TO: Дарел Хадэвей, MD, Deloitte in Caspian Region
RE: Feedback on NSG
Darell (sorry, if Im misspelling you name),
Deloitte, Kazakh Finance Ministry, Samruk and RenCap have collaborated to launch First Kazakhstan National Share Game (the 'game', 'Project') . From various media reports I understand the Project seeks to raise awarness among general public of stock-investing opportunities. The Game's trial mode which is being run now has already revealed a number of deficiences which I hope you and your team will be able to address before the game actually begins. Still, as a registred participant Id like to point to a couple of apparent flaws which game sponsors might have already noted. So sorry if Im telling the obvious
1. MARKET QOUTES. Perhaps the most serious flaw which puts the whole project under the risk. In a trial mode, execution prices were linked to the openning qoutes and were NOT mimicking the real prices intraday. This has prompted users to figure out the most advancing (declining) stocks during one particular day (e.g.
here) and buy (short) them at opening pricing and take profits the next day at the next day's opening prices. IF you are unsure, try it! Im almost certain a handy of TOP 50s relied on that strategy during in a trial mode.
2. INDEFINITE LIST OF INVESTABLE SECURITIES. Certainly this is something you wanna make sure will not create troubles when youll be hanging in prizes to winners who ocassionally bet on stocks which are NOT in your targeted universe. In a trial mode people were allowed to invest in all LSE-traded stocks, sometimes as exotic as the China-focused ETF and a South African miner.
3. SHORTING
Although one cannot short one particular stock indefinetely, a number of stocks in which she (he) can go short is almost unlimited, which is not quite realistic. Shorting limits per se should be tied to a portfolio value, not like "in this stock you can go short for this amount"
4. AMBIGOUS RULES
Generally you should explicitly state if a participant must follow rules or some code while investing even if he/she found an opportunity that neither contradicts nor complies with those rules (if he or she is to qualify for the prize). Obvious example: profiting on stock which is not at all connected to the CIS region.
Recomendation: given diffuculties that you encoutered to date I would suggest that you do not attempt to introduce futures or some other complex instruments into the game.
Please let us also know whether you investigated and have fixed the thing that couple of days ago allowed some users to earn trillions. I think you understand that whenever average user (which the game encourages to get involved) sees unrealitic sums such as this, certainly he gets discouraged. You can judge it from the number of registred users who still have 50Ks in their portfolios. I also think that whenever possible game sponsors should encourage
regular people to take action, invest, bet, research, pick, negotiate etc. I'll be really dissapointed if eventually some professional player goes away with the prize. I believe that things like positive discrimination must be encouraged in this case.
Finally, Im not sure why Deloitte and not RenCap, a professional market player, assumed the leadership on the project. Sure you have some strong expertise in helping companies go public, but Deloitte isn't really a trading house
All the best