A Securities Dealer Simulator

Authors

  • Geoffrey Churchill

Abstract

"Business games have traditionally exploited the firm’s interface with product markets; in fact many of the pioneering games [2, 3] were explicitly or de facto marketing games. More recently some interest has shifted to financial markets, and we have seen the development both of investment games {5} and of general or special purpose games which incorporate some aspects of financial markets [1,4]. In using games which generate stock prices for the competing firms, the author has observed considerable player interest in stock price comparisons (sometimes beyond that which could be justified by the quality of the stock price model) and even the occasional development of an informal market. Invariably, though, the rigors of bookkeeping would cause the collapse of this market before the end of the term. Given the assumption that student interest is a resource generally worth exploiting, a preliminary attempt was made at computerizing the bookkeeping for such a market. Eventually a program set evolved which has proven satisfactory in use. Experience with the simulator has generated some interesting research questions which have not up to now been tackled due to the small student volume accessible to the course in which it has been used. Some of these are: 1. What correspondence exists between success in game management and success in portfolio management? 2. Does the opportunity to invest alter decision-making behavior in the game? 3. What personality characteristics or group interactions affect the propensity to invest in one’s own firm? "

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Published

1977-03-13