The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform • Hacker News Board

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#41

Post by aninhumer » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:48 PM UTC

6cxs2hd6 wrote: post #31

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

To stay in business, casinos need to be a bad deal for customers _as a group_. Did I say casinos? I meant insurance companies. Seriously, insurance is a bet on something bad happening. Usually it only makes sense to buy insurance for the equivalent of long-shot "lottery jackpots". Like a catastrophic health problem. Or like the damage you might do to other people and their property in an auto accident --- but probabl…

Insurance is the opposite of gambling. You take a guaranteed loss instead of risking a huge one. Not having insurance is a bet that nothing bad will happen.

If you can afford to replace everything you own out of savings, good for you, but most people can't.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#42

Post by aqme28 » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:49 PM UTC

sown wrote: post #17

World of Warcraft's Auction House is similarly interesting. It can get really complicated trying to corner the market on different goods, although it's less integral to gameplay over all. It's more like an embedded minigame at times. One thing I learned in that game is that while one can make a lot of money being the middle man, the real value is from labor (as far as WoW is concerned) -- but grinding for materials c…

I made far more gold in WoW as a middleman than I ever did with "labor" alone.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#43

Post by aninhumer » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

baddox wrote: post #40

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

What scenario would be good for a car insurance company? If cars never have any problems, then no one would buy car insurance (perhaps other than the government-mandated minimum). So is there some happy medium where the insurance industry would thrive?

The ideal scenario is that the public hugely overestimate the risk of car accidents.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#44

Post by roc » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

aninhumer wrote: post #41

6cxs2hd6 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To stay in business, casinos need to be a bad deal for customers _as a group_. Did I say casinos? I meant insurance companies. Seriously, insurance is a bet on something bad happening. Usually it only makes sense to buy insurance for the equivalent of long-shot "lottery jackpots". Like a catastrophic health problem. Or like the damage you might do to other people and their property in an auto accident --- but probabl…

Insurance is the opposite of gambling. You take a guaranteed loss instead of risking a huge one. Not having insurance is a bet that nothing bad will happen. If you can afford to replace everything you own out of savings, good for you, but most people can't.

Beyond that, given the perverse 'market' for health care in the US, even if you can (theoretically) afford to self-insure, the pricing mechanisms and negotiating power of insurance companies practically ensures that they can offer you premiums for less than your out-of-pocket cost for even fairly pedestrian services.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#45

Post by gohrt » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:52 PM UTC

a-priori wrote: post #39

nlh wrote: post #13

I...bought...twenty shares of Augury Insurance (which sells auto insurance — a good bet, considering all the cars I've been wrecking) I'd argue the opposite, no? The 100-year-storm of destruction that we, as Player 1, unleash upon the poor Liberty City automotive world would probably make any insurance company run screaming and crying in the opposite direction of profitability. "We had HOW MANY claims yesterday after…

It doesn't matter to an insurance company how likely car crashes are -- that just determines what the company charges in premiums. All that matters is that the likelihood is well understood and that the company has enough customers to stay solvent. Insurance companies essentially work by the Law of Large Numbers: that in a large enough number of trials, the average value should approach the expected value. In real wo…

I think you overlooked that in GTA we have a > 100-year-storm of destruction

In the game world, insurance companies wouldn't have predicted the level of claims.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#46

Post by duiker101 » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:53 PM UTC

sown wrote: post #17

World of Warcraft's Auction House is similarly interesting. It can get really complicated trying to corner the market on different goods, although it's less integral to gameplay over all. It's more like an embedded minigame at times. One thing I learned in that game is that while one can make a lot of money being the middle man, the real value is from labor (as far as WoW is concerned) -- but grinding for materials c…

that you know, are there any other games with an auction house/ any other sort of market(that is available in the browser) with the same depth of WoW. When I used to play it, the last few months I remember I spent more time in the armoury than in the game...

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#47

Post by yxhuvud » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:53 PM UTC

slg wrote: post #7

I had a similar fascination with the stock trading component of the Railroad Tycoon games. I am almost ashamed of the number of times I tried to make myself a virtual fortune by destroying my own virtual railroad company.

It was almost always more effective to gobble up debt and then invest the money in productive capability if you were looking to earn a real fortune though.

The balancing act was to not overdo it - depressions was not fun if you were overly indebted.

Shorting the stcok of competitors were always good fun though, but mostly since they were so horribly bad at building which resulted in that it was sometimes a good idea to shorten stock.

Sigh - how I wish for a spiritual successor to Railroad Tycoon 3.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#48

Post by Tuna-Fish » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:57 PM UTC

duiker101 wrote: post #46

sown wrote: post #17

World of Warcraft's Auction House is similarly interesting. It can get really complicated trying to corner the market on different goods, although it's less integral to gameplay over all. It's more like an embedded minigame at times. One thing I learned in that game is that while one can make a lot of money being the middle man, the real value is from labor (as far as WoW is concerned) -- but grinding for materials c…

that you know, are there any other games with an auction house/ any other sort of market(that is available in the browser) with the same depth of WoW. When I used to play it, the last few months I remember I spent more time in the armoury than in the game...

Eve Online might qualify.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#49

Post by minimax » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 5:58 PM UTC

mathattack wrote: post #26

jaynos wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a short, though. You don't profit on the difference between prices, you only get the chance to buy again at a lower price, but not sure if the stock will go back up.

Let's oversimplify for the sake of showing the calculation... There are 4 stocks in the world, A, B, and C, and D, all trading at $25. I invest $100, buying $25 in each. Now lets say that I know for sure that stock D will go down because I'm going to whack the CEO. So I sell my $25 of D, and put it in A, B and C (A stake of $33.33 in each - let's assume fractional shares are ok.) If Stock D goes to 0, while the other…

All of your profit in this scenario comes from the market going up, not D going down. That's not a short (or synthetic short) position.

Re: The Best Part of Grand Theft Auto V is the Stock-Trading Platform

#50

Post by cargo8 » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 6:01 PM UTC

Pro tip: wait to do the assassination missions until after you've completed the main storyline. That way you can invest the players' ~25 million in the stocks you are directly affecting and make bank.

You supposedly can also game the market by investing in competing companies (like Cluckin Bell and Burger Shot) and just destroying a bunch of the opposite companies. Then after the drop, reinvest in the opposite as they equalize and come back (or just keep going back and forth). Haven't tried this yet, though.