What is it?
The Land's End Company Stock Exchange, or LEX, is a simulated stock exchange that allows you to buy shares in regions as if they were companies!
The LEX is designed to be realistic, with the nuances of supply and demand, investor confidence, and volatility playing their parts in a dynamic global market. Active, expanding regions can watch their share prices climb ever-higher, while declining regions will see their numbers fall. Players can compete with each other to obtain the most cash or the biggest portfolios, while regions can compete to become the most traded and the most valuable.
How does it work?
The LEX is available on Discord and is powered by AugustinAndroid v2. Any NationStates player can interact with the system using simple commands. Transaction history, share prices, and other statistics are tracked behind the scenes, and can be easily retrieved by players.
The stock exchange centers around regions. Like a real-life company, a region may have a publicly-traded stock. The total monetary value of the stock is divided into a large number of shares. Players can buy and sell these shares. If a player buys a share and later sells it for a greater amount of money, the player makes a profit. Scroll to the Features section to read the full explanation.
Do I need to be good at math or know a lot about the stock market to play?
Not really, although it might help. The system does all the math for you, and it is much simpler than the real stock market. Once you have been playing for a little while, you will develop an intuition for smart investments, especially if you use the graphing commands to find historical patterns.
How do I get started?
Click here to join the LEX Headquarters! You will be automatically registered upon arrival. Read the Guide section below, then type >lex buy 1 [insert region here] to buy your first share! If all the features seem complicated, never fear: on the busy trading floor, you will be able to watch and learn from other players, and you will pick it up in no time.
Alternatively, use the >lex register command in any Discord server with AugustinAndroid v2, or in the bot's private messages. The LEX can be used anywhere!
How to trade on the LEXHow to buy
How to use the LEX to improve your regionHow to know when to sell
- Use >lex ticker shares to find a list of regions that can be traded
- Find one that has recently decreased, using the numbers on the right side of the ticker
- If you want more detail, use >lex graph share [regions] to view historical share prices
- Buy a share with >lex buy 1 [region], or as many as you can afford with >lex buy max [region]
- Over time, develop a sense of the baseline prices for each region so you can pick out the best trades at a glance
How to track your progress
- Every time you buy, you lose 1% due to commission, and every time you sell, you lose 1% due to margin
- Before you sell stock, make sure the share price is at least 2% higher than it was when you bought it
- Write down the total cost of a stock purchase, or use >lex trade_logs to find all your past stock purchases
- Use >lex portfolio to find the exit value of your position in a given stock
- If the exit value is higher than the value you spent to acquire the stock, you will make a profit by selling now
- Avoid panicking--unless a region is collapsing, do not sell just because the share price falls once
- Use >lex portfolio to see how much money you have and which stocks you own
- Use >lex graph profit to see how quickly you are making money
- Use >lex ticker profit to watch yourself move up the world rankings
Getting started
Creative PossibilitiesIncrease your region's value
- Many of the largest regions received IPOs from the Company before the exchange opened, so check if your region is publicly traded with >lex stock [your region]
- If your region is not yet publicly traded, request an IPO with >lex request_ipo [your region]
Improve resident engagement
- Every time a player sells shares of your region's stock, your region collects 1% of the transaction's value as a margin
- Margins are added to your region's market cap
- The value of your region's portfolio is also added to its market cap, so you should try to make profitable investments on behalf of your region
- Buy stocks with >lex region_buy [your region] [quantity] [other region]
- Sell with >lex region_sell [your region] [quantity] [other region]
- Check your region's numbers with >lex region_portfolio [your region]
- Various types of onsite activity increase a region's market cap, which gives your residents a way to directly help their region compete against others
- If your residents trade your region's stock more often than other stocks, and they can get other players to do the same, your region will rise in value by collecting margins
Contracts
Currency
- Create an investment firm, where players agree to give you a certain amount of money and you agree to return their investment plus interest after a certain period of time
- Short-sell stocks by borrowing shares from other players, selling them, buying them back later at a lower price, and returning them to the lenders
- Form a cartel with a group of other players and agree to keep demand high for a certain stock
R/D
- Use LEEX to pay your regional officials for doing their jobs
- Pay another player for making you a flag or a map
- Reward players for winning your sports tournament or regional recruitment competition
Regional government
- Raid a competing region and try to tank its share price by hurting its stats (bonus points if you short the stock first)
- Defend a region from the above
Become an Auditor
- Set up a region like a public corporation, where residents have voting power commensurate with the number of shares they own
- Set up a region like a broker, and use its embassies and diplomatic connections to find customers, accumulating capital and delivering returns
- Gain experience by reading this guide, trading on the exchange, and interacting with other traders
- Go to the LEX Headquarters and let the Auditors know you are interested in helping!
Stock ExchangeStocks
The LEX allows players to buy and sell shares of regional stocks as though they were publicly-traded companies. These shares will go up and down in value depending on the performance of the region itself, allowing traders to profit (or suffer losses) over time. Skilled traders may be able to predict a region's performance and invest in it before its value rises.
Initial Public Offerings
Before a region can be publicly traded, it must have an Initial Public Offering (IPO). An IPO can be requested by a region's founder, its delegate, or any of its Regional Officers. Any region with a Regional Power of Moderate or higher and a WA concentration of 1% or higher can request an IPO with the command >lex request_ipo. IPOs must be accepted or rejected by Land's End Company Auditors. An IPO may be rejected if the region is intended for puppet storage or if it seems likely to break LEX rules.
Market Capitalization
Every region's stock has a market capitalization (often shortened to "cap"), or total value. This value is determined on an hourly basis by a formula that incorporates a number of NS statistics. Market cap is also affected on a rolling basis by the level of demand for the given stock, global investor confidence, the value of the given region's portfolio, and some degree of volatility. Regions that grow at a healthy rate will see their market cap rise without bound. A trader can check a region's market cap with >lex stock, or graph its value over time with >lex graph cap.
Volume
Every region's stock is divided into a fixed number of shares known as the volume. The value of one share is equal to the market cap divided by the volume. In real life, the term "volume" means something a little different, but the complexity of the real-world stock market is beyond the scope of this system. Here, volume is always equal to 1000000 (1M) shares, split into owned and unowned (outstanding) shares. A trader cannot buy more shares in a stock than the current number of outstanding shares. A trader can check a stock's volume with >lex stock, or graph the number of owned and outstanding shares over time with >lex graph volume.
Delisting
A region's stock will be delisted if its Regional Power falls below Moderate. If it rises above that threshold at a later date, it will be automatically relisted with no need for another IPO. Shares of a delisted stock cannot be bought, sold, or transferred, and their value will be set to zero.
Exchange Updates
Every hour on the hour, the LEX updates. This update changes share prices based on new NS data and adds a new data point to each graph. Once a day, the LEX experiences a major update, which changes share prices more dramatically based on a wider range of NS data, delists and relists stock when necessary, and self-corrects in case of API problems. Once a week, the LEX experiences a special update that pays out salaries and dividends to Land's End officials and shareholders based on Company revenue.
PlayersRegistration and Starting Loan
Trading
To start trading, a user must have at least one verified nation and use the command >lex register. When a user registers to trade, he receives a starting loan between Ⱡ9500 and Ⱡ10500, which can be used to buy stock. This loan accumulates interest at a rate of 0.05% at every hourly update*, and a trader cannot transfer cash or shares until he has paid off his entire loan. Loans are only provided by the Land's End Company upon registration, though traders can provide loans to each other, making use of contracts if they so choose.
*If a trader has an outstanding loan balance but does not share any servers with the bot, interest will not accumulate.
Cash Balance
All traders have a cash balance, which they can use to buy shares. Balances are always positive. Traders who have paid off their loans with >lex repay can transfer cash to others. A trader can check his balance with the command >lex balance, or graph its value over time with >lex graph balance.
Portfolio
A trader's portfolio consists of the shares he currently owns. The portfolio has an aggregate market value that is automatically tracked in real time. A trader can check the status of his own portfolio with the command >lex portfolio, or graph its value over time with >lex graph portfolio.
Profit
Profit is the sum of a trader's portfolio value and cash balance, minus his outstanding debt, if any. A trader can check his current profit with >lex profit, or graph his profit over time with >lex graph profit.
Contracts
A trader can create a contract with >lex create_contract. He can then send that contract to any number of other traders, who can read and potentially sign it with >lex review_contract. This contract is legally binding. Contract disputes may be brought to the Auditors for arbitration.
Competition
All traders in the world are ranked by their balances and portfolios. All stocks are ranked by their market caps. These rankings can be displayed with the commands >lex ticker balances, >lex ticker portfolios, and >lex ticker stocks, respectively.Buying and Selling
A trader can buy (using >lex buy) or sell (using >lex sell) shares of a stock. This is the primary means by which traders can turn a profit on the LEX.
Transferring
A trader who has paid off his entire starting loan can transfer cash (using >lex transfer_cash) or shares (using >lex transfer_shares) to another trader. This could be used for short-selling, creating an investment firm, making payments for non-LEX-related transactions, or any number of other creative options.
Commissions
The Land's End Company receives a 1% commission (minimum Ⱡ1) on every cash transfer and purchase of stock. For example, if a trader purchases 10 shares of Conch Kingdom stock at a total value of Ⱡ600, the trader's balance will be charged Ⱡ606, and the Company's balance will increase by Ⱡ6. This commission is always subtracted from the balance of the trader who executed the order, not the recipient of a transfer.
The Company's balance is separate from the Lands End regional balance. It is not added to the Lands End market cap. Instead, it is used to pay salaries to officials and dividends to shareholders.
Margins
A region collects a 1% margin (minimum Ⱡ1) on every sale of its stock. For example, if a trader sells 10 shares of Conch Kingdom stock at a total value of Ⱡ600, the trader's balance will increase by Ⱡ594, and Conch Kingdom's balance will increase by Ⱡ6. A region's balance is added to its market cap, so the more a region is bought and sold, the more valuable it becomes.
Regional Portfolios
A region can use its cash balance to buy and sell stock. The region's cash balance and the value of its portfolio are added to its market cap. This means the region can increase its own value and compete with other regions by convincing traders to buy and sell its stock (thereby collecting margin payments) and by making investments of its own.
Land's End CompanyShareholder Status
Shareholder status confers voting rights in Lands End. This status can be attained through residency, WA membership, and an application. Click here for more details.
Dividends
Shareholders receive dividends, which are paid every Saturday out of the Company's balance. The total dividend is defined as a percentage of the Company's profits that week, and is divided equally by the shareholders.
Salaries
Company officials have salaries, which are paid every Saturday out of the Company's balance. An official's salary corresponds to his Tier, and is defined as a percentage of the Company's profits that week.
Bonuses
Any time a trader recruits a nation to Lands End, he receives a cash bonus, which is subtracted from the Company's balance.
Auditors
Auditors are employees tasked with enforcing the rules of the LEX. Scroll to the Rules section to learn more about them.
Currency
The monetary unit used by the system is the Land's End EXtraregional Currency, or LEEX. The symbol is Ⱡ. The exchange rates between LEEX and other currencies are undefined.
The rules of the LEX are as follows.The following special rules apply to LEX contracts.
- Do not register multiple accounts for the purpose of manipulating prices, aggregating profits, or otherwise gaining an unfair advantage.
- Do not engage in rulebreaking activity onsite for the purpose of manipulating prices or otherwise gaining an unfair advantage. This includes (but is not limited to) WA multiing, puppet flooding, and RMB spamming.
- Do not make false statements to an Auditor or other Company representative during official inquiries.
- Do not harass other traders with cash or share transfers. If you are asked to stop, stop.
- Do not move nations into Lands End for the purpose of collecting the recruitment bonus. This rule applies only to Lands End recruiters.
Auditors are employed by the Land's End Company and enforce the rules of the LEX, similar to the real-world SEC. They are able to view all transactions in real-time. If they suspect a rule violation, they are empowered to view a trader's portfolio and transaction log, send him a warning, freeze his account, or liquidate or seize his assets. Auditor actions such as these are logged and monitored, and abuse will be met with dismissal of the Auditor and reversal of the action.
- Older contracts supersede newer ones, in the event of a conflict.
- Only the terms of a contract, not its context, will be considered by Auditors during arbitration proceedings.
- All signatories must consent for any or all signatures to be revoked, unless contract language states otherwise.
- Auditors should not be expected to enforce a contract clause that is written in confusing language with the apparent intent of tricking signatories.
- Auditors should not be expected to enforce a contract clause for which enforcement would require the use of powers or authority beyond their scope.
- Auditors will not arbitrate any part of contracts they have presently signed.
- Contract provisions that require a user to take any action will not be enforced unless the user has signed the contract.
All Company officials have the power to act as Auditors, but not all Auditors are Company officials. Auditors are employed at the discretion of the Company's delegate, CEO, and COO.
Click here for the full-length dispatch version with commands.
