iTulip Community Credits

[FRED]

iTulip Community Credits

What are iTulip Community Credits?

They are units of value backed by the full faith and credit of the iTulip community.

How does the community create its own credit, and how do I earn credits?

The community creates credit by creating value in the community through thoughtful analysis and commentary contributed to the community on our forums.

When members post to the iTulip Forums, we earn credits.

The number of credits earned per thread is multiplied by the thread rating. If you post a thread that the community rates highly, you earn more points than when you post threads that the community either does not rate highly or does not rate at all.

Credits are also multiplied by your reputation. The more you post, the higher your reputation, the more credits you earn per thread and post.

Besides posting to the forums, the other way to earn credits is by referring new members to our community. Each referral is worth 100 points.

For more information on how credits are earned, see "How credits are earned detail" below.

What can I buy with my iTulip Community Credits?

iTulip Select Premium Members can use their credits to purchase shares in public companies, ETFs, index funds, and so on, in their iTulip Community Portfolio using the iTulip Community Trading System. We plan to launch the trading system next week.

Each credit is worth US$1000. Everyone starts of Sunday, August 5, 2007 with 500 credits. So everyone has $500,000 of iTulip "cash" to buy whatever they you want in their iTulip Portfolio. You use your iTulip Portfolio to model how your actual portfolio will behave, but without the risk of actual losses. For example, you may want to stay mostly in cash in your actual portfolio but be more daring in your iTulip Portfolio.

Go here to start to spend your credits to purchase stocks, ETFs, and so on.

Go here to see the current top 50 credits earners.

How credits are earned detail

Induction Credit - Credits awarded when user first joins this usergroup such as by registration, subscription, manually, etc. : 100

Referral Credit: 100

Additive Referral Bonus - For each referral, this amount is multiplied and then added to 1 to make the final multiplier against all other credit awards: 100

Birthday Credit - Credit granted on users' birthdays: 100

New Thread Credit: 20

Rate Thread Credit: 5

Posting Credit - Credits awarded for all posts, except upon creating a new thread: 5

Own Thread Posting Credit - Applied when user posts in a thread which they originally created: 3

Post Size Credit - Credit awarded per character or word in a post, in addition to the Posting Credit: 0 (This means that long posts don't earn any more credits than short ones.)

Poll Create Credit: 10

Poll Vote Credit: 3

Reputation Granting - Credit Awarded to these users when they give others reputation: .01

Positive Reputation - Credit Awarded when these users receive positive reputation: 10

Negative Reputation - Credit Awarded when these users receive negative reputation: -15

Deleted Thread Credit - Credit applied when a user's thread is deleted: -20

Deleted Post Credit - Credit applied when a user's post is deleted. -5

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

So how is it that some who have never posted have more than zero credits?

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

iTulip Community Credits

What are iTulip Community Credits?


Each credit is worth US$100. For example, if you have 370 credits, you have $370,000 of iTulip "cash" to buy whatever you want in your portfolio. You use your iTulip Community Portfolio to model how your actual portfolio will behave, but without the risk of actual losses. For example, you may want to stay mostly in cash in your actual portfolio but be more daring in your iTulip Community Portfolio.

To the me there is potential real value in seeing how anyone invests real money.

To me there is no value in seeing how anyone might "invest" play-money when in actuality there is nothing to be lost.

If how individuals "invest" their credits is to be available for scrutiny by other members, then it would make sense to me that the management encourage individuals to "invest" their credits as it best reflects their real life investments. To me to spend my time looking at how joeschmoe might "invest" play-bonars is a waste of time.

Granted there is no mechanism to insure that individuals actually "invest" their play-bonars as would be indicative of their real-life portfolios, but I am willing to assume more people would be honest than dishonest, where is the gain in such a game from being dishonest?

I think I detected that the question I posed above as the first response to this thread added 10 credits to my account. I dare say that question was not worth a $1000, so it seems your system has taken into account the full and devastating effects of rampant inflation.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

So how is it that some who have never posted have more than zero credits?

They referred someone.

[DemonD]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

You know, the more I do online "asset allocation" and "stock picking" contests the more I'm just so pissed off at myself that i didn't get a business degree from harvard and start my own mutual fund company.

-DemonD, currently with very healthy "imaginary" returns on two very well-respected and well-known online financial news and analysis websites.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

To the me there is potential real value in seeing how anyone invests real money.

iTulip does not plan to become an online brokerage.

To me there is no value in seeing how anyone might "invest" play-money when in actuality there is nothing to be lost.

If iTulip is not a brokerage and so iTulip credit are used instead of real money, how will you ever know if someone else's portfolio in fact reflects their actual portfolio? In any case, it will be up to joeshmoe to decide if he wants his iTulip portfolio to reflect his actual portfolio.

If how individuals "invest" their credits is to be available for scrutiny by other members, then it would make sense to me that the management encourage individuals to "invest" their credits as it best reflects their real life investments. To me to spend my time looking at how joeschmoe might "invest" play-bonars is a waste of time.

You will be able to see is how joe's investments are doing over time.

Granted there is no mechanism to insure that individuals actually "invest" their play-bonars as would be indicative of their real-life portfolios, but I am willing to assume more people would be honest than dishonest, where is the gain in such a game from being dishonest?

Pride.

I think I detected that the question I posed above as the first response to this thread added 10 credits to my account. I dare say that question was not worth a $1000, so it seems your system has taken into account the full and devastating effects of rampant inflation.

Let's see anyone rates the thread a 5, then at least you'll get 50 credits.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

You know, the more I do online "asset allocation" and "stock picking" contests the more I'm just so pissed off at myself that i didn't get a business degree from harvard and start my own mutual fund company.

-DemonD, currently with very healthy "imaginary" returns on two very well-respected and well-known online financial news and analysis websites.

Your experience should give you confidence to put real money to work. That's the idea. Learning with fake money saves boat loads of real money.

[zoog]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

The longer each post, the more credits we earn. Frequent short posts are fine, but the more thought and analysis we put into each thread and post, the more credits we each earn.

I'm not sure I entirely buy into the idea that a longer post is a more valuable post. Some people have a habit of babbling on and on without really saying much of significance. We can hope that a longer post has been carefully thought out and much explanation was needed to convey their thoughts, but this will not always be the case.

I agree with Jim's assessment of investing pretend credits vs real money. With no real-world risk, I'd be inclined towards riskier investments than I would take on in real life. However, the trading system sounds like an interesting idea if you can see what everyone else bought and how their investments have fared.

[DemonD]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Your experience should give you confidence to put real money to work. That's the idea. Learning with fake money saves boat loads of real money.

Yes, I know, and I've used to my advantage several sources of information for investing my own money. To me it's really fun though, and the idea of just doing stocks and bonds and commodities for a living sounds much more fun than my current j o b. The goal is to some day basically have enough assets to build my own mutual fund (I sort of see my portfolio as a self-run mutual fund), but it would just be nice to be there right now. Earlier today I was working in a hospital helping people move around, walk, and restore their ambulatory function after being injured or sick, and while it's rewarding, it's draining and tiring. yet here I am 2 hours after work and all I've done is eaten lunch and read up on financials and contributed, b/c i don't really see this as work.

The one thing I've learned in having watch lists and stock games is this:
PATIENCE.

[DemonD]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

I'm not sure I entirely buy into the idea that a longer post is a more valuable post. Some people have a habit of babbling on and on without really saying much of significance. We can hope that a longer post has been carefully thought out and much explanation was needed to convey their thoughts, but this will not always be the case.

I agree with Jim's assessment of investing pretend credits vs real money. With no real-world risk, I'd be inclined towards riskier investments than I would take on in real life. However, the trading system sounds like an interesting idea if you can see what everyone else bought and how their investments have fared.

Zoog, I just have to say everything you write I keep nodding my head in agreement. Especially the second paragraph, which is why I have no shame in publicly posting opinions on "I'm buying at this level here." You can find some of my posts especially in the 'where the market is headed' thread under the news, but that is my personal style, I love getting into the nitty gritty of "X investment is good at Y level, but it's at Z and I wouldn't go for it until it gets down to Y." Incidentally that's why I'm a big fan of a couple of other website where there is more specific discussions on equities.

I don't want to pimp out any other website (I have no specific relations to any website or company, although I would link an article if I found it pertinent), so if you're interested in seeing what else I look at feel free to PM me and I'll give you the links.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Yes, I know, and I've used to my advantage several sources of information for investing my own money. To me it's really fun though, and the idea of just doing stocks and bonds and commodities for a living sounds much more fun than my current j o b. The goal is to some day basically have enough assets to build my own mutual fund (I sort of see my portfolio as a self-run mutual fund), but it would just be nice to be there right now. Earlier today I was working in a hospital helping people move around, walk, and restore their ambulatory function after being injured or sick, and while it's rewarding, it's draining and tiring. yet here I am 2 hours after work and all I've done is eaten lunch and read up on financials and contributed, b/c i don't really see this as work.

The one thing I've learned in having watch lists and stock games is this:
PATIENCE.

Bingo. That's the iTulip way. Study, do nothing, study, do nothing, study, do nothing, study... MOVE!

[zoog]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Zoog, I just have to say everything you write I keep nodding my head in agreement.

Uh, thanks.

Especially the second paragraph, which is why I have no shame in publicly posting opinions on "I'm buying at this level here." You can find some of my posts especially in the 'where the market is headed' thread under the news, but that is my personal style, I love getting into the nitty gritty of "X investment is good at Y level, but it's at Z and I wouldn't go for it until it gets down to Y." Incidentally that's why I'm a big fan of a couple of other website where there is more specific discussions on equities.

I don't want to pimp out any other website (I have no specific relations to any website or company, although I would link an article if I found it pertinent), so if you're interested in seeing what else I look at feel free to PM me and I'll give you the links.

I'm not so much into the particulars myself (unless it happens to be a specific investment I'm interested in). But I think it would be enlightening in a broad perspective to see what sort of things people here were investing in (even if just virtually). To see, based on what they have learned here at iTulip (and elsewhere), what they think has potential, vs what the market at large seems to be investing in. Various disagreements have popped up in the threads here and there, so I am sure the investment portfolios would diverge accordingly, which itself would offer some clues.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

As you can see, we've made some changes based on everyone's feedback:

Frequency of posts is now just as valued as length of posts.

Question: When we officially launch iTulip Community Credits along with the Trading System, shall we start everyone out at the same level? Is that fair, or do we need to find a fair way to credit all the contributions which have already been made?

[c1ue]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Question: When we officially launch iTulip Community Credits along with the Trading System, shall we start everyone out at the same level? Is that fair, or do we need to find a fair way to credit all the contributions which have already been made?

Thinking too hard.

When you are creating a monetary system - think Fed.

Just do it

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

iTulip does not plan to become an online brokerage.



If iTulip is not a brokerage and so iTulip credit are used instead of real money, how will you ever know if someone else's portfolio in fact reflects their actual portfolio? In any case, it will be up to joeshmoe to decide if he wants his iTulip portfolio to reflect his actual portfolio.



You will be able to see is how joe's investments are doing over time.


Pride.



Let's see anyone rates the thread a 5, then at least you'll get 50 credits.

I believe my point was the management should encourage participants to use their credits as they would use their real bonars, and I noted enforcement of truth is impossible.