Stock Market & Shares
Industries can go public and sell shares to other players. Buying shares is the only way into the industrial economy without owning a lot and without holding a degree — and for the owner, it is capital with no interest that does not consume your single loan slot.
Find it under Finance → Stock Market (the former Bank & Loans tab — banking itself is unchanged and still opens first). Owners manage listing from Corporate → Stock Market, at the foot of the company page.
Who can list
- Only the 36 industries across the 8 supply chains. Shops, professional studios and Private Banks cannot — a bank holds other players' insurance reserves and backs their loans.
- The company must be worth at least $10,000 and have worked at least one shift.
- A one-off Stock Listing Fee ($5,000 default, law-adjustable $0–$10,000) goes to the treasury of the nation where the company sits.
How the price works
- A company is worth its cash plus its stock valued at cost. The lot is not counted: the land belongs to the player, not to the business.
- That value is divided by the shares that actually belong to someone. Unsold shares belong to nobody and are not counted.
- Buying and selling does not move the price. It moves only when the company itself earns or loses.
Example: a farm holding $80,000 cash and 200 Wheat bought at $110 is worth $102,000. The owner keeps 510 shares and offers 490, so each share is $102,000 ÷ 510 = $200. An investor buys 100 shares; the $20,000 goes into the company's account, and the price is still $200.
Two places to trade
- The company desk — you buy unsold shares from the business itself and your money becomes its working capital; sell them back and it pays you from its own cash. The desk can run dry: a company that spent its cash on raw materials is worth the same but has nothing to pay you with. Every listing shows how many shares it can buy back today.
- The player board — players sell to each other at their own asking price. The company's cash is not involved, so the board still works when the desk is empty. Prices drift above the company's value when its shares are sold out, and below it when the company is short of cash. Board prices never move the quoted price, and asking prices are capped between a quarter and four times it. Listed shares are frozen until sold or withdrawn, and offers expire after 2 years.
What you earn
- Your shares gain value as the company accumulates cash and stock — and lose it the same way.
- When the owner of a listed company takes money out, it is split between every shareholder in proportion to their shares, the owner included, taxed exactly like an ordinary company withdrawal. Payouts are not scheduled: they happen when the owner chooses.
- Every listing shows that company's payout record — how many times it has paid, the total, and the amount per share last time. Check it before you buy.
- A Share Commission (2% default, law-adjustable 1–5%) is charged on every buy and every sell. Parliament cannot set it below 1%: at zero, buying and instantly reselling would be free.
Limits and protections
- Every listed company has exactly 1,000 shares.
- The owner keeps a locked 51% — no hostile takeover is possible.
- One outside investor may hold at most 150 shares of a single company.
- A listed company must always keep 2 wages in reserve, and cannot be closed until it has bought back every outside share.
- If the owner loses the lot, dies without an heir or leaves the game, the company is removed from the exchange and shareholders are settled from whatever cash it has.
Nations
You trade on the exchange of the nation you are currently in, like land and goods. Shares you already own stay in your portfolio wherever you travel, and payouts reach you in any nation — you simply have to be in the right country to buy or sell them.