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After rediscovering the paper that taught me how to use the Monetary Market all those months ago, I've decided to write this article (based on the content of that one). It was my aspiration of minister of Finance to publish this guide and begin transferring the workings of the Financial sector of the economy to the private sphere, but I subsequently resigned and now I'm here.

You see, the monetary market is a key to prosperity. Yes, one is not actually making goods in return for money - but the user of the MM is providing a vital service.

The actual effects of this use are widespread and run deep, but basically it keeps the money moving. Businesses, Industry, Economies as a whole work far better if money can be 'invested', 'reinvested' or 'returned' and currencies across the eGlobe can remain at their true value.

This is why it is important to be a user of the Monetary Market, whether one is buying, selling or both.
This is why I've made this guide.

Below, I'll explore the basic concepts on money making.

Basics (or general speculation)

Speculating, in eRepublik, denotes the action of using an imbalance between currency and gold to make a profit. Those two terms are extremely important and will discussed below, along with

Currency, simply, is the scale each nation uses to measure and value money used in that nation's marketplaces. It will have a different name in each different nation (and thereby different marketplace).

Gold is the international scale against which all currencies are measured.

To be able to trade in a foreign currency, you need to open an account in that currency. The easiest way to do that is to display all offers selling said currency for gold and buy 0.01 of the local currency, or to buy any amount in conjunction with a trading project.

Last, when your offer is bought, either completely or partially, you will receive an alert indicating how much you sold and how much it was bought for. It's often reckoned to be a good idea to log these alerts for future reference in accounting.

In these next sections I'll discuss the ways in which users speculate.

-Scalping



Scalping is the safest and most widespread method. It is most used in a market where the currency stays roughly at the same price (usually the countries with the densest populations) .
It is basically the action of selling gold for currency then selling that currency for gold with a profit.

For instance if you had 5 gold, you would put up an offer of 5 gold, 1gold = 53 ATS (selling gold, buying ATS).

As soon as the offer is purchased, you would then sell it back. For instance, if your 5 gold were sold for 5x53 = 265 ATS, you would post the following offer: 265 ATS, 1ATS = 0.02gold (selling ATS, buying gold).

That offer would then sell for 265*0.02 = 5.3 gold, or a profit of 0.3 gold.

The idea is to sell whatever currency you've bought straight away, so that you've got a selling cycle going.

Always calculate how much you would get back in the end (how much return you will receive), and only scalp in a stable currency.

-'going long'


When you go long, you buy a certain currency, usually a local currency (not gold) with the intent to sell it back at a higher price later. For instance, if the LVL is selling at 1LVL = 0.006gold, and you buy 100LVL, for 0.6 gold.

And then the LVL goes up to 1LVL = 0.007gold, you can sell your 100LVL for 0.7gold by placing this offer : 100LVL, 1LVL = 0.007gold (selling LVL, buying gold)

Always calculate how much you would get back in the end, and only go long in a rising or at least not shrinking currency.

- short selling


Short Selling is typically done with a loan but it can be done without. You short sell when you sell some currency and expect it's price to fall so you can buy back the currency cheaper, and therefore in a larger amount. Let's take an example.

Say gold is selling for 1gold = 45 AUD and 1AUD = 0.024gold. You know that speculators are going to come swarming in, lowering the price of gold to around 1gold = 42-43AUD. If you manage to sell 2 gold at 1gold = 45AUD by placing the following offer: 2gold, 1gold = 45AUD (selling gold, buying AUD), you will buy 45 x 2 = 90AUD. Once the price of gold has dropped to 1gold = 43AUD, you can buy 90 / 43 = 2.09gold.

This one, however, is only really usable in short term spans. In that time, still, it tends to be fairly safe.