Day Traders Killing Gaming Market*

Economics professor Frank Von Wilhelm III explains that such gross fluctuations in the market are terribly erroneous, and are being exploited by day trading investors at the expense of video game consumers. Online gaming is being monitored by the stock exchange and used to value a company’s worth. The more online activity, the higher the stock rises, and vice versa. Although the rise is only marginally incremental, large investments can return huge profits. Wilhelm III says a company’s stocks should be determined by assets, earnings, and forecasts, not by activity such as online play.

“Let’s say that a company’s stock is trading at $25 a share during the afternoon,” explains Wilhelm III. “After kids get home from school and finish dinner, they start playing online. The stock rises to $25.05 by 8:00 PM. That’s only a nickel. It may not seem like much, but if you purchased twenty-five million dollars worth of the stock in the afternoon, you would be fifty thousand dollars richer in a few short hours. That’s a pretty good day’s work, no?”

Wilhelm III goes on to explain how this online valuing is dangerous to consumers. “The day traders are raiding the profits of these game companies, and that results in higher costs for games. Not to mention lower production values and less development time. Dividends are not being paid to long-term investors, and the compounding profit loss statements of each quarter virtually prohibit loans, reinvestments, or bailout packages should the company require financial assistance in the future.”

Former Cheat CC CEO Arty Hackery was asked his opinion, and of his experience with the stock market during his fifteen-year term with the successful gaming site Cheat Code Central. “Personally, I find all this talk of finance boring,” Hackery yawns. “Words like ‘corporations,’ ‘year-end,’ ‘inventory,’ ‘P/E ratios,’ and ‘fiscal’ really make me sick. And I don’t know what they mean. Those things just aren’t fun.”

Hackory continued, “Isn’t ‘Day Trader’ a Beatles song? And wasn’t there an old black and white series called The Little Fiscals ? We never had to worry about stuff like that at Cheat Code Central when I was in charge. If you wanted some money, you went out and earned it like everyone else—by painting a house, pumping gas, or retailing haberdashery, another word I don’t know. Then you came back and did your reviews or comedy bits or whatever people did here. If there was any day trading or stock car marketing going on here, I certainly didn’t know about it.”

Len Wetherton IV of the World Stock Exchange says he will look into the way gaming companies are monitored and valued. Until such time he warns potential investors not to purchase stock during daylight hours, and advises the Cheat CC editor to remove the two paragraphs featuring Arty Hackery.