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[LionResende]

WHO PLAYS WALL STREET RAIDER?
Wall Street Raider (for Windows XP, Vista, Win 7/8/10) is played by (registered) users, ranging from 9-year-olds to hedge fund managers and corporate CEOs, in 102 countries and possessions at present (that we know of), ranging from Sharjah to Vietnam to Cyprus to Paraguay to Greenland to Namibia to Barbados to Albania to the Sultanate of Brunei and beyond.

This Wall Street investment simulation is widely recognized as the ultimate in sophisticated financial simulations. It's a corporate takeover and stock market game, in which players strive to build their corporate empires by fair means or foul, all the while trying to stay one step ahead of the SEC, IRS, Justice Department, EPA, Congress, powerful unions, corrupt governments, and ruthless competitors who will crush you if you fall into a weakened financial situation -- not to mention various man-made and natural calamaties and economic disasters you will have to survive.

2020 UPDATE! Version 8.72 of Wall Street Raider is now available, and Versions 8.00 and higher now allow you to invest in convertible bonds or have your companies issue convertible bonds, plus introducing other new features such as being able to manage exchange-traded investment funds (ETFs) like hedge funds, the ability to reset the default currency exchange rates, and a new stock price alert feature which will alert you when a stock reaches a price you have specified. Mainly, however, the main focus in Versions 8.xx is on INCREASED REALISM, especially with regard to trading derivatives (options, futures, and swaps).

Other features added in recent upgrade releases have included:

the ability to set asset allocation percentages for various asset classes, for any bank you control, which the bank will strive to maintain, except in extreme conditions when doing so would be too risky

showing, in the list of all your controlled companies, the capital spending growth rate for each and whether or not the company is on "autopilot"

the option to play against MULTIPLE (up to 4) computer players

an automatic "sweep" function you can turn on or off, which will "sweep" any cash in a players bank account to reduce his/her loan balance

one-year cash flow projections for players

performance rankings of ETFs

players or their companies can now list stocks or assets for possible sale to other players or companies (or buy items offered by other players or companies that are "listed" as being for sale)

it is possible now to "look under the hood" at corporate data to see which companies have positions in all of the various types of assets or contracts (such as interest rate swaps, futures, options, subsidiary holdings, etc.)

ability to put companies you control on "autopilot" (self-managed -- by the program), when your corporate empire grows to include more companies than you can effectively manage yourself.

stock index futures trading

investment management contracts for financial companies that manage ETF's

5-year charts for the stocks of each of the 1590 companies in the simulation, plus charts for commodities, interest rates, GDP growth rate, the Stock Index, and of each player's net worth

players or companies can now invest in any of 15 ETF's (Exchange-Traded Funds, or investment companies, each investing in a particular sector)

interest rate swaps (derivatives -- "bets" on future interest rates) that you negotiate have been added as another tool for hedging or speculation

commodity futures trading was added on oil, metals and grains, plus hedging of those commodities by companies that use or produce them; plus buying and storing of physical commodities for all companies except banks and insurers

a player can be granted executive stock options after becoming CEO of a company, and CEO bonuses are now more closely correlated to company earnings performance; and

short-selling and highly realistic put and call options trading were added.
(Some of the above features are not enabled in the free version.)
For update information and a detailed description of new features in recent versions, click here.
NEW STOCK TRADING GAME! Traders and speculators, take note: We have recently introduced Speculator: The Stock Trading Simulation, a "spin-off" from Wall Street Raider, utilizing the W$R "engine" as the trading background, but where you are not a billionaire who can influence or manipulate stock prices, but merely a small, middle-class investor who starts out with a mere $100,000 inheritance to invest or speculate with. ($19.95 or, for registered users of W$R, $9.95.) For details, CLICK HERE.

NOTE TO MAC AND iPAD USERS:
Click here for information about running Wall Street Raider on a Mac or iPad.

WALL STREET RAIDER GAME FEATURES:
In this highly realistic simulation, 1 to 5 players (including up to 4 computer players, if you choose) compete to amass fortunes by investing in, or taking over and managing, any of up to 1590 companies in 70 industry groups. You start off rich, with up to $1 billion, which is enough to take over one or more decent-sized industrial companies, or to start up your own company in any of 70 industries, and the idea is to get richer. MUCH RICHER! (And richer than any of the other human or computer players you will be competing with.)

Once you acquire control of a company, you and your company will use all the tricks of the trade of real Wall Street corporate raiders ("Wolves of Wall Street") to expand your empire and net worth, including:

trading or investing in stocks and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF's)
having a brokerage firm or insurance company you control become an ETF adviser and manager, earning a basic management fee based on assets, and perhaps earning large performance bonuses for superior results, like a hedge fund manager (or being fired as the fund's adviser, for under-performing the market averages!)
trading or investing in corporate and government bonds
investing in or financing your companies with "straight" or convertible bonds
gaining voting control of other companies, in order to run them (and try to manipulate their earnings and stock price)
industry domination and monopolization, by increasing your company's (or companies') market share in its industry
increasing capital spending to take advantage of lucrative rates of return on capital in your industry, as well as to increase or maintain market share; or decreasing or eliminating such spending to increase cash flow, in order to diversify or pay down debt, or when an industry becomes too competitive and return on invested capital becomes too low
setting bank lending policies, for any banks you control, such as restricting lending to competitors or ruthlessly calling in the loans of corporate competitors or other players
options trading, for speculation or to hedge stock positions
short selling of stocks, options, and commodity or stock index futures
speculating in or hedging with commodity futures and stock index futures
trading in physical commodities (oil, gold, silver, wheat, corn) that you buy and store, to wait for a better price
speculating in ultra-high-risk interest rate swaps, by creating custom-made derivatives contracts (that are bets on the future direction of various interest rates)
having banks or insurance companies you control invest (speculate) in high-yield junk bonds or risky "subprime" mortgage securities, or by buying up high-yielding but risky corporate loans
IPOs/startups, to raise capital or to create a new subsidiary to enter a highly profitable industry
private placement stock offerings to raise "outside" private money or from within your corporate empire
cash or stock tender offers for corporate takeovers, or cash tender offers for LBOs
"greenmail" stock buybacks to get rid of hostile or unwanted minor shareholders in your companies
stock-for-stock mergers to diversify or to gobble up competitors and increase industry dominance
LBOs (leveraged buy-outs)
"white knight" defenses to protect your control of a company by bringing in "neutral" corporate shareholders
buying up distressed debt (bonds) of companies in financial trouble
launching antitrust lawsuits and other litigation to harass financially vulnerable competitors, or sometimes win large judgments or settlements
mass layoffs and restucturing of companies to increase efficiency and profitability
spin-offs or liquidations of subsidiaries, tax-free or otherwise
excessive salaries and lavish executive stock options, provided by a company you control, if you are elected as its CEO, plus possible large performance bonuses for increasing earnings
increasing dividends of companies you own (or cutting their dividends, to conserve cash)
firing management, in the hope that new management will be an improvement
asset downsizing
recapitalizations
tax avoidance strategies to avoid income taxes and various taxes on capital
asset-stripping liquidations
manipulating earnings by increasing/decreasing spending on R&D or marketing, or by using "hidden" accounting reserves as "slush funds"
earning management fees from Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF's), for securities brokers or insurance companies you control
using any and all methods to get the stock price up, in a company you control, including sometimes engaging in "unethical" (and risky) actions, and
delegating most management decisions in your corporate empire, Warren Buffett-style, by turning on the an "auto-pilot" feature, once you have acquired control of too many companies to effectively micro-manage them all, while still making the major decisions for your companies on choices like which companies they will buy or sell or merge with, or which industries to enter or exit
... and much more, all in the quest for the Almighty Dollar.
An individual player can engage in risky (but sometimes lucrative) activities for his or her own account, such as short selling of stocks, and players or companies can engage in buying and shorting put and call options and commodity futures on crude oil, gold, silver, wheat, and corn, or can gamble with massive leverage on interest rate swaps (derivatives contracts). Although the U.S. dollar is the default, players also are able to instantly configure the simulation for any one of 22 other currencies, before starting a new game, starting off with the equivalent of up to $1 billion in Euros, Pounds, Yen, Canadian or Aussie dollars, etc. Use the default currency exchange rate or, in Version 8.xx, set the exchange rate yourself at the start of a new game.

ETHICS? (ON WALL STREET?)
No Wall Street-based game would be complete without ethical considerations being a major factor. So, of course, you will have ample "ethical choices" thrust upon you from time to time, where you will have to choose between playing ethically, or (possibly) winding up in serious legal or financial trouble if you decide to "Go for the gold," rather than "Do the right thing." Recent versions even include a "Cheat Menu" that lets you obtain "insider information" on upcoming mergers or major changes in a company's fortunes (good or bad), which you can greatly profit from. Of course, there's always a chance your informant may turn into a "stool pigeon" and thus you could be prosecuted and perhaps convicted of illegal "insider trading.... with harsh consequences!"

TRADING ENVIRONMENT AND PLATFORM:
All your investment research and financial wheeling and dealing occur against the backdrop of a constantly shifting economic and political landscape in which you and all the companies and industries in Wall Street Raider must operate and try to cope. The main screen is your Trading Desk, on which you can always see a nonstop "live" stock ticker tape, a scrolling financial news tape, flickering, constantly updating stock prices on your "streaming quotes" list of up to 15 stocks, as well as frequently changing spot prices for each of 5 commodities and the (tradeable) Stock Index, plus the current GDP growth rate of the economy and various interest rates (long- and short-term government bond yields and the Prime Rate). One section of the Trading Desk also shows your (condensed) personal financial balance sheet, so you can see at a glance your personal net worth and available bank line of credit (if any) fluctuating second by second.

DECISION-MAKING:
Speedy decision-making is of the essence, and sweaty palms are a certainty, as you try to cope with and anticipate changing market conditions and keep your companies' earnings and stock prices on an upward track -- or at least keep yourself out of the humiliation of bankruptcy and expulsion from the game. You also have to deal with cash flow issues, such as by having your companies raise capital by stock or bond issuances when the time is right, and will need to try to keep powerful competitors from squeezing your company's profitability or seizing control of your company -- unless the price is right, of course!

COMPETITION:
Opposing players, including the Computer players, can be ruthless, especially if you let yourself or your main companies get in a vulnerable financial condition, where frivolous, harassing lawsuits or freezing your line of credit or calling in your loans can put your companies (or you) out of business or at least be financially crippled. In this simulation, as on Wall Street, "It's all about survival, baby," and only the strongest and smartest survive!

[lex]

Cheers man, noted.