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- Most people agree that stock is an indispensable part of
- capitalism. In the game, the stock market lets you do most things
- that are allowed in a real stock market. Apart from common stock
- buying and selling, you can tender offers, issue new shares,
- pay dividends, and set up takeovers and mergers.
-
- In this tutorial, the following hot keys are available:
-
- [Esc] - Quit the tutorial.
- [Back Space] - Go back one tutorial step.
-
- pos : 249, 103
- openmenu : 3, 5
- First, you need a basic understanding of stock. Let's begin with
- the corporate detail report.
-
- runmenu : 3, 5
-
- pos : 299, 109, 372, 119
- mouse : left single
- The corporate detail report has more than a dozen sections, each
- with a different topic. Click here to open the "Stock"
- section.
-
- pos : 226, 196
- The stock report has two sections. The first section lists the
- shareholders of the corporation and shows their shares in a
- pie chart.
-
- pos : 234, 337
- The second section of the stock report displays the stocks that
- the current corporation owns. Note that a corporation can own the
- stocks of other corporations.
-
- pos : 300, 44, 362, 55
- mouse : left single
- While this report is useful, it doesn't show the most basic
- information about a stock, such as the stock price. This
- information is shown in the "Overview" section. Click here.
-
- pos : 353, 253
- The stock overview section contains information about the
- corporation's stock. The terms are explained one by one.
-
- pos : 321, 278
- This is the current stock price of the corporation, which is
- determined by the market.
-
- pos : 321, 291
- The equity per share is calculated by dividing the amount of the
- shareholders' equity in the corporation by the total number of
- outstanding shares of the corporation.
-
- pos : 321, 305
- The earnings per share is determined by dividing the amount of
- the corporation's annual operating profit by the total number of
- outstanding shares of the corporation.
-
- pos : 451, 276
- The Price/Earning ratio is calculated by dividing the stock
- price by the earnings per share.
-
- pos : 451, 292
- The dividend yield is a percentage calculated by dividing the
- dividend by the stock price. Dividends are the distribution of a
- company's earnings to stockholders.
-
- pos : 451, 307
- The total return to shareholders is a percentage calculated by
- dividing the total amount of return on one share over the past
- 365 days by the stock price. The return includes the dividend
- received and profit gained from the rise of the stock price.
-
- pos : 540, 292
- This graph shows the stock price of a corporation over the past
- 30 months.
-
- pos : 354, 435, 419, 445
- mouse : left single
- As its name "report" implies, it only shows information. To
- invest in stocks, go to the "Stock Market" either by selecting
- "Stock Market" in the "Action" column of the game menu or, more
- conveniently, by clicking here.
-
- pos : 48, 356, 264, 368
- mouse : left single
- In the game, you can buy stocks in person or via a corporation
- that is under your control. Now click here to enable your
- corporation to invest in stocks.
-
- pos : 198, 126
- Move your focus to the upper left section of the window,
- which has a stock browser showing all stocks available in the
- market.
-
- pos : 258, 65
- You can see the percentage of stock that your corporation owns by
- looking at the "Owned%" column.
-
- pos : 320, 65
- The "Stock Value" column lists the total value of stock owned by
- your corporation.
-
- pos : 120, 90, 171, 103
- mouse : left single
- Click here to highlight a stock.
-
- pos : 198, 241
- Once a stock is selected, the shareholders of the stock are
- listed here.
-
- pos : 493, 110
- In addition, you find the details about the highlighted stock in
- this area. The terms used here were introduced in the corporate
- detail report.
-
- pos : 486, 226
- Below the area is a graph showing the stock price over a specific
- period which can be past 30 days, past 30 months, or past 30
- years. Select the period by clicking any of the three buttons
- below the graph.
-
- pos : 446, 328
- Now it's time to buy some stocks. This formula shows the amount
- of cash your corporation need to pay for the stock, which is
- calculated by multiplying the total no. of outstanding by the
- percentage of stock to buy and finally multiplying the result by
- the stock price.
-
- pos : 372, 330, 378, 340
- You can set the percentage of stock you want to buy. When a stock
- is highlighted, this percentage is automatically set to the
- maximum percentage you can buy. Note that the maximum percentage
- of stock you can buy from or sell to the public shareholders each
- time is 5%, a limit that the public shareholders can accept each
- time.
-
- pos : 557, 335, 581, 349
- mouse : left single
- Click here to buy the stock from the public shareholders.
-
- pos : 265, 103
- Once the transaction is complete, the data here is updated,
- showing the percentage of stock your corporation owns now.
-
- pos : 200, 240
- Your corporation is also included as one of the shareholders in
- the shareholder list.
-
- Besides buying stocks of other corporation, your corporation can
- also buy back its own stock. The shares bought are taken out of
- circulation, therefore shrinking the number of outstanding
- shares. This can have a positive effect on earnings per share,
- which in turn can have a positive effect on the stock price.
-
- pos : 172, 58, 217, 71
- mouse : left single
- To have your corporation buy back its own stock, first click here
- to select your corporation's stock.
-
- pos : 557, 335, 581, 349
- mouse : left single
- Now, click here to buy back 5% of the stock.
-
- pos : 471, 68
- Note that the total number of outstanding shares of your
- corporation is reduced.
-
- pos : 235, 235
- Due to reduction of the total number of shares, the onwership
- percentage of the non-public shareholders increases. This action
- can strengthen the ownership of existing shareholders in the
- corporation and reduce the risk of a hostile takeover.
-
- Note that when you buy or sell stocks, the transactions are
- always made with the public shareholders. If all shares of the
- stock that you want are in the hands of non-public shareholders,
- you may have to make a tender offer to the shareholders.
-
- pos : 561, 327
- A tender offer is an offer to buy shares of a corporation, usually
- at a price in excess of market. You may find a button labeled
- "Offer" here if a tender offer is necessary.
-
- Besides tender offers, takeovers and mergers are also possible in
- Capitalism. You can take over a corporation if you own more
- than 50% of its stock. A merger is allowed if you own more
- than 75% of a corporation's stock. However, we are not going to
- describe these actions in details here as we don't want to
- overwhelm you with too many details. Read the manual if you want
- to know more about them.
-
- pos : 228, 429, 245, 442
- mouse : left single
- Next, we'll introduce you to some other common stock actions.
- Click the "Ok" button to close the window.
-
- pos : 341, 58
- openmenu : 4, 2
- Call up the financial action window in the game menu.
-
- runmenu : 4, 2
-
- pos : 181, 78, 267, 87
- mouse : left single
- One of the actions you can take here is issuing new shares of
- your corporation. Click here.
-
- A corporation can raise fund by issuing new shares. When new
- shares are issued, they are offered to public shareholders
- and the cash received from the buyers contributes to the
- operating capital of the corporation.
-
- pos : 379, 148
- When your corporation issues new shares, you must make two
- decisions. First, you must decide the issuing price, which cannot
- be higher than the current stock price. Nobody will be interested
- in the new shares if they're priced higher than the market price.
-
- pos : 352, 133
- Secondly, decide the number of new shares to be issued.
-
- pos : 336, 174
- There is a limit on the number of new shares you can issue. You
- can expect a higher limit if your corporation showed promising
- results in the past year. You can often have a higher limit if
- you decrease the issuing price to make it more attractive to
- buyers. Another factor which affects the limit is the frequency
- that new shares are issued. You cannot issue new shares too
- frequently, otherwise the market won't have enough time to digest
- the new shares.
-
- pos : 371, 217
- After you decide the number of new shares and the issuing price,
- the expected amount of money your corporation will receive after
- issuing new shares is shown here.
-
- pos : 154, 235, 224, 246
- mouse : left single
- If you are satisfied with the gross receipts, click the "Issue
- Now" button.
-
- pos : 254, 16
- That's right. The receipt have been added to your
- corporation's cash account.
-
- When an investor buys shares of a corporation, the investor
- probably expects a reasonable return in the future. That
- return usually includes the dividend paid by corporation and the
- profit gained from the rise of the stock price.
-
- pos : 144, 90, 273, 100
- mouse : left single
- Because of this, you must consider the dividend-paying policy
- of your corporation seriously. Click here to go to the dividend
- menu.
-
- Some corporation try to pay a reasonable dividend each year
- to please the shareholders. However, it is not uncommon to
- find corporations that pay only modest dividends or even none to
- maintain an upward trend on its stock price. These corporations
- actually reinvest their earnings back into the business, which
- promises better returns in the future.
-
- pos : 369, 133
- In the game, you can set a dividend payout ratio and let your
- corporation pay dividends based on this ratio each year
- automatically. Under this policy, the dividend per share is
- calculated by multiplying the earnings per share by the dividend
- payout ratio.
-
- pos : 231, 228
- If you want to pay dividends this way, you must press this
- button, which authorizes dividends to be paid each year without
- your approval.
-
- pos : 368, 146
- If you want to change the dividend payout ratio, you should first
- set the new ratio here.
-
- pos : 210, 173
- Then click this button to confirm the change.
-
- pos : 391, 230
- If you want to approve the dividend, you can select the "Ask
- Dividend Payout" option. After that, at the end of each year, you
- see a window which lets you decide the exact amount of dividend
- to be paid for the year.
-
- pos : 304, 397, 319, 410
- mouse : left single
- Now it's time to leave here, click on the "Ok" button to close
- the window.
-
- This lesson has told what it should tell and you have learned
- what you should learn. If there is still anything that you lack,
- it is your own experience. Good luck!