Stock Ticker Game Review

New additions to the gaming group can bring in great new games. When my cousin married her husband he introduced us to stock ticker. A game admittedly most people I know wouldn’t have purchased based solely on the box. Stock ticker is a simply designed game that actually makes the stock market fun.

In stock ticker you are investors buying and selling six commodities hoping to make the most money in whatever time limit you set. These commodities are Gold, Bonds, Oil, Industrials, Grain, and Silver (or tech in the newer version).

The game starts with all stocks at $1 in value. Players invest their $5000 starting money however they choose. Invest all, some, or nothing in whatever stocks you feel like. Each player in turn rolls the three dice. One die will show which of the six stocks is affected by this roll. Another die shows if the stock goes up, down or pays a dividend. The third die determines the value of the change.

Stock that rises above the $2 mark splits, each player has their number of that stock doubled and the stock price returns to $1. Any stock whose value drops below the 5 cent mark crashes; all of the stock owned by players is returned to the bank without a payout and the stock returns to the $1 value. Any stock that is above the $1 mark can pay dividends when it gets rolled for that stock. Basically just owning this stock can net you money without having to buy and sell.

Since stock value is changed with each roll of the dice all players will be involved on every other players turn. Maybe their stock value will plummet, maybe it will pay off big time or maybe your stock will stagnate over several turns.

Due to the randomness of stock fluctuations the game really doesn’t reflect true stock market changes. There is no news source to give fair warning of a grain shortage or war in some oil producing country that will make those stocks soar. However it does reflect the volatility and gambling aspect that the market does have. After all; that down and out stock could really crash costing you a huge investment. Or it could suddenly upturn and net you huge profits.

I like that stock ticker is such a random game. At the start there really is no go to stock that will win the game every time you play. So new players have as much of a chance of winning as veteran players. All of the stock is the same value and randomness changes everything. Experienced players will build strategies as many in the stock market do. Sometimes they work sometimes they don’t.

Personally I find keeping stock above the $1 mark is the most valuable strategy as it should net you money for 2 out of 3 die rolls (up or dividend) I tend not to hold out for stock to split. I find selling high value stock and buying more of a slightly lower value stock (that is still above $1) pays off better, after all dividends pay out by volume not by value. If I ever do own a stock that splits I dump everything and invest in other stock. After all I want something that pays dividends and anything really close to the $1 mark is too close to dipping below that line.

The big gamble I like is buying stock that is close to crashing. After all it’s cheap and even a slight increase can double or triple my investment. It’s a risk, money lost on a crashed stock is gone forever, but when it pays off it pays off big time.

To sum up stock ticker is a fun game of playing at the stock market. It is simplistically fun and your whole group should be able to understand the rules by the end of their first play though. It’s a great go to game when players aren’t in the mood for a strategy heavy night and is best played with a large group of people who are willing to gamble with imaginary money. The self set time limit is nice because it allows players to play to their own schedule. The random nature of the game does lessen the strategy element but only a little. Everyone seems to let their imagination run wild with their idea of what’s lucky or what works. It’s simple nature and rules may get repetitive if played often so this will be an occasional game or something to get marathon gamers started for a night. I still recommend this Canadian title for your table.