US20070085270A1

US20070085270A1 - Stock market board game

Info

Publication number: US20070085270A1
Application number: US11/320,394
Authority: US
Inventors: Keren Gu; Forrest Zhang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-10-18
Filing date: 2005-10-18
Publication date: 2007-04-19

Abstract

A stock market board game comprising a game board having a central stock market pricing display for all the stocks, a plurality of dividend spaces indicating dividend amounts, a plurality of spaces holding quarterly earning cards for each stock along the perimeter of the board, a plurality of tables for the estimated quarterly earnings and for the annual target prices for each stock aligning along the perimeter, a plurality of price marker pegs and share-splitting marker pegs for the pricing display, a yearly marker peg indicating years played, a plurality of quarterly earning cards for each stock, and a plurality of dice utilized to generate random numbers for earning card disclosure and price fluctuations. Play money of various denominations and the stock certificates are used for financial transactions between stock market and players. There are peg holes on the board for the easy and stable placement of marker pegs. The price markers are movable in response to the fluctuation of the prices randomly generated by rolling dice. The highest price for each stock is predetermined by the setup of the share-splitting marker. The sum of earnings on four quarterly earning cards disclosed by rolling dice finally adjusts the stock's annual target price.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to board games and more particularly to a stock market board game that provides all the players with the equal opportunity and the same risks through out the game and methodology to evaluate the stock market prices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many inventions about the stock market board games. But almost all of the prior arts describe a traditional methodology to play a board game, during which each player has a pawn on the board, or each player in turn rolls dice, and therefore winning the game heavily depends on the player's luck, or some random factors, such as the rolls of dice or the draws of cards. Therefore, the games become less exciting and less challenging.
Other prior arts require players to deal with too many stocks, or too many event cards during the play, trying to simulate the real life stock market and real life investment activities which distract player's attentions with a number of unfamiliar financial terminology, but failing to provide a systematic gaming methodology to challenge the players, such as calculating probabilities, estimating possibilities and risks, evaluating the intrinsic values, counting the rival players equities and cash, etc.
The present invention describes a game that eliminates the player's decisive luck factors, provides all the players with the equal chances and the same risks though out the game, and leaves players to make their own decisions to reduce their own risks or take their own chances. Therefore, the player with the best portfolio management skills can always be the winner of the present invention of the game.
Instead of simulating the real life stock market, the present invention is trying to use a simple mathematic model to encompass the major characteristics of the stock market, such as higher P/E with higher risk, and major categories of the stock, such as growth, value and income, so that it is easy to play.
By playing the Game, the players can learn:
a) The fundamentals of the stock, such as growth, value and income categories.
b) The stock market leverage and truth, i.e. the stock with higher growth, higher return on equity goes with higher price/earning ratio and higher price fluctuation, and therefore high risk. And vice versa.
c) How to calculate probabilities and estimate risks for a stock given incoming earning estimates, earning history and the current price.
d) How to identify undervalued stocks and overvalued stocks by calculating their intrinsic values.
e) The skills to manage their portfolios to avoid risks and increase their equities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a stock market board game with the methodology that overcomes the shortcomings of traditional stock market games in which the player's actions are determined by the roll of dice or draw of event cards. Particularly, an important object of the present invention is to provide all the players with equal chances and risks, and to teach players how to learn the portfolio management skills and how to make correct strategic investment decisions in stock market.
Another object is to provide a stock market board game that allows players during the game to be able to easily count the possibilities of the incoming quarterly earnings so as to be able to estimate the risks and opportunities of the stocks regarding to the instant prices, the incoming dividends, the adjusted annual incomes, the growths and the P/E ratios.
Another further object is to provide a stock market board game with a central stock market pricing display, shared by all the stocks, which is easy to lookup by all the players, to mark and adjust prices, simple to play, and economical in cost to manufacture.
Another further object is to provide exciting and challenging family or party entertainment at the same time teaching the fundamentals of stock and portfolio management to children and adults with no or little background in this field.
To this end, the present invention is to provide a stock market board game wherein the object of the game is for the player to have the most money and the greatest stock value when the game ends, or to be the last one to stay in the game, by bidding stock trade with others and by buying out your rivals, all of which will be fully discussed hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the game board in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the central pricing display with the four dividend spaces.
FIG. 3 is a front view and back view of the six earning cards for stock X.
FIG. 4 is a front view and back view of the six earning cards for stock H.
FIG. 5 is a front view and back view of the six earning cards for stock I.
FIG. 6 is a diagram of the price markers for each stock company.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of the share-splitting markers for each stock company.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of the year marker.
FIG. 9 is a diagram of the pair of dice.
FIG. 10 is a diagram of the annual target price tables for each company.
FIG. 11 is a diagram of the quarterly earning estimates tables for each company.
FIG. 12 is a diagram of exemplary stock certificates for each company.
FIG. 13 is a diagram of exemplary play money for the game.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

With regard to reference numerals used, the following numbering is used throughout the drawings and descriptions.

- 10 game board
- 12 pricing display 14 dividend spaces
- 16 quarterly earning card space
- 18 quarterly earning estimates table
- 20 annual target price table
- 22 yearly price chart
- 24 marker peg hole
- 26 price marker
- 28 share-splitting marker
- 30 year marker
- 32 a quarterly earning cards front side
- 32 b quarterly earning cards back side
- 34 a-b dice
- 36 stock certificates
- 38 play money
- 40 rules of the game

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As shown in FIG. 1, the stock market board game comprise a game board 10 with a central stock market pricing display 12, three price markers 26 and three share-splitting markers 28, one for each stock, a year marker 22 indicating years played, eighteen quarterly earning cards 32, six for each stock, and a pair of dice 34 utilized for generating random numbers for price fluctuations. Play money 38 of various denominations and the stock certificates 36 are used for financial transactions between stock market and players.
As shown in FIG. 1, the game board 10 consists of a five-column pricing display 12 divided into a hundred consecutive spaces indicating prices, four dividend spaces 14 on the top of the first, second, fourth and fifth columns of the price spaces indicating dividend amounts in the center of the board, twelve quarterly earning card spaces 16, four for each company, holding twelve quarterly earning cards 32 for the three stocks, aligning along the left, bottom and right perimeters of the board, three quarterly earning estimates tables 18 and three annual target price tables 20 for the three stocks aligning along the top and bottom perimeters of the board. The five columns of pricing display are colored into five different colors, preferably red, peach, yellow, green and blue in the order of from left to right, among which three are the color of stocks. Preferably Red is for company X, yellow for company H, and blue for company I.
The four earning card spaces 16 for company X, preferably bearing the indicia of company X, are on the left perimeter, above which is the annual target price table 20 for company X, and below which is the quarterly earning estimates table 18 for company X. The four earning card spaces 16 for company H, preferably bearing in indicia of company H, are on the bottom perimeter, in the center of which is the quarterly earning estimates table 18 for company H, and the annual target price table 20 for company H is in the center upper perimeter. The four earning card spaces 16 for company I, preferably bearing the indicia of company I, are on the right perimeter, above which is the annual target price table 20 for company I, and below which is the quarterly earning estimates table 18 for company I. These said tables are colored preferably in red for company X, in yellow for company H, in blue for company I.
As shown in FIG. 2, the stock market pricing display 12, divided into a hundred price spaces and shared by three types of stocks, shows the prices from $1 to $100 in the order of from bottom to top and from left to right. The first vertical column of price is from $1 to $20 with a $1 dividend space on the top, the second from $21 to $40 with a $2 dividend space on the top, the third from $41 to $60, the fourth from $61 to $80 with a $5 dividend space on the top, and the fifth from $81 to $100 with a $10 dividend space on the top.
On each price space and each dividend space, there are preferably two marker pegs holes 24 for stable placement of the price marker 26 and share-splitting marker 28. These holes aligning across price spaces and dividend spaces form two tracks as shown in FIG. 1.
On the top of perimeter of the board there are two yearly price charts, forming a six-year timeline, each has three pegs holes 24 for the stable placement of year marker 30 as shown in FIG. 8, which moves at the year-end indicating the year played during the game.
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, the trading prices and splitting prices of each stock are indicated on the central pricing display by the corresponding price markers 26 and the share-splitting markers 28 bearing the same indicia and same colors of the stock company. At the bottom of each marker there is a peg which can fit into the peg holes for the stable placement of the marker on the board. The price marker 26 and the share-splitting marker 28 of each stock stay on the same track, therefore when the moving price marker 26 meets the non-movable share-splitting marker 28, the stock goes to split and the price marker 26 returns to the space labeled with split price. When the price markers 26 increasingly cross over the dividend spaces 14, the stockholders get dividend.
There are preferably three stock companies involved in this board game, preferably using the symbols of X, H, and I. These upper case letters are symmetrical for the easy placement of their quarterly earning cards 32. The back face of the earning cards also labels with the indicia of the companies for easy placement after reshuffling them. Each company is represent by a color and a symbol, preferably white and red for X, gray and yellow for H, and black and blue for I. These colors are identical to the colors of the dice 34 that cause the fluctuation of the prices of the corresponding colored company. There are six quarterly earning cards 32 for each company, four of them, as the earnings of the four quarters, randomly deployed with face down after reshuffled and disclosed during the game. Each quarterly earning card 32 is put back to the same space after disclosure. The price of the company is adjusted into a new price according to the calculation on the annual target price table 20.
As shown in FIG. 11, the quarterly earning estimates tables 18 of each company align on the bottom of the board, show the companies' earning of last year and list the current quarterly earning estimates, which are the six possible outcomes from the quarterly earning cards 32. For the stock company X, last year's earning is $0.50 per share, and the six estimated quarterly earnings, one for each earning card, are $0.10, $0.10, $0.15, $0.15, $0.20 and $0.25, as shown in FIG. 3; for stock company H, last year's earning is $1.00 per share, and the six estimated quarterly earnings, one for each earning card, are $0.25, $0.30, $0.30, $0.35, $0.35 and $0.40, as shown in FIG. 4; for stock company I, last year's earning is $2.00 per share, and the six estimated quarterly earnings, one for each earning card, are $0.50, $0.50, $0.70, $0.70, $0.70 and $0.90, as shown in FIG. 5.
As shown in FIG. 10, the annual target price tables 20 of each company align on the top of the board and show the calculation to the adjusted target prices, which use the formula of Four Quarters Earning times PIE Ratios equals to Annual Target Price. On the annual target price table of company X, it shows the six possible four-quarter earnings as $0.50, $0.55, $0.60, $0.65, $0.70, and $0.75, and respectively the P/E ratios are 2, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, and therefore the target prices are $1, $6, $12, $20, $28, and $38. On the annual target price table of company H, it shows the five possible four-quarter earnings as $1.20, $1.25, $1.30, $1.35, and $1.40, and respectively the P/E ratios are 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40, and therefore the target prices are $24, $31, $39, $47, and $56. On the annual target price table of company I, it shows the four possible four-quarter earnings as $2.40, $2.60, $2.80, and $3.00, and respectively the P/E ratios are 24, 26, 28, and 30, and therefore the target prices are $58, $68, $78, and $90.
As shown in FIG. 9, the pair of dice 34, a black and a gray, is used for the fluctuation of the prices and the disclosure of the quarterly earning cards 32. Each die is rolled and changes the price to the corresponding stock company associated with an identical color, and the sum of the two dice is for the price fluctuation of the third stock company. The numbers on the black dice are 1, 2, 3, −2, −3 and Q, with 1, 2, 3 in green, −2, −3, in red and Q in white. The numbers on the gray dice are 1, 2, 3, −1, −3, and Q, with 1, 2, 3 in green, −1, −3 in red, and Q in black. The Q on the two dices represents the disclosure of the quarterly earning cards 32.
The following table shows the average and maximum daily price gains or losses, and the fluctuations at the various target prices for each stock.

Adjusted Target Average Daily Maximum Daily

Price Fluctuation Fluctuation

Stock X with Average Daily Change $0.50,

Maximum Daily Gain or Loss ± $6.00

$38 1.32% ±15.79%

$28 1.79% ±21.43%

$20 2.50% ±30.00%

$12 4.17% ±50.00%

$6 8.33% ±100.00%

Stock H with Average Daily Change $0.333333,

Maximum Daily Gain or Loss ± $3.00

$56 0.59% ±5.36%

$47 0.71% ±6.38%

$39 0.85% ±7.69%

$31 1.07% ±9.68%

$24 1.39% ±12.50%

Stock I with Average Daily Change $0.166667,

Maximum Daily Gain or Loss ± $3.00

$90 0.19% ±3.33%

$78 0.21% ±3.85%

$68 0.25% ±4.41%

$58 0.29% ±5.17%
The dividends or yields at the various splitting prices are:
a) For stock X: $1 or 5% at price of $20, $2 or 5% at price of $40; and
b) For stock H: $2 or 5% at price of $40, $5 or 6.25% at price of $80; and
c) For stock I: $5 or 6.25% at price of $80, $10 or 10% at price of $100.
As shown in FIG. 12, the stock certificates 36 are for each of three companies represented in the game, which bear indicia of X, H, and I. The amount of stock certificates is one thousand shares and ten thousand shares for each of three companies.
As shown in FIG. 13, the play money 38 includes a plurality of papers bearing indicia representing denominations of money. The denominations of money are of one thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars, fifty thousand dollars, one hundred thousand dollars and five hundred thousand dollars.

THE PREFERRED RULES OF THE GAME

Setting Up the Game:
Step 1: Set stock prices $20 for X, $30 for H and $50 for I.
Step 2: Set splitting prices $40 for X, $60 for H and $100 for I.
Step 3: Set yearly flag to 1.
Step 4: Each player starts with $200K seed money.
Step 5: Shuffle eighteen quarterly earning cards, put four cards face down on the board for each stock, and put the rest six aside undisclosed.
Playing the Game:
Step 1: Start playing at the end of second quarter, i.e. disclosing the first two quarterly earning cards.
Step 2: Roll two dices. If there are one or more “Q”, disclose one quarterly earning card for each “Q” in sequence of I, H, then X. All the third quarterly earning cards must be disclosed prior to disclosing any fourth one.
Step 3: Market is Prior-to-open. First do the Daily Price Adjustment for three stocks. Then do the Annual Price Adjustment for each stock if its fourth quarterly earning card is disclosed.
Step 4: Market is Open-for-sell. Players can ask and sell shares for each stock to the stock market.
Step 5: Market is Open-for-buy. Players can bid and buy shares for each stock from the stock market.
Step 6: Market is Close-for-buyout. Players can buyout the others at this moment. Each player must at any time disclose all the shares he holds, while keeping on hand cash undisclosed to others.
Step 7: Market is Year-end. If all the fourth quarterly earning cards are disclosed, increment yearly flag by 1, reshuffle all the Earning cards, and then repeat from step 1.
Daily Price Adjustment:
Adjust Daily Open Prices for each stock using the numbers on the dices, silver for H, black for I, and the sum of the two for X. Do not adjust prices to the bidding prices, asking prices or the deal prices.
Annual Price Adjustment:
Sum up the four quarters earnings for each stock, then using the formula on the Intrinsic Value Tables of the stock to calculate the target prices, and set the stock price to its target price.
2 To 1 Share Split:
1. The price reduces down by half while it reaches to or above the splitting price.
2. Only when the price is increasing cross over the dividend prices or over the splitting prices, the dividend as shown amount is paid for each share to the stockholders.
3. The players double their shares held for the split stock.
Bid and Buy:
1. A player has to bid when there are two or more players want to buy the same stock on the same day. Players can bid for any shares.
2. First call first serve. If bid at the same time with same price, the one with larger bidding shares counts.
3. The player with the highest offer buys all the bidding shares. The player with second highest offer buys the difference shares, if any, and so on.
For example: Player A bids $10 for 30K shares, Player B bids $11 for 25K shares. If $11 is the highest offer, then Player A buys 5K shares for $10 and Player B buys 25K shares for $11.
4. If there's no bid, player buys the stock with its Daily Open Price.
Ask and Sell:
1. A player has to ask when there are two or more players want to sell the same stock on the same day. Players can ask for any shares.
2. First call first serve. If ask at the same time with same price, the one with asking shares counts.
3. The player with the lowest offer sells all the asking shares. The player with second lowest offer sells the difference shares, if any, and so on.
For example: Player A asks $10 for 5K shares, Player B asks $9 for 4K shares. If $9 is the lowest, then Player A sells 1K shares for $10, and Player B sells 4K shares for $9.
4. If there's no ask, player sells the stock with its Daily Open Price.
Buyout:
1. To buyout the target player, the player must a) not be within the first year of the game; and
b) have at least one more extra share for each stock held by the target player; and
c) have more cash on hand than the target player; and
d) call a buyout while market is closed, first call first serve if two players try to buyout the third;
2. After successful buyout, the player adds one extra share for each stock held by the bought-out player and acquires all the cash on hand of the bought-out player as the buyout bonus.
3. If the player does not have more cash than the target player, the buyout action fails, and the player loses all the cash to the target player as the buyout penalty.
Bankruptcy:
The player is in bankruptcy and therefore out of the game when
a) The player has to buy the shares he bids for but does not have enough cash to complete the purchase and all his cash and shares go to the bank and stock market; or
b) The price of the only stock held by the player drops to $0.
Retire:
The player is retired and therefore out of the game when
a) a player has no stock on hand at market close any time after the first year;
b) being bought-out by others;
Winner:
The player is the winner of the game who is
a) The last one stays in the game, or
b) The one has the largest amount of cash and equities at the end of timeline of the game.
Make New Rules:
The players can make their own rules per their preferences. For example, any following rules can change the playing strategies during the game:
a) Change starting and splitting prices as well as seeds money.
b) Change sequence of purchase and sell, e.g. purchase prior to sell.
c) Change sequence of earning cards disclosure in order of X, H then I.
d) Play without looking up the Intrinsic Value tables by covering the rest of cards on the tables.
e) Create your own formula to calculate the Intrinsic Values.
f) Choose starting point at the beginning of the first quarter, or the second, or the fourth.
g) No bids nor asks, buy with $1 higher than the Open Price, sell $1 lower than the Open Price.
h) Create your own buyout preconditions, buyout bonus and buyout penalty, etc.

Claims

1. A stock market board game comprising:

a) A game board consisting of a central stock market pricing display, shared by all the stocks, divided into a plurality of spaces indicating prices, a plurality of spaces indicating dividend amounts, a plurality of spaces holding quarterly earning cards, a plurality of tables showing all possible quarterly earning estimates and a plurality of tables showing all possible annual earnings and target prices, one for each company, and a timeline indicating the years played;

b) A plurality of quarterly earning cards for each stock;

c) A plurality of price markers, one for each stock;

d) A plurality of share-splitting markers, one for each stock;

e) A plurality of dice for the fluctuations of the stock prices and earning cards disclosure;

f) A year marker indicating the timeline of the game;

g) A plurality of stock certificates; and

h) Play money of various denominations for financial transactions during the game.

2. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which the gaming methodology, which overcomes the shortcomings of traditional stock market games that each player's actions are determined by the roll of die or the draw of event card, provides all the players with equal chances and risks using the stock trading rules explained thereinafter.

3. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which each price space or dividend space on the game board bears a plurality of peg holes for the easy and stable placement of the price marker pegs and share-splitting marker pegs. These peg holes are aligned, across all these price and dividend spaces, so as to form a plurality of tracks, each designated to one or more stocks.

4. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which each share-splitting marker, bearing indicia of the stock, is non-moveable during the game, and its position is predetermined and setup on the designated track of the stock before the game indicating the highest price, or share-splitting price, for the stock.

5. A stock market board game according to claim 4 in which the said predetermined positions of the said share-splitting markers at beginning of the game for each stock also divide the central pricing display into a plurality price ranges, one for each stock.

6. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which each price marker, bearing indicia of the stock, is moveable during the game along the designated track of the stock across the price spaces in central pricing display. When the price marker meets the share-splitting marker, it returns to the space that is labeled with amount equal to the split price.

7. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which a plurality of quarterly earning cards, bearing indicia of the stock companies and amounts as their quarterly earnings, are deployed with face down after reshuffling and disclosed with face up during the game.

8. A stock market board game according to claim 7 in which the said amounts of quarterly earnings for each stock are such selected that it is easy to sum up any four of them and that multiplying each said sum by its corresponding growth derives a set of target prices for the stock, which are within the said price ranges according to claim 5, and therefore allocates such a price range for the stock in the central pricing display that it can share with other stocks price ranges using the same or different tracks.

9. A stock market board game according to claim 7 in which a plurality of earning estimates tables, each bearing indicia for a stock company, display all the possible quarterly earnings shown on the said cards, providing the clues to count possibilities for the incoming quarterly earnings.

10. A stock market board game according to claim 8 in which a plurality of target price tables, each bearing indicia for a stock company, display all the possible said target prices, also known as intrinsic values of the stock, using the formula in claim 8, providing the clues to calculate the risks and opportunities for each stock when valuing the stock instance price.

11. A stock market board game according to claim 10 in which by comparing the instant price of the stock to its possible intrinsic values in the said target price tables each stock can be categorized into the conventional categories, such as growth, value or income.

12. A stock market board game according to claim 10 in which the real market leverage, according to which the stock with higher growth bears higher P/E ratio, higher price fluctuation and therefore higher risk, is reflected during the game.

13. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which the play money includes a plurality of papers bearing indicia representing denominations of money.

14. A stock market board game according to claim 13 in which denominations of play money are one thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars, fifty thousand dollars, one hundred thousand dollars and five hundred thousand dollars.

15. A stock market board game according to claim 1 in which the stock certificates, a plurality of papers or cards, bearing the indicia of the stock companies, are indicated as one thousand shares, five thousand shares and ten thousand shares.