A test in economics,

I've had 11,000 $L floating on the market for a little w hile at 323$L / 1$usd rate. I have no rush at all to sell it. Might as well just leave it at the more profitable rate right? Well i also have no motivation to keep it there so want to do an experiment.

Currently there is NO trades at the 330 rate. SO i pull my trade off with a simple cancelation and post it at 330 (the cheapest rate).

FASTER THAN I COULD GET THE FORUMS PAGE TO LOAD

2000$L if it sold.

In the time it took me to click New Thread

3000$L more sold

and as of 'this' instant i just hit refresh again and the whole trade is gone.

376080 Limit Sell L$11,000 L$11,000 L$330 / US$1.00 2006-06-15 09:44:04 2006-06-15 09:45:36 fill US$33.36 US$32.18


Now the previous rate of 323, a 7$L difference seems to be getting a lot of peoples panties up in bunches. Its a huge issue to a lot of people. But if i do the math...

(11,000$L / 323 ) * .965 == 32.86$

Hmm.. my estimate is it would take about 2 more weeks for a market swoop to drop low enough to have filled my order. So for waiting 2 weeks on a volatile market i got instant gratification at the cost of less than 3 quarters.

Fine i'll do without one more bottle of Mt Dew to get my 30$ on instant gratification.

Thank you supply and demand.

It sucks when it's done in large numbers:

$2,000,000 / 330 * .965 = $5848.48US


$2,000,000 / 323 * .965 = $5975.23US


That's $126.75US loss

Even worse, if you count this out during the time that $L dropped from $300 to $330 in a span of about two weeks...

$2,000,000 / 300 * .965 = $6433.33US

That's $584.85US worth of loss

well considering that 5800$ usd will pay all my rent, insurance, utilities, food and clothing for myself and my daughter for 3 months,

Screw that 126$ lol.


If i was pulling in enough $L in here to be posting 2,000,000 over any period of time then the 5800, or even 4000 will mean more to me than caring about that petty loss. I dont see the $L truely stabalizing till it hits 500 $L rate. Any money you make over this rate should be put aside as a 'rainy day' allowance.

The point is a given persons business model should take into account that 200,000 accounts on here are of my mindset. 50,000 accounts are a slight bit more economic minded. Its only th petty few accounts above that that have dillusions of grandeur and are stupid (yes stupid) enough to think they can make a living at a game.

But same way that the odds are against any particular person have a decent chance at making a living here, the odds also state that at least some of these idiots will be lucky enough for their plans to work.

Good luck to them but beware of the people who dont care the slightest bit what the 'market value' is and that just want to cash in their spare cash cheap because its quick. If you're not factoring those people into your business model you are definately in my 'idiot' category. If you are factoring it in, then best of luck that you're one of the lucky few.

You sound angry and I don't understand why. In the first place what you did makes perfect sense. If you are worried about what others think, don't. Your trade didn't upset the market forces in any way and even if it did this a free market and you can do whatever you want. Keep trading in whatever manner makes the most sense to you. Also have a nice day and good luck with your business.

Imagine this scenario that I'm totally making up:

You run a charity inside SL where you collect donations for someone. It gets to be very popular, and you end up collecting about a mil in donations. You go to the charity and say, "Hey, the charity drive was a success, and we're giving you $3 grand! Yay!" Then you go to sell the $L on the market to pull the money out, and suddenly you're getting $2,800. Yeah, I know, stupid for someone to count their chickens before the eggs or however the saying goes (telling them how much before you have the money in your hands) but still...
Or, better yet, imagine Greasy Tony gives you a $3,000 loan, then comes after your kneecaps with a baseball bat because the bill is due, and all you got is $2000

Yeah, I'm not being very serious here..... It still sucks though. Loosing money always does.

Eep! Massive apologies are in order then. I actually posted my comments on this thread when i was in a joyously happy mood. Comments and choice of words were meant to get the point across that I dont think people should stress out over a virtual currency trading less favorably against a real one. They should instead (like myself) just be happy that it has ANY 'potential value' against a real currency.

I treat this environment based on its name. Second Life. not 'Second Job' 'Second Loan' 'Second Morgage' or 'Second Problem'. Just 'life'. What is life? A place to socialize, meet new people and enjoy the company of old friends, to experiment with hobbies and above all ENJOY LIVING.

The sole reason i had left the money on the market to begin with was because I was thinking "argh, not cashing out very soon but hey if i am patient enough to wait i'll give SEVEN FEWER LINDENS per dollar i recieve". Then it hit me. The ratio is over 300. The RATIO of profit increase is pathetic. I hit the friendly old 'calc' button on my keyboard entered the numbers and realized that the Mt Dew bottle i was currently in the act of drinking was worth more. So canceled old order, figured it would be fun to see how long it took to sell and proceeded to do as stated above.

Advice to anyone else there are more people who consider SL a place to HAVE FUN than to EARN A LIVING. To someone like me EVERYTHING is profit. If the $L traded at 700 / $1usd EVERYTHING i pull out would still be profit to me. No matter how low the ratio goes i'm happy. As a matter of fact as the value drops that turns it into a buyers market. More non creators are now able to purchase $L in order to buy my IN WORLD items. and in-world is where the FUN is. That is the only place we have an economy. The lindex is ane xchange service. No matter what value people can cash out at, its the price and availability of items in world that determine if the game is fun.

So if you are A Commonly known land baroness, an art dealer, a "redistributer of free goods" carefully packaged up at a low cost for ease of aquiring (cough cough) or someone designing your own game systems, keep your BILLS in-world based in your REAL WORLD income. Make sure you can pay FOR EVERY SINGLE THING with your money currently budgeted to movies, dvds and other entertainment items. If in the process you earn enough $L to make some $USD profit im happy for you. But take it as a rare blessing and dont expect to support yourself.

Again major apologies if i sounded angry as the situation was truely quite the opposite =-)