Plus some other play by mail games. My long distance telephone bills were really high back then.

[Thineboot]

Pure nostalgic OT: The good old days... sorry, kids, they where bad in comparison but you know what I mean in a few decades when you'll remember the good things, not all excrement that happens nowadays... when PBM and PBeM[www.pbm.com] were a thing...