System Time: 16:08 07 Aug 2008 - 9 Players Online
Bond
Contents |
What Are Bonds?
Bonds are groups of Ideas in one Industry (view the Industry Charts here) which can be sold only on a secondary Idea Market called the Bond Market. Bonds are issued in designations of 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 50000, and 100000 ideas. However, the number of bonds that can be issued is limited only to the amount of Ideas you currently hold.
Issuing Bonds
The process of issuing bonds can be difficult at first, but gets easier. Most players will lose a decent chunk of money on bad bonds before they catch on. This document hopes to alleviate some of that.
If you look at the right sidebar, under the section with the Members Area Box, you will see [Your Profile], [Your Shares], [Your Ideas], etc. Right now we are interested in [Your Ideas]. Click that link, and it will take you to your Idea Portfolio. The portfolio by default is listed by number of Ideas you hold in each industry with the most on top and lowest on bottom.
Look through the list, and find the Industry you want to bond out. Before actually issuing a bond, it is a good idea to visit the page for that industry and compare current bond prices. To do this, click on the name of the industry, which will load up the industry page in a new window. Industry pages are loaded in a light view by default. Generally because the sheer amount of information on these pages can be quite a bandwidth hog—land not everyone cares about having all the info every time the page is loaded. To activate the heavy view find the first line of the page, it reads:
This is the light view of industry statistics for easy navigation - if you want the full view click _here_.
You will want to click "here" to load up the full industry page, allowing you to see all current bonds and their info, current pricing graphs, as well as current market data for the industry. Take a look first at the Pricing Graphs, they will give you an idea how the industry has performed, whether the price has been consistently rising or falling, and what the current value is for the industry's ideas. Make sure you get a feel for these numbers as they will help you figure out where you should be placing your prices.
Next take a look a little further down the page and you will see all available bonds in that industry (if there are any). This will tell you where the current bond prices sit in comparison to current market value to give you a more complete idea of what price marker you should have on your bonds. Something you need to take into consideration is that many people bond out ideas at extortionate prices, hoping someone will either be desperate and need the ideas to complete an artifact (and thus willing to pay the outrageous prices) or will accidentally click on one of the bonds and buy it. You also will want to take a look at the breakdown of idea rarity to understand the rareness of what you are holding before you sell it.
Scroll back up to the Idea Commodities section, which lists the number of Available Ideas, Held Ideas, the Price per Idea, the Lowest Price, and the Highest Price. At the end of the line, click the link that says Issue New Bonds. Alternatively, you can click on the [Your Bonds] link in the right sidebar. At the top of the page that comes up is a link that says Issue New Bonds. Clicking it will take you to the same page. The only difference is that you will have to select the industry you wish to create a bond in from the drop down box at the top.
The box you see here (shown below) has several rows: Industry, Number of idea commodities, Bond Price, Term, Number of bonds, then the buttons.
Industry: This first row gives you a plethora of information. First is the Name of the Industry, offered as a link to the Industry's page. You can wait until you get here to look up the Industry information, or you can use the link here to look it up again in case you forgot some info or need to double check.
You also have the current market price enclosed in a pair of parentheses. This gives you an current visual representation of the market price to keep you focused on pricing.
There is also a 'Change/Reset' link. Clicking this will completely reset the form to its default state as well as allow you to choose another industry. Below that is the total number of ideas you currently hold. While you can issue bonds to cover more than you currently hold, it is not a wise idea.
Number of idea commodities: This one is pretty straight-forward. You have a drop-down box that allows you to choose the number of ideas you want each bond to hold. You can choose between 10, 100, 1K, 10K, 50K, and 100K. For rarer industries, bonds typically sell faster in lower quantities. This is more of a psychological barrier than anything else and is one of the more interesting intricacies of the game. people see the high cost of the bond total and at that point they are blinded to the number of ideas in a bond. They just see dollar signs. Lower numbers of ideas per bond can lower the total cost of the bond, breaking psychological barriers.
Another nice little trick to note is that you can charge more per idea on smaller bonds because of this, allowing your overall take to be greater.
Bond price: Here we have two boxes to choose from. Only one needs to be filled in. The first one lets you set a total price for the bond. This allows you to avoid doing math on a per idea basis. The second box is a price per idea box. If you are selling 100 ideas, and are pricing them at B$45K per idea, your bond will have a total value of B$4.5 Million. This is where you want to stop and consider the current market price and price of other bonds.
Common industries typically sell at about 1% above their market value, giving that the market is rising for that industry. Semi-Rare can fetch 5%-100% above market value. The higher number is more of a stretch, but someone needing those ideas, or willing to hold onto them for a while, may buy them up.
Rare industries can give you returns of 100%-10K% or more. This depends on the true rarity of the ideas and whether or not a prospective buyer is collecting them or trying to complete an artifact. Ultra-rare Ideas can gain a huge profit margin of around 10K% and up. There are some ideas, such as Gambling Memorabilia that can fetch B$100 Million per idea or more, and that example is simply a rare industry (note: that number is on the higher end of the spectrum).
Unique ideas, like the Pan Pied Music are virtually priceless. The game does not produce ideas in this industry any longer and therefore there are an extremely limited number of ideas available here. You won't be able to find these on the open market unless someone sells them for some odd reason. If you do - don't let go of them.
Term: This is the number of days (from 1-30) that must pass before the user who buys your bond is able to claim it (bonds must be claimed once they mature). Most people set the number to '0' as this is more appealing to most bond buyers. Others however set this number up higher. Generally this happens when someone does not have the ideas in their portfolio at the moment. They are banking on having the ideas by the time it matures. This can be a very risky business as if you do not have them, the bond fine can hurt.
Number of bonds: This is how many bonds of the previous idea total you want to create. Make sure you do not go over your total number of available ideas (available in the top row) as you can pay huge amounts of fines if someone buys the bond and then tries to claim it. If the ideas are not available the system fines you and gives the money to the player who purchased your bond.
The last row contains two buttons: Safety Check and Issue Bonds.
Safety Check: Clicking this will analyze the bonds you have just designed. The page will return results for the average bond price in that industry as well as the fine should you default on the bond.
Below those numbers it will also spit out up to three lines. It will give you a notice telling you the bond is invalid if you cannot cover the fines. If this is the case, either lower the term of the bonds, or the total price (or price per idea).
You will also get a warning if you do not have enough ideas to cover the bond. You may still create the bond if you so desire, but again, it is discouraged.
Lastly, you will see a notice that tells you if the currently available bond prices are above or below what you are creating. You should already know this information if you looked at the industry page.
Issue Bonds: This will submit the bond for issuance. Your bond will go through unless you cannot cover possible fines.
Bond Fines
Bonds have fines associated with them as soon as you set up the bond details. These fines are paid out to the buyer of your bonds should you not have the ideas to cover the bond when it matures and comes to term. Bond fines can be very small, or devastating. So it is always important to do a safety check on your bonds if you are unsure. Bond fine calculations are rather simply to figure out once you know the math behind them. The equation is:
Total Bond Price X (Bond Term + 1)
If you have a bond of 10 Ideas in 60's Music worth a total of B$3.5 Million and set to a Term of zero days, your fine will be:
3.5 Million X (Zero Day Term + 1) = B$3.5 Million
If that same bond has a Term of 12 days, the bond fine becomes significantly higher:
3.5 Million X (12 Day Term + 1) = B$45.5 Million
As you can see, bond fines can get high fast. That was a low amount of ideas at a relatively low profit margin (at the time of this writing). Bond fines can get into the billions, even trillions very easily if you aren't careful.
Bond Expiration
Bonds that remain on the market and unpurchased for 90 days are automatically expired by the system.
Bond Cancellation
Bonds can be canceled individually at any point before their expiration. Click on the [Your Bonds] link in the Members Area in the right sidebar. At the top of the page that comes up is a link that says "_Issue New Bonds_". Clicking it will take you to the same page. The only difference is that you will have to select the industry you wish to create a bond in from the drop down box at the top. There are three ways to cancel bonds on this page:
1. Click "Cancel All Unpurchased Bonds" at the top of the page to cancel every outstanding and unpurchased bond you have issued in every industry.
2. In the Outstanding Totals table, choose an industry that you want to cancel bonds in, and click the "Cancel Unpurchased" link to cancel every unpurchased bond in that particular industry.
3. In the Individual Bonds Issued table, choose a specific bond that you want to cancel, and click the "Cancel Bond" link to cancel only that specific bond.
Buying Bonds
In order to get a good feel for buying bonds, you have to take a look at several factors: current market price, rarity of the ideas you are purchasing, how badly you want the ideas, and possible future earnings (via the market graphs on the respective industry page). Everything except your 'want factor' is included in a breakdown of the Bond Market.
Claiming Bonds
Once you have purchased the bonds you want, you must claim them. Bonds with a zero day term can be claimed immediately, while those with a one day term will have to sit for 24 hours before you can collect the ideas. Claiming your bonds is one of the most important parts of buying them. Leaving a mature bond unclaimed for a long period of time will do nothing but infuriate the person you bought the idea from. This is because until you claim the bond, the ideas sit in the user's portfolio, making it easier for them to accidentally sell them before your bond is claimed.
To do this, look again to the sidebar on the right. Click on [Your Bonds]. Scrolling to the bottom of this page will take you to the area where all bonds you have purchased are currently being held entitled 'Outstanding Totals'. You may claim bonds individually, or click the link that allows you to claim all eligible bonds.
Bonds which have been purchased but not claimed within 30 days will cause the buyer's claim to be forfeit and the bond deleted. Be forewarned of this again: If you buy a bond, and do not claim it within 30 days, the seller keeps both the CASH and the IDEAS.