Celebdaq

Celebdaq is an online game/community/stock exchange run by BBC Choice. The basic set-up is that as a celebdaq trader you trade shares in celebrities. Just as in a real stock exchange values fluctuate according to who’s buying, selling or getting their photo in The Sun. Each trader begins their celebdaq life with an automatic portfolio of “hotly tipped shares”, or £10,000 cool, hard, virtual cash. As demand for a celeb’s shares goes up, so does their price, and gosh how they go up. Any big media event can send a celeb’s worth rocketing, a lack of coverage can send them plummeting to the depths. Dividends are another important part of the celebdaq system, every morning the celebdaq office scours five tabloids and four broadsheets for celeb related news. These industrious wee monkeys then measure the square column inches devoted to each celeb featured in the ‘daq, this process is repeated weekly with two gossip glossies. Dividends are paid out at a rate of x per share, x increases as the column inch-age increases, and is higher for a broadsheet front-page, than an entertainment magazine inside page. A photograph of La Minogue on the front of The Times, for example, is going to earn you a far greater dividend than a couple of Kylie-related inches in the middle of Heat.

The game has been up and running for around eight months now, and has spawned its own virtual millionaires, it’s also had its fair share of dodgy dealers, playing the market like a small, purple banjo. Its even made a select few some real money, once a week a £100 cash prize is awarded to the trader with the highest percentage increase in worth for that week. In a recent development celebdaq will stepping up from the underground with a TV show, soon to be shown on BBC3, it will be presented by business news journalist Patrick O’Connell, apparently an avid celebdaq fan himself. He comments on the role of celebrity in Britain today; “You can't shake a stick in Britain without poking a celebrity in the eye.” And on the role he himself will play as celebdaq presenter, “Shenanigans have already struck the 'daq and already someone's had their fingers in the till. My role is to peer at these people on the Board, prodding them."

All in all celebdaq is great fun to play, a well written site that’s poking fun at the pop culture we’re immersed in today, while giving us an excuse to keep up with the gossip. Go forth and trade my friends, but beware the caveat posted at the bottom of each page,

WARNING: THE VALUE OF SHARES CAN GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP

So you've got an account on Celebdaq and you've bought some shares. But you don't seem to be able to earn anything. The 'About the game' tab on the side leads you to lots of helpful stuff but here's some tips on how to go about the business.

There are basically 2 ways of making money on Celebdaq:

1. Having the value of your stock rise
   This depends on the demand for a particular share at the time, so David Beckham(DVBECK) is VERY popular at the moment and is at £182.58 a share but at this price if it goes up by £1.80, every £1 you have invested is now worth £1.01. It you own shares in Gwen Stefani(GWESTE), currently at £1.01, a rise of £1.80 is huge ~180% increase. Lower value shares are also more sensitive to demand. It doesn't take much to move a low value share price! It isn't how many shares you own in a particular person that matters, it's the % change for that share that matters.
2. End of week dividend payout
   #2 depends on how much a person has been in the papers (which they work out on friday at 6am - when they do the payout) and how many days you've had that share. If you have a share at 6am on a friday and keep it until the next payout, you get the 100% of the money. If you get a share later than that, you only get a proportion of that share based on the proportion of time between payouts that you have owned it. So if you buy a share on Tuesday, you only get ~50%.

Making the most of your money
Now things get complicated! You have to decide how much money you will make in the payout for every £ you have invested. DVBECK might payout £20/share but at £180 your return on investment is only ~20/180 (or 11%). If you have Tim Henman(TIMHE) at £2.80 a payout of £2.50 you get a return of nearly 100%! The trick is deciding which person is low NOW that might payout lots in the future. Buying TIMHE a couple of weeks ago at £1.80 would have led to a return of ~%140 and on top of that you get the usual share price increase.
A riskier tactic is to decide who you think is going to make the most money and ploughing all of your money into those shares. This isn't risky in the way you'd think, since the top payers rarely go DOWN in value, the only thing you stand to lose is positions in the player rankings. The problem comes when a share is delisted! This happens when the 'Board' decides to remove someone on a whim or because that person has died. Not only do you lose those shares but the money that goes with it - it can leave you broke. If you have less than £1, you can't afford to buy any shares to play with. The bonus, if you picked the right person, you will maximise your profits.

My personal stategy is to have a combination of the two factors. On Friday morning, when I first get in and log on, I look at how much money I got and then look that the top 5 'Movers and Losers'. I then think about the week ahead and what's going on. New films and new albums/singles usually mean that the stars involved will suddenly become really interesting to media. Special events like royal birthdays require a little more advanced thought since they get a little more early press coverage to make people aware. Trick is to get in there before other people and let them drive up the price of the shares before you do any of the 'hard' work. Before midday, I've made my choice and picked one person. (Sometimes I get the bull, sometimes it gets me!) For that person I think about how much press coverage they're going to get. Is it going to be more than usual? If so, what sort of payouts are they getting compared to the current price. This is the sticker, I never buy David Beckham because the amount of payout compared to the price of the shares is stupidly low, I'm better off going for something way cheaper with a better proportional payout. If the person doesn't seem like a good idea, I just pick another one and start again.
For certain events such as Wimbledon, I will tend to buy a big name in tennis who will get lots of coverage. (Not necessarily who I think will do well, but who will be talked about most.) I think about 2 or 3 weeks in advance and pick up those shares cheaply and by the time the coverage has peaked, I have had several weeks worth of generous payouts without any of the fuss.

Basically buy early, buy cheap and be brave.

WARNING: THE VALUE OF SHARES CAN GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP