iTulip Community Credits

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Uh, thanks.

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.

Some of the posters on iTulip strike me as mostly mouth when it comes to their comments on investing, that is the opinion I gather, and I may be wrong. Others who I accept on faith, and I am not a person of faith, make statements that I choose to believe are likely true, and again I may be wrong.

I still believe more is to be learned if individuals are encouraged to use the credits to reflect how they are investing their real money. If the system works out that it will allow me to post how I am invested, I will exactly mimic how my real money is invested, and you can take that to the credit bank.

[Jim Nickerson]

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?

Answer: start them out equally, and with something less than a million credits, unless you have reason to believe most iTuliper have real portfolios of a million or more bonars/dollars. I would bet most don't have a million bonars, but purely conjecture of course.

[zoog]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

If the system works out that it will allow me to post how I am invested, I will exactly mimic how my real money is invested, and you can take that to the credit bank.

Putting your mouth where your money is.

The only problem I see is virtually buying now what you have really purchased previously. Say that in the real world, a few months ago you bought stock ABC at $50. Now said stock is only worth $20. In iTulip-land, you buy that stock at $20. Some time passes, the stock is worth $40. In the real world, you're still in the red, but in the virtual world, you've doubled your money. Hmm.

Perhaps the system is sophisticated enough to allow you to backdate stock options, but unlike a real world CEO, you virtually backdate to reflect your real-world losses.:p

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Putting your mouth where your money is.

The only problem I see is virtually buying now what you have really purchased previously. Say that in the real world, a few months ago you bought stock ABC at $50. Now said stock is only worth $20. In iTulip-land, you buy that stock at $20. Some time passes, the stock is worth $40. In the real world, you're still in the red, but in the virtual world, you've doubled your money. Hmm.

Perhaps the system is sophisticated enough to allow you to backdate stock options, but unlike a real world CEO, you virtually backdate to reflect your real-world losses.:p

First, zoog, you better be careful what you contribute here, as right now I don't see where you are getting "paid" any credits for your opinions.

Secondly, your point seems valid to me, but on the other hand, if I put my portfolio up as it stood Friday, then what is important to me is how it does henceforth. Right now I have some gains and loses, all of which may reverse by next Friday, but if I put the portfolio as it stood Friday, then next week there will be a real result, and I believe that is what will count in actualilty.

To me the considerations of what iTulip seems to be attempting is not about someone winning a contest, but rather dissemination by virtue of "showing what one is holding" of investment philosophy or disposition toward various risks as time goes forth.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

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$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.

Go here to see the current top 50 credits earners. Until we work out the details of how we want to credit various kinds of activity, only you can view the number of credits you have earned. Credits range from over 1,000 to less than 10. Currently, we do not feel that the credits as the currently show up reflect the relative value of members' contributions. We are tempted to simply set everyone's credits to a large arbitrary number and simply use the credits as currency for the Trading service. We welcome your comments.

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: .01 (This means that frequency of posts is as important as length of posts.)

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

With my small mind, I cannot imagine how even a computer system could keep up and actually evaluate all you have suggested above.

To me you seem to be moving in two directions here.

1-A system wherein information is shared about investing in hopefully some manner that approaches reality--the latter is my hope.

2-A system wherein posters get rewards (credits) for contributions to the repartee that takes place on iTulip. I personally don't see any value to this.

Give everyone you choose some credits and if they wish to put up how they invest it, then let us have at it.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

With my small mind, I cannot imagine how even a computer system could keep up and actually evaluate all you have suggested above.

To me you seem to be moving in two directions here.

1-A system wherein information is shared about investing in hopefully some manner that approaches reality--the latter is my hope.

2-A system wherein posters get rewards (credits) for contributions to the repartee that takes place on iTulip. I personally don't see any value to this.

Give everyone you choose some credits and if they wish to put up how they invest it, then let us have at it.

Actually, this is a simplified version of how the system actually works.:cool:

Ok so here's the principle that we've arrived at:

1) Start with a level playing field of 500 points. That's $500,000 in portfolio cash to invest, if you are a subscriber.

2) The value of contributions to the forum is not relative to length but to frequency and how long the member has been around. So we up the reputation factor and make Birthdays a big factor, cut post length value to zero.

3) Credits earned for referrals are upped, too.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Question: Once one uses credits to buy stocks, etc. will the values of the portfolios be displayed in "credits" or "bonars"? Heaven forbid, it will be displayed in "credits." Why not make "credits" equal to "bonars"?

They are displayed both in credits and bonars, er, US$

If I have 500 points as you seem inclined to use, why not do away with the conversion factor and just display that I have 500,000 "whatevers" with the fact being the 500,000 "whatevers" represent the same number of "bonars"?

$500,000 is a nice round number as a cash starting point for the portfolios. You are buying based on actual stock prices, so if we made the ratio of iTulip Community Credits to $US one to one, and you were inclined to buy some goog @ 503.00, you would not even be able to buy one share.

[metalman]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

They are displayed both in credits and bonars, er, US$



$500,000 is a nice round number as a cash starting point for the portfolios. You are buying based on actual stock prices, so if we made the ratio of iTulip Community Credits to $US one to one, and you were inclined to buy some goog @ 503.00, you would not even be able to buy one share.

haha! looks like fred edited jim's post! give that man a day off, fer christ's sake! or he might SNAP like cramer. (hey, jim. there's one for you... SLC as in Snap Like Cramer.)

i bought some gld, natch, for my portfolio. looked at the list but it doesn't show nothing. bug?

http://www.itulip.com/forums/vbtrade...=topportfolios

[Tet]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

haha! looks like fred edited jim's post! give that man a day off, fer christ's sake! or he might SNAP like cramer. (hey, jim. there's one for you... SLC as in Snap Like Cramer.)

i bought some gld, natch, for my portfolio. looked at the list but it doesn't show nothing. bug?

http://www.itulip.com/forums/vbtrade...=topportfolios

RYVLX it's all I'm going to say.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

They are displayed both in credits and bonars, er, US$



$500,000 is a nice round number as a cash starting point for the portfolios. You are buying based on actual stock prices, so if we made the ratio of iTulip Community Credits to $US one to one, and you were inclined to buy some goog @ 503.00, you would not even be able to buy one share.

Hey, Fred it does appear someone screwed with my post. Never saw that before.

Well, make 500 credits 500,000 bonars and list it that way, and if one wants 1 share of goog, then one spends 503bonars. That is truly simple.

[FRED]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Hey, Fred it does appear someone screwed with my post. Never saw that before.

Well, make 500 credits 500,000 bonars and list it that way, and if one wants 1 share of goog, then one spends 503bonars. That is truly simple.

As the admin, I hit "edit" instead of "quote" and accidentally edited your post.

Sorry!

Hey, look! I'm a bonar millionaire! 1,109 credits x 1,000 = $1,109,000 bonars.

[quigleydoor]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

1) Start with a level playing field of 500 points. That's $500,000 in portfolio cash to invest, if you are a subscriber.

I would have a lot of fun with this if you opened it up to freeloaders, but I don't think I'm going to pay for it, or your other services.

[metalman]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

I would have a lot of fun with this if you opened it up to freeloaders, but I don't think I'm going to pay for it, or your other services.

there are plenty of other tools like this on other sites, but where else you gonna compare your portfolio with tet's and sapien's? near as i can tell, they invest 180 degrees opposite each other. i see the value of the tool as the combination of what it is and where it is, but i'd not pay for it on its own. fine as a feature along with other services. i find the interviews the most useful aspect. where's mayer? i want and update! where's the bulldozer?

[Tet]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

RYVLX it's all I'm going to say.

Up 3.6% today and I'd like to take this moment in time to thank Fred for creating this contest the day after one of the larger sell-offs of the year. Our 401K advisor always says you can't time the market, to which I reply it's all about the timing. RYVLX is a OTC fund that pays double on movement, had the NASDAQ been down a percent today RYVLX would have been off 2%. I think everyone should check out RYDEX funds when looking for an investment/bet to place. This one seemed like a very safe bet to place yesterday after Friday's action, not so sure I'd be holding this one tomorrow.

[EJ]

Re: iTulip Community Credits

Up 3.6% today and I'd like to take this moment in time to thank Fred for creating this contest the day after one of the larger sell-offs of the year. Our 401K advisor always says you can't time the market, to which I reply it's all about the timing. RYVLX is a OTC fund that pays double on movement, had the NASDAQ been down a percent today RYVLX would have been off 2%. I think everyone should check out RYDEX funds when looking for an investment/bet to place. This one seemed like a very safe bet to place yesterday after Friday's action, not so sure I'd be holding this one tomorrow.

I used up some credits to purchase a few short funds just before the close today. I don't expect to be in the money tomorrow, but you never know. As I've written before, the best experience I've had buying these short funds is to buy the bounce. The bounce may not be over, but it seems to me that unless the Fed jumps in, I'll earn some serious credits before it does. Of course, if the Fed does jump in while I'm still short, I'll get my ass handed to me. But then my gold stock and ETF positions ought to hedge that somewhat; hard to see how the Fed can drop rates from the current low base with the dollar still poking around 80 and oil still near all-time nominal highs without getting a pop in gold.

This is, of course, not "investing" per se. It is speculating. Then again, in a speculative market, now crashing up and down like a airplane that's lost its tail, all investing is speculative. Most of my money, as I've said before, is in CDs and cash.