Stock Market 101

by jennythegreat

So, young Neopian, you wanna play the stock market? Well I am here to tell you that the Neopian Stock Market is a wonderful way to build your way up to having those mega neopoints we all dream of!

BUT let me stop you now. The Stock Market is what we in Neopia like to call a LONG TERM INVESTMENT. You will not make 100,000 neopoints within your first days playing it. In fact, it may take a month or so for anything you’ve invested to start paying off!! However, if you invest and watch play daily, eventually, you will build a phenomenal portfolio worthy of … I don’t know…worthy of someone cool that has a big portfolio. Heh heh.

Ok, to get you started, pull up another window with Neopets on it, go to the top bar and head to the Games page, then to the Stock Market page and click “Find Stocks” at the top.

Now go to where it says for a list of all stocks Click Here, and click there. Yes, I said there, but I meant Click Here, there. Muahahaa.

When you are there, come back to this window and read some more!

*Waits. Gets a soda. Waits a bit more.*

All set? Ok, off we go!

Now…at the top of the chart on this page, you will see the following headings. Beside each heading I will put what they mean.

Logo - the logo image of the company
Ticker- the initials of the company name that you type in when you buy the stock, and the name that shows up on the ticker that runs across the top.
Company-The actual name of the company selling the stock.
Volume- How many of those stocks have been bought or sold in all of Neopia, today.
Open - The original price of the stock
Curr- The current price of the stock (*IMPORTANT*)
Change- How much the price has gone up or down from the original price

Take a look at the list and the definitions, and the actual page, and tell me if you are getting this so far.

You are? Fantastico!!

Ok. Now looking at the Curr collumn (where the current price is listed, you will see that prices range widely, from 6 Neopoints a share, to something like 789 Neopoints a share, right?

Well, the trick of the stock market is to BUY the stocks when they are really low priced, and save them until they are high priced and then sell them!!

As you probably know, you can’t buy stocks in Neopia that are under 15 NP a share. So every day, you want to look at that Curr collumn and see which ones are priced at 15NP! Also, you’re only allowed to buy 1000 stocks a day. So the very basic premise is to buy 1000 stocks a day at 15 for 15,000 a day, and set your sell point higher than that so that when you sell you make a lot of NP. Beginners often start with a low sell point like thirty, and then ease up higher as they get the hang of it. My sell point right now is between 50 and 60, and many people sell even higher.

Now, open another window and go to this website: neodaq.com. There you will see TONS of helpful information, but the most important thing is the Stocks Reportcard. This shows stocks with a grade beside them. The grade is based on how often each company’s stocks get to 45 NP per share. There is also info on that page about how high each one has ever been. Bellagio and I mainly purchase only A+ and A stocks, with occasional forays into lower ones if they are known to go really high when they go up!

So with your two windows open, find the stocks that are currently priced at 15 and compare them against the reportcard. Then buy 1000 of one of the 15NP priced stocks that has a grade of A or A+! I don’t recommend buying different stocks on the same day, only because it makes them a pain to sell in the long run. I diversify by buying different stocks on separate days instead. If you can’t invest 15,000 each day, try to pick a round number you can manage and stick to that, and increase your daily amount when you can! Got it so far?

Awesome!!

It is important at this point to tell you that the stocks you own will go up and down and up and down and up and down! ****Sometimes they will even go UNDER what you paid for them!*** But DON’T PANIC! Eventually I promise they go up again! Unlike the stocks in the real world, very very few Neopian companies ever go bankrupt, and no stock I’ve purchased in three years thus far, ever has. Ever. *knocks on wood* Ever. Remember, as I said at the beginning (in bold even) stocks in Neopia are a LONG TERM INVESTMENT. Even if your portfolio looks very bleak and is worth less than you paid for it on given days, sometime soon it will soar and you’ll find that you’re raking in profits!! Sometimes it takes months for them to go up! But eventually they always do! These days, with my price point at 60 and still buying 1000 stocks a day I make over a million neopoints a month on just my stocks. You can too!

So basically the trick is, to invest as much as you can every day, only buying stocks that have a current price of 15 or 16. Now pick your selling price. You can set your price point wherever you want to! For example, when I started, I never sold a stock unless it had gotten up to a current price of 30. That way I had doubled my money! Now, my selling point is between 50 and 60!

I usually suggest a beginner start at 30 until they get the hang of it. Bear in mind again that at 30 you have already doubled your investment!! *claps* If you spent 15,000 on 1000 stocks at 15 NP, selling them at 30 means you will make 30,000!!

So your steps every day are the following:

1. Buy 1000 shares of a good stock

2. Check your portfolio to see if your stocks have reached your price point!!

3. If they have…sell them!!

 It is important that you do these things daily– especially checking your stocks– because if you miss a day, you may miss the one day in a few months that your stocks reach your selling point!

On checking your portfolio:

The way you see the stocks you OWN, is to look at your Portfolio. The same information is there as in the list of stocks you’re looking at now, except now it’s just for the ones you own, so there is some information added. Basically, it goes like this:

Logo - the image of the company
Ticker- the initials of the company name that you type in when you buy the stock.
Open-The price of the stock per share when the market opened today.

Current Price- The price of the stock per share right now (this changes- or can- on the half hour)

Chg-How many Neopoints up or down the stock has changed today to get to its current price.
Quantity- How many of shares of those stocks you own.
Paid- The amount you’ve paid for all the shares of that company’s that you own.
Market Value- How much the shares of that company’s you own are worth right now.

% Change- How much (in percent) the stocks you own have risen or fallen all together.

So remember, to sell, you keep an eye on the Current Price column in your portfolio, and when a stock you own is up to 30 (or whatever you set your selling point at), sell all of it that you have! :D  If there’s a day when your stocks are close to reaching your selling point, bear in mind that the stocks can go up or down each half hour.  When I have one within five points of selling, I’ll often check back during the day to see if it’s gone up and I can sell!

Has all this made sense to you, or are you flabbergasted and confused?

*crosses fingers it’s the first one.*

Anyway, that’s Stock Market 101, by me.

*takes bow*