Shadowrun Stock Market, The Market in Game Options

[Thanos007]

One of my players wants to invest in the stock market in game. I have no real problem with that. Question is there any rules in any of the source books for the stock market? Failing that, does any one have house rules they'd like to share?


Thanks

Thanos

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

I'd try and bastardize something from the rules in CD about corporate performance.

[Backgammon]

Weeeell,

The old Corp Download (might not be called that) talked bout the 2050s stock market and trading. No rules though.

To make rules for the stock market is borderline ridiculous. Waaay too much effort for what it's worth. Just stick it in the ol' lifestyle. "I invest 5000$" = You lose some, you make some, your lifestyle is paid for a month.

Failing that, have him invest Shadowrun nuyen on real life corps. It should fluctuate normaly (well, sorta). Don't forget you need a good legit SIN to invest, espceially if it's large amounts. Would be pretty funny if the char was investigated for insider trading cause he always seems to know when Corp X is gonna "make a breaktrough" or suddenly lose a lot of assets...

[Reaver]

I just applied certain corps to certain real stocks (like Ares is tracked as GM). It may not be entirely realistic, but it saves me a lot of hassle. 8)

[Sammiel]

Science: Economics, each success past the first increases his investment by a percent set by the GM before the roll.

[Kurukami]

I had a character with the College Education edge and the Academic skill "Finance, Business, and Stock-Trading" to mirror a Business major. Perhaps you could treat investment kind of like a day job flaw -- you put in a certain amount of nuyen, and then (assuming you do your trading yourself) you devote a certain amount of time to it. From there...?

Have a "Stock Trading" knowledge skill. A given number of successes against a particular TN (something somewhat difficult, say, 4+) grants a particular level of success over a period of, say, a month.

No successes .............. Character hasn't made any horrendous mistakes, but has made a few and hasn't taken advantage of opportunities. Lose 10% of invested value.
1 success ................... Character manages to stay current with stock news and prevent any significant losses. Gain 5% of invested value.
2 successes ................ Character made an impressive and timely trade that increased portfolio value. Gain 20% of invested value.
3 successes ................ Character made a series of trades, and made intuitive trades that significantly increased value. Gain 40% of value.
4+ successes .............. Character made some astonishingly daring and brilliant trades that greatly increased value. Gain 100% of value, plus an additional 50% per success beyond the initial four successes.

"Rule of 1" botch ......... Character has made a critical financial misjudgement, and loses 90% of invested value. Bye-bye retirement fund.

Karma, of course, should NOT be allowed to use for rerolls -- or if it is, it should only be Good Karma expenditures, rather than Karma Pool, with no buying of successes allowed.

The question of what happens if you give your cash to a stockbroker to manage is another matter entirely.

Of course, YMMV.

[Ideki]

My guess is that you'd use the karma-for-cash rule on that one, since we all know it practically takes an act of God to make any real money on the stock market :D

[ToThePain]

[blakkie]

Curious :S one of the last topics i was extensively involved with before i took a several month hiatis from this board had to do with PCs playing the stock market, and using insider info (usually stuff they create or leak to the public themselves during execution of a run) to enhance the payolla from a run.

It was quite a long thread, with lots of chaff. But it had some good info, and the conclusion that there just isn't much in the way of cannon dealing with the mechanics of stockmarkets in the 6th World. I wonder, how far back to the archives go?

[cykotek]

Generally, the way I run it is, first, find out how much they're going to invest, and in what. Usually, they're either looking for a long term money maker, or a short term quick-fix.

The long term money maker is pretty easy. Just say that they'll earn 5% or so of whatever they invest each quarter, from stock dividends. This isn't realistic, I know, but it's quick and simple. Usually, my players invest in the Big Eight (Ten) for this, as all these stocks are generally very stable. You won't make a huge windfall from a buy-sell cycle, but you'll earn a steady income.

The short-term is pretty easy, too. Usually, this is from the PCs looking to use a little insider information to make a quick buck. Buy a bunch of stock, leak their newest secret project just about to hit production, watch the stocks skyrocker, then dump it all off for a quick profit. Or leak news about a big loss to a company's newest cutting edge widget, watch the prices plummet, then buy, buy, buy. Basically, here, just find out how much they're willing to invest, find out how long they're willing to wait to buy or sell. If anyone has an appropriate skill (or is using a broker, shady or not), then you can use a roll to figure out how close to the optimum buy/sell point they decided to act.

Keep in mind, you do need a SIN to legally trade on the open market. However, there are definately a large number of "shady brokers" willing to do the work to set up a fake trading account, for a cut of the profits, especially if you're willing to slide a little insider tip his way every now and again. Or it might just be a legal friend willing to let you bankroll some of his trading.

The stock market is waay too complex to bother with in any depth in an SR game, especially if you're not really sure how it works. Just fake it by looking at how much they're investing, and throwing a number back at them that you're comfortable giving to them. If someone is looking for a really large investment, keep in mind, one way to handle this is to consider it buying a lifestyle (i.e., investing large sums, then using the dividends, profits from sales, etc to pay the rent and bills). It's an easy way to further abstract the process, if desired. Just be aware of players mildly knowledgable in the market to try to sell short, etc.