Guild Wars 2

Title, 15 characters.

Explain please, what do you mean by “short sell”?

Sell at a price where the return is less than merchant value, I think.

The idea is probably to do the following:

1) Stop the practice of flooding the trading post with 1cp buy orders (there are still a few of these floating around in the trading post even now, you just can’t sell to them).

2) Protection for players with less familiarity about how the trading post works, making sure they know that there is a better return available by using a merchant.

Nah. This is GW2, not a stock brokering simulation.

Because the TP does not work on margin.

Stock trading would kill this game. There would be a small minority making alot of gold with this and a big majority who wont be ble to afford even the most trivial things.

Zaxares.5419:

Nah. This is GW2, not a stock brokering simulation.

O.o it isn’t? Man, I guess I have been fooled for months now.

draxynnic.3719:

Sell at a price where the return is less than merchant value, I think.

The idea is probably to do the following:

1) Stop the practice of flooding the trading post with 1cp buy orders (there are still a few of these floating around in the trading post even now, you just can’t sell to them).

2) Protection for players with less familiarity about how the trading post works, making sure they know that there is a better return available by using a merchant.

Those buy orders are historic and placed long before the merchant minimums were in place (I believe). Anet would have no obvious way of taking them down without mass-cancelling all buy orders. The TP DOES protect new players. default it lists your selling price as the top buy order. If you try and drop the price, it lets you, but only until you reach the vendor price of the item, at which point it mandates that your price must be that, or higher.

The only difference is that the TP needs to be altered just slightly so that the minimum sale price, hell, the minimum buy price as well, is specifically set to be (vendor price + [sales tax + listing fee + margin*]), with appropriate increases as a margin value to make sure the minimum price is met.

Zero Day.2594:

Zaxares.5419:

Nah. This is GW2, not a stock brokering simulation.

O.o it isn’t? Man, I guess I have been fooled for months now.

I know, right? I mean…

https://www.gw2spidy.com/

http://gw2tp.net/

http://www.tpcalc.com/

…Here’s my website toolbox.

And here’s the single tool that sees more use for my GW2 affairs than any of the UI’s in game combined —

http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html

So, yep. I’d say that Spreadsheet Wars 2 is definitely trying very hard to be a financial sim.

Let me rephrase my original statement then.

“Guild Wars 2 should not become more of a stock brokering simulation than it already is.”

Players are free to play the game how they want to play it, of course, but when someone can make far more money trading without playing any of the game’s core content, I think something has gone astray.

Aidan Savage.2078:

draxynnic.3719:

Sell at a price where the return is less than merchant value, I think.

The idea is probably to do the following:

1) Stop the practice of flooding the trading post with 1cp buy orders (there are still a few of these floating around in the trading post even now, you just can’t sell to them).

2) Protection for players with less familiarity about how the trading post works, making sure they know that there is a better return available by using a merchant.

Those buy orders are historic and placed long before the merchant minimums were in place (I believe). Anet would have no obvious way of taking them down without mass-cancelling all buy orders.

Correct. I think it would be possible, though, to write an algorithm that applies the current validation rule to existing trades and cancels all orders that don’t meet the current validation rule.

So it would be like this,
For example:
1 Glob of Ectoplasm currently trade at 42 silver per Glob.
A short seller investor “sells” 100 Glob of Ectoplasm that he doesn’t yet own for 4200 silver. So he gets 4200 silver and a contract.
Now let’s look at two scenarios:
1. Subsequently, the price of the Glob of Ectoplasm falls to 35 silver per Glob.
Short seller now “buys” 100 Glob of Ectoplasm for 3500 silver.
Short seller retains as profit the 700 silver difference (minus borrowing fees) between the price at which he sold the items he borrowed and the lower price at which he was able to purchase the items he returned.
2. Subsequently, the price of the Glob of Ectoplasm rises to 50 silver per Glob.
Short seller now “buys” 100 Glob of Ectoplasm for 5000 silver.
Short seller incurs as a loss the 800 silver difference between the price at which he sold the shares he borrowed and the higher price at which he had to purchase the items he returned (plus borrowing fees).
That’s the basic concept.

Yeah you should be able to trade on margin on the TP, that would it a lot more interesting and fun and would give players more flexibility and options. Speaking of options, I would also like to see covered calls implemented.

…In which case, I agree with Zaxares. The core game is a fantasy adventuring MMO, not a stock broker simulator. I don’t think concepts like that even existed during the time period GW2 is based on.

draxynnic.3719:

…In which case, I agree with Zaxares. The core game is a fantasy adventuring MMO, not a stock broker simulator. I don’t think concepts like that even existed during the time period GW2 is based on.

The quasi-medieval magical science fiction time period? I don’t know, maybe it didn’t exist.

Kryta is roughly 16th century with magic. Asura are off on a tangent, but aren’t organised as a race enough to support a modern stock exchange. Norn even more so. Sylvari are just too young. The charr are post-Industrial Revolution steampunk, but their social structure doesn’t seem likely to support that sort of capitalism.

The key point, though, is that GW2 isn’t intended to be a stock broker simulator. Playing the market is already giving too much of a return over actually playing the game.

Yeah, I know what your point was.

In short sales, the broker is lending the stock to the seller. In GW2, there is no broker. ANet is not covering a portion of your item purchases, and you do not pay interest.

Why should this be changed? While you might find it more fun, I question how many others would. The TP already provides ample opportunity for players to make gold.

Because contracts can’t be enforced.

On that subject, when can I take a G loan in GW2?

Samson.1345:

Yeah you should be able to trade on margin on the TP, that would it a lot more interesting and fun and would give players more flexibility and options. Speaking of options, I would also like to see covered calls implemented.

Here are a few reasons why I think it is not feasible:

1. Items in the game are not fixed in numbers. Items are created and destroyed every second. If the item doesn’t exist, how can it be sold now? how can it be purchased later?

2. There isn’t a guarantee that the money to purchase the item later is in the player’s wallet, especially if the item’s price increases.

3. The TP is a gold sink. By allowing a loan of gold to buy an item or items, it would change it into, potentially, another gold faucet to be regulated.

4. The programming, testing, maintenance, and updates would most likely require specialized resources, the cost of which would benefit a larger number of players if used in other areas.

5. The fact that UI was adjusted to show the listing and selling fees separate and clearly as well as a tooltip for estimated profit shows how much information is required for a simple buying and selling interface.

6. The limited amount of space for the TP UI already makes buying and selling with listing and selling fees a bit cramped.

Wanderer.3248:

Because contracts can’t be enforced.

This. More specifically there’s no enforcement of debt obligations and realistically no way to do so – how do you stop someone from going deep into debt then quitting the game?

Without enforceable debt there’s no room for modern finance. Simple pure exchange economies are all there’s really room for.