PeopleStocks.com is an online stock market. Rather than trading shares representing value in a company, shares representing value in a person are traded.

Is my screen name case sensitive?
When you register with a new screen name it is case sensitive. Your name will always show up with the punctuation used when registering. Fortunately for people with names like "BaDPuNcTuAtIoN", you don't have to enter your name with any particular case to log in.

I suggested an IPO. How come it's not on the list?
Your suggestion must be validated first. In order to avoid suggested IPOs like "My Cousin Jim" or possibly a duplicate name, we need to have a look at the suggestion before it goes up for voting. Once validated, it will be place in line with other suggestions and added to the voting list when there is space available.

How does suggesting IPOs work?
When a suggestion is validated and placed on the list, it is immediately available for voting by other traders. A trader can only vote if in posession of at least 300 credits. Once 5% of the active traders have agreed that the stock should be tradeable then the IPO is marked as UPCOMING. The IPO will remain in UPCOMING status for a few days so that everybody gets fair warning. Traders who vote for an IPO commit to purchasing a certain number of shares during the first week of the IPOs release. This guarantees activity in new stocks and discourages new IPOs that have no real interest the market. The initial offering price and number of shares issued will be calculated according to a specific formula and a stock that is not traded will experience price reductions over time. Once a stock's price goes below 1cr it will be removed from the market. This helps keep uninteresting stocks off of the market if interest in that stock fades.

What kind of people can I suggest?
Any person who is well known and earns money can be traded.

How do I see my trader profile?
From the Account Options screen (accessible from the left menu bar) there is a link to your profile as the bottom of the form.
You can also access your trader profile by clicking on your name at the top of the left menu bar (logged in as ...).

How do I get more credits?
There are FIVE ways that your credits accumulate:

1. By carefully investing your credits on the market. Anticipate a person's popularity based on upcoming events. For example, if the oscars are coming up it's likely that the nominated actors will see a spike in their share price.

2. Through a daily 10 credit handout - FREE MONEY!
This is important for new traders to have a chance competing with experienced traders. The daily 10 credit handout is much less significant when you've got $10,000 credits in your portfolio. But when you're just starting out it's a big help as you'll see below. Inactive users who have not logged on in over 15 days do not get free credits.

3. Referrals. Refer friends to the website to receive free credits and trade cooperatively. You'll receive 10 credits and two free trades per referral. You'll also receive 5 credits and 1 free trade for every referral from one of your referrals. Only unique referrals will be sent out, and you'll only receive free trades and credits for referrals that sign up.

4. Occasionally there will be a dividend issued for stocks that a trader is holding. A stock's dividend payout is set at 0.01% of their market value (share price * shares issued) and does not change until the next dividend payout. You'll receive the dividend amount for every share of stock you own. So if a stock is trading at 11.05 per share, and 1300 shares have been issued, then that stock's dividend payout is 0.0001 * 1300 * 11.05 = 1.4365. So if you have 85 shares of this stock you would receive 85 * 1.4365 = 122.10 credits. Once a share issues dividends, the new dividend amount is calculated based on the current market value and that amount will be used for the next payout.

5. By improving your portfolio value and earning a portfolio improvement bonus.
Portfolio value is the value of all of your stock holdings (number of shares multiplied by share price) plus your available credits. Every percent improvement in your portfolio gives an extra 10 credits every day. By calculating percent improvement instead of just the number of credits you've earned, even new traders with small portfolios can make big gains. It wouldn't be fair to give someone who has $10,000 credits and earns 50 in a day (not even 1% improvement) the same bonus as someone who has $100 credits and earns 50 credits (50% improvement!). The portfolio improvement bonus is gives dramatic results for traders with low credit counts.

For example: When starting out with 100 credits, you'll get 10 free credits the next day from the free credit handout even if you don't make any trades. So that's a 10% portfolio improvement. Not bad for doing nothing! Since the portfolio improvement bonus gives 10 credits for every percent improvement, that means a 100 credit portfolio improvement bonus. So from day 1 to day 2 you can easily double your portfolio value! In fact, with the portfolio improvement bonus of 100 and the handout of 10 your portfolio has more than doubled since the previous day. As your portfolio gains value, this bonus becomes less dramatic. A 10 credit gain from the daily handout when your portfolio is at $1000 is only a 1% portfolio improvement. So you'd get a portfolio bonus of 10 credits for that, and your total improvement would be only 20 credits. In calculating bonuses this way, new traders should improve their portfolio quickly and be able to survive in the market with well established traders. As a trader's portfolio value increases, more emphasis is placed on trading skill.

For portfolios that were worth less than 100 credits the previous day, no portfolio bonus will be granted but the 10 credit handout will still be issued. This way you can't gain unfair portfolio improvement bonus for doing badly, and the handout will help you get back into the market. Inactive users who have not logged on in over 15 days do not get free credits.

Can I see who else is online?
The three most recent traders to log in are displayed on the right side of the top title bar.

What's the difference between Market Trade, Scheduled Trades, and Trading Station
A market trade submits your order to the market and attempts to fill it at the best price possible. If you submit an order for a lot that is equal to the offered lot then that is the exact order you will get. If you specify a lot size larger than the current offer size then your order will be filled at the next available price which is hopefully close to the last trade value. It's best to submit orders for the offering lot amount so that you don't have to worry about the system filling your order at unknown price points.

Scheduled trades allow you to set the exact price you want for your offer (bid or ask) and for how many lots. Your order will be added to the list of orders currently outstanding for that stock. If, for example, George W Bush is trading at 10.25 and you put in a buy order for 9.75, then whenever the price happens to reach 9.75 your order will be filled. This could be as soon as 5 minutes or as far away as a week. If you see your scheduled order is too far from the trading price to be filled, you can cancel the order. Any scheduled trades that are not filled within two weeks will be removed.

The Trading Station is an advanced trading screen. Up to three stocks can be setup and their price depth can be monitored using the refresh button at the bottom of the screen. A lot size can be specified and clicking the buy or sell buttons will execute the requested order. Trading on margin is allowed here so you will be able to sell more shares than you own (short sell). You can also insert scheduled trades from this screen by clicking on an existing bid or ask lot. Your scheduled trade will be placed in front of the existing order at the lot size you have specified.

All trades cost 10 credits to execute regardless of order size.

Can I open a margin account?
Margin is disabled until you've reached the 1000 credit mark. You will be given a 500 credit margin for every 1000 credits limit that you reach. This means if you've ever enabled margin at 1000 credits, then you're safe going down to -500 credits. If you've ever enabled margin at 3000 credits then you're safe down to -1500 credits. You cannot add more margin to your account if you currently owe shares back to the market. If you go over your margin limit you'll receive a MARGIN CALL. This will be a warning. A very sternly written notice that you've gone over your margin limit and need to bring your account back in line. If your account is not brought back in line (at least up to your margin limit) within 3 days your account will be terminated. Also, if you receive 3 margin calls your account will be terminated regardless of how quickly you correct the situation on the 3rd margin call. At all times when trading through the trading station, your margin limit will be displayed. If you're close to your limit, stop what you're doing and get your account back in line.

How does the market work?
The market works just like you would expect if you're used to trading on any major stock exchange. Prices will fluctuate based on demand, available stock, and of course hype and frenzy. The main difference is that there are no middlemen sitting between you and the trading floor. You execute trades immediately, based on the offers available at the time. Trades cost 10 credits per order.

When does the market open / close?
The market is a 24 hour market so there is no close time. There's no reason for trading to stop just because some arbitrary time of day has been reached. There is, however, a market OPEN time which is 630am CST. The only reason for this is statistics collection. Things like the previous day's trading volume and previous day's best trader are nice to know so a time has to be chosen to consider the next day. We didn't want to choose 12am because that is more likely to be a fairly active trading period than early morning. If you don't like the idea of having a market open time with no close time, then I guess you could say that the market closes at 630am CST and the market opens at 630am CST.

How is a person's value calculated?
New issues are introduced at price points most likely to generate activity. After the initial offering price, supply and demand will determine the true market value of the stock. That value may or may not represent the actual value of the person relative to the other people on the market. This is the same as in other stock markets where prices are sometimes many multiples higher or sometimes lower than what a company is actually worth. A news release or earnings statement can sometimes affect the price of a stock in a real market, but it is the actions of the traders that create the effect, not the news item itself. The PeopleStocks market has no forced artificial price fluctuating mechanisms that are based on external factors. If a news item comes out about a certain person, the stock price is not going to be forced in any direction. Only the actions of the traders will cause the price to move. If traders aren't influencing a stock's price then the market maker will lower the price in an attempt to generate more buying interest. A trader holding shares in a particular stock can buy more shares every couple of days to ensure the Market Maker doesn't drop the price.

What's the different between price and market value?
The price is the cost of each share. The market value is the product of share price and stock distribution. If a stock has 100 shares distributed and is currently trading at $10 per share then the market value of that stock is $1000. No stock will ever be issued with less than 100 shares distributed.

Who owns the shares when they're first distributed to the market?
When a new stock is issued through the IPO process, the offering price and distribution amount will be calculated. The distributed stocks are initially given to the market maker. The market maker will offer the stocks for sale and keep a market going for the stock.

What happens when all the distributed shares are sold?
If a stock is completely bought up and no traders sell any shares back to the market maker, then this stock will no longer be available for purchase. If this condition persists then new shares in that stock will be issued. A news item will be released notifying traders of the halt and upcoming distribution. Stock splits and new share distribution are no longer forced to occur together.

How does the Market Maker work?
The market maker's job is to make a market for each stock without interfering with the market. When a new stock is offered the market maker will be in control of all the shares and they'll be offered up for sale. The market maker never holds onto shares in an attempt to artificially raise the stock price. The market maker will also never directly execute a trade. The only trades that get executed are those that are initiated by traders.

What happens when a stock is split?
If the price of a stock reaches levels that are determined to be too high by the trader community, then the stock will be halted and a split notice will be issued. On the next open the stock will be split and traders will be able to buy more stock. Upon splitting, the distributed number of shares will be doubled and the selling price will be cut in half. This retains the stocks pre-split market value. Also, a trader's share holdings in that stock will also double. That way if they sell all of their shares at the new price they'll have the same amount of cash in hand as they would have before the split. Another advantage of price splitting is to lower the price per share. For a split condition to occur the share price would normally have to increase significantly. Splitting the price gives new traders a chance to own some of that stock at a lower price per share. Stock splits and new share distribution are no longer forced to occur together.

What happens when a stock is removed from the market?
If a stock is not traded, it's value will decrease over time until the price is attractive enough to bring interest from the market. If the stock has very little interest from the market, eventually it's share price will drop below one credit. Once this happens, it will be placed in a secondary market and it will no longer be available for trading. Any trader with shares of the stock in their portfolio will be given 0.25cr per share. Any trader owing shares will have their margin position covered at their average trade price for that stock.

What's the difference between logging off and closing my browser?
If you close your browser and open it again you should still be logged in. This is the case if your browser saves cookies. If you do not save cookies, you'll have to log in again. You'll also have to log in again if you haven't made a market trade in over an hour because your session will be expired.



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