I understand the appeal of a stock market idea. Stocks are part of an economy, and there are few large businesses that haven't sold stock to the public. So it makes sense that there should be one. The devil though, is in the implementation. And this, I'm sorry to say, comes with a bundle of pitfalls and doesn't match real world common stocks very well.
First of all, you take "negative cash" waaay too lightly. Only as a result of bugs or unforseen and unusual circumstances does it happen. It's not a good thing and shouldn't be standard business. Plus, only Manager and up have loan capabilities, and those aren't too appealing. And of course without cash, you can't list on the market, send contracts to another country, start production, or even potentially load your market.
It basically puts people in a position where they will be forced to sell buildings immediately, likely back to the system for a horrible price.
In other words, selling a share is selling a ticking timebomb. The dream of publicly traded shares is actually a nightmare. How many of us really want other players passing around the ability to bankrupt us at any moment? If stock worked that way in the real world, it wouldn't exist. The risk would not be worth the cash investment.
Therefore I strongly suspect that after an initial "wow" factor, these wouldn't be very popular at all, as far as legitimate business. However, it also opens up some shenanigans.
That doesn't quite answer my question, I suspect I wasn't clear enough. The underlying value is based on assets. But what of the price? If everybody want's Gevron's stock because they think it will be a fast grower, can he charge more than the value? I'm assuming "yes", but ultimately it doesnt' matter either way. See below.The stock value is completely based by the company's data or value. Players can negotiate with the company but like many deals made in the game, there is no guarantee that the company will listen. As far as supply and demand go for a company's stocks, there is no market so the company is in charge of the supply of stocks.
You are aware I presume of the "no extreme advantage" rule, aka giving money for nothing, aka cheating. Here are a few of the ways your rules would open that up:
Assuming players negotiate prices for stock
- Company A's stock is worth 10k. A sells it to B for 9k, B immediately redeems. Repeat as necessary. A has just passed free cash to B.
- Company A's stock is worth 10k. A sells it to B for 11k, B immediately redeems. Repeat as necessary. B has just passed free cash to A.
- Company A is about to quit the game forever, but his friend runs company B and is staying. A liquidates everything he has into cash, then buys as much B stock as he can. Then leaves the game forever. B now has a pile of cash for free, and those stocks will never get redeemed.
- Company A has a lot of cash. It sells stock to B at the book price (1/100 of "original value"). A then spends all the cash on supplies, likely steel. B then redeems the stock, which is now worth much much less because all the cash is gone. B has just passed money to A.
- Same as scenario 1, only selling inventory (or collecting from overdue stores) to pass cash from A to B.
- Works the exactly same way whether players set stock price or not.
That huge swing is a potential problem even for people who aren't interested in cheating. They just risk getting cheated unintentiallly because they bought or sold at the wrong time. The swing between cash and inventory isn't a problem when it's just you and your company. But once you involve 3rd party equity it's quite important.
And if you allow the issuing company to force redemptions, you put control of this in one person's hands. Of course if you don't, then the stock becomes even less appealing, as you always have to watch out for that doomsday button and get no say over it.
Additionally, a ranking by stocks is pretty worthless. Here's why:
- Companies A & B are identical. Each has lets say 50k in assets, 50k in cash.
A buys a share of B for 1000. B buys a share of A for 1000.
Each company still has 50k in Fixed Assets, 50k in cash, but now they also each have 1k in stock value.
Repeat as much as you like, putting both of you at the top of the stocks list.
I want to like the idea of a stock market, but I'm afraid this just wouldn't hold up, despite creating a lot of programmer work to get there. It doesn't strike me as being particularly realistic, it has drawbacks that threaten legitimate players, and it opens the door for cheaters.