My name is Nicolo Luminos, and while my Rez Date may show that I am quite young in SL, I have been an observer of SL Financials for a long time. During the months of October-November 2006 I engaged in a comprehensive study of the SL Economy, with a focus on Currency Exchanges and what I believed was the developmental work that was going into the development of the SL Stock Exchanges. I spent a great deal of time in and around the Neifreistadt area (Colonia Nova was still being built), and before it became the CDS. Somewhere between Government and Financials is where my interests lie, in real life and second life. My study came to an end before the MSE or WSE or AVIX were created.
Before anyone asks--I don't remember my alt's name (if I had I would not have started a new one)---I wasn't totally happy with the name, anyways, and am more than happy with the one I have. It is rare in life to have a name pressed upon you that you are completely happy with. Maybe someday I will have time to track my ghost down on the Neifreistadt forum, but I stay busy as many of you know.
I came back again in October, 2008, to look at how things had changed in two years and was quite excited and intrigued by what I found---A very vibrant, in some cases, overwhelmingly active financial market, with many different participants in various industries and 4 trading platforms with distinct differences that give them their own nuances.
I have respect for each of the 4 exchanges, and see developments going on at all of them that make the future look bright. I do not have any reason whatsoever to favor one exchange over another, even if I think in some cases the platforms may appear and/or work better than others, even if only in certain ways.
In real life I am a full-time writer/blogger/freelancer. I had been covering college football and the election throughout the summer (if anyone wonders how you can cover college football in July, you have never lived in the American South), but by late September I was thoroughly exhausted with the election cycle, and I had transitioned to trying to cover niched interests---namely, Pirates and Gunrunners. Recent events show that I was at least on the right track as a rash of Somoli Piracy has turned up in the news in the last week, and only affirms what I was trying to expose all along.
Now, if you don't mind, I am going to cut and paste a few things from my SL blog regarding my journalistic mission statement, which I wrote about a week into my new stint here in SL, as I identified a niche for myself here---financial reporting.
"While many of the fundamentals of a growing and vibrant Financial Market in Second Life are in place, one of the areas that has need is a continuously active and unbiased press."
"At this point the role of "The Press" should be a consolidation of all sources, as well as direct access to CEO's, Company Officials, and Shareholders and Potential Shareholders as per their availability and newsworthiness."
The entire mission statement can be read at the following link, which also covers my (meager) investments in the market, and the rules for interviewing "On-The-Record", "Off-The-Record", and "On Background". http://luminoscity.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-journalistic-mission-statement.html
I am a voracious researcher, undeniably addicted writer, and the massive amount of information, developments, and the pace with which all this takes place in SL is about the only thing I have found as a professional web writer that fits my needs.
In addition to being the Managing Editor of SLReports.net, I also write for SL-Newspaper, and there may be other publications that enlist my services directly or indirectly.
I do not see a conflict of interest in these arrangments, as I strictly adhere to the standards of the other publications I write for, and as a journalist, I am more or less neutral to where things are published as long as they are--and I am compensated for my efforts.
As Managing Editor of SLReports.net it is my absolute goal to return SLReports.net to the forefront of SL financial reporting, indeed, to make it the premier daily news source for Financial Markets and Business News. Success in this regard will spell untold benefits and dividends not only for the shareholders of SLR, but for all active participants in the financial markets. Our other new reporter, Alessandra Narayan, is also dedicated to this cause, and I think between the two of us we will ideally get a very broad and comprehensive view of the events, people, and conditions that make the SL Economy tick.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with all of you in expanding the SL Financial Markets.
Nicolo Luminos
SLReports.net