Join the new world

Have you ever wanted to make more gold? Do you like or can accept risk?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, then investing in the ERX may be just the right thing for you.

We all work and receive wages. Those wages slowly accumulate and we can convert them to gold if we choose. The process is slow but safe. Similarly we hit milestones in experience, or hard work (getting elected to Congress, super soldier and so on...) and get rewarded with gold. Once again safe, predictable. Those that are patient eventually transform that wealth into companies and if they have chosen the right one in the right market, generate even more gold. Finally there is investing and speculating in the money market. This is a bit riskier, make the wrong move at the wrong time and your money may be worth a lot less.

What all those have in common is that they are sanctioned, governed by strict rules and the potential for abuse is minimal.



The eRepublik Stock Exchange (ER😵 is a slightly different beast. For one thing it is third party developed. For another it is brand new and lacks "maturity" (for want of a better word). What this means is that it is volatile, that it suffers some growing pains and can lead to some frustrations on the part of the users. All of that also translates into opportunity.

The premise is very simple. Commit gold to use in the ERX, pick some stocks and watch them grow (for the speculators) or collect dividends (for the investors).

Can I make gold easily?

Every day there are some stocks that get traded actively and if you bid at the right time, you will come out ahead. As a speculator though you are at the mercy of every other potential investor. Once you hold stock, you will not be able to move it until someone else is willing to purchase it at your price.

Today, for example, there were 31 stocks that got traded and increased in value (from 1.3% to 400😵. So if you were lucky, and possessed that stock that rose 400% and can find a buyer now... you don't need me to tell you that was a winning bid. 33 stocks decreased in value (from -2.1% to -94.1😵 which gives you a good read on your odds, about 50-50.

Speculating is a hard business. Everyone wants to buy low and sell high. The reason why it is particularly hard right now is that everything is brand new. People don't know the value of a regular stock vs. that of a stock that will yield dividends. There is not necessarily a sense, yet, of what everything is really worth.

So why should I use this service?

You could use it because you think it would be fun. The best reason though is that there is in fact a way to make some money. It isn't much but it's steady and guaranteed for as long as those companies operate. The way is to invest in dividend yielding organizations. That means that on a schedule decided upon by the company owners, it may redistribute a portion of their revenues to shareholders. For instance a Latvian company paid out 36.14 gold in dividends yesterday amounting to 0.001129 gold per share.

Why, that is minuscule I hear you say! True, but going the dividend route means you are going to be investing long term. And that is only one example, that are many more that offer substantially better.

Like anything related to wealth in the New World, it pays to do your homework.

I will share my personal experience with you. I invested an initial 40 gold when the ERX opened. After the first day, my portfolio was worth over 50 gold. My tactic had been to invest in recognizable names from big countries (so I had US and Romanian stocks along with a few other scattered ones). I even invested in un-audited companies.

An audit is a service the ERX offers that means they have verified that a company is indeed worth the amount it states it is. If you invest in un-audited companies, it is buyer beware (it is always buyer beware but you increase your risk that much further).

Now my portfolio shows red pretty much everywhere. If I was to sell everything, I would recoup 30 gold only. Part of the problem is that I didn't research the people running the companies I invested in and I completely ignored the dividends. I was lucky for a few though and managed to sell at par, breaking even and allowing me to re-allocate some funds.

Today I hold more of a dividends yielding portfolio that remains under the value I initially paid but grants me over 1 gold in dividends when those come in. I'm here for the long haul, so even if I were never to sell any of those stocks, I would eventually come into my money. If I was to start over again today, I would be a lot smarter and could make my 40 gold investments go a lot further.

So there is one more option open now to those of you with a sense of adventure and risk. If you get to understand how the ERX works, gold is there for the taking.



I will leave you now with three good starter stocks suggestions:

1. VIP Corporation (VIP).
Why? Since April 4th has paid out 536 gold in dividends. That is 0.0178 gold per share or if you had 100 shares 1.78 gold for two weeks work.

2. smeeph (SMF)
Why? Since April 4th as well, 410 gold in dividends which is 0.0041 gold per share. Announced payment this Sunday of 345 gold!

3. t'jelle Bank (TJ😎
Why? Organization valued at over 17,604 gold. They are extremely expensive stocks but have dropped in value recently. Paid out 500 gold in dividends on April 12th.