Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions—

Who and How Many May Play This Game?

imple as Monopoly, with many more facets, "Wall Street Up/Down" requires no stock marketing skills; it’s a game for all—student, stockbroker, and homemaker, even for children, when played with adults. Best when played by four, it may be played by up to six players.

What Does the Play of “Wall Street Up/down” Remind You of?

Wall Street Up/down, while played in the style of Monopoly, captures the drama and realism of Wall Street.

What Does the “Street” have to Say About “Wall Street Up/down”?

Johanna Read Dunn, Assistant VP, Communication Division of The New York Stock Exchange —“I, personally, find the game outstanding….”

How is the Game Played?

Like Monopoly, a toss of the dice moves your game piece along the board’s squares. That same toss sends stock and bond prices up or down, sometimes soaring, sometimes plummeting; always seemingly predictable, but therein —like the real stock markets—lies its drama.

The square where your game piece lands determines your play-opportunities. The headlines of the game’s min-newspaper—the “Wall Street News”—sets that round’s “general” direction of stock prices, up or down —but (like the real markets) when stock prices climb, bond prices are more apt to fall.

Like a surfer reads the waves, you win at this game of daring, intuitiveness and strategy, by reading the market’s clues and riding the crests of the market’s seven moods.

What is the Game’s General Play Environment?

With amazing realism—heightened by the on-board appearance of the NY Stock Exchange’s leading blue-chip corporations—“Wall Street Up/down” simulates all the drama and dynamics of Wall Street. You trade stocks and bonds on animated "up/down" markets; as a Money Baron, you play it close to the vest taking profits on shrewd investments, or as a Market Barracuda, you gamble it all on highflying hot tips; you seize windfall profits on stock tender offers; wheel and deal in high leverage takeovers, pirating other players’ stock, but you are always wary of the pitfalls—an adverse government agency rulings, spiking interest rates, and an ever lurking Bankruptcy Court.

The game’s authenticity is heightened further by inciting and insightful social-economic news headlines of the Wall Street News, that stir the sleeping bears, roust the red-eyed bulls, setting off waves of up or down stock price gyrations that trigger the market pundits and gurus—you and the other players— into action and reaction, buying and selling.

How Does “Wall Street up/down” Maintain the Realism of “Market” Unpredictability?

Wall Street News headline having set the direction and momentum of stock price movement for that round’s play, you would think it is just a matter of buying or selling stock and/or bonds and riding that round’s price trend. But “Wall Street up/down” is a multi-faceted game, for built into the play of this game is a market correction feature that makes no market trend 100% predictable. If you are a market player, you know: even when news is rosy (or dreadful), the market is subject to reversals called "corrections." "Wall Street up/down" has captured and incorporated the essence of this "market correction" concept by the use of a unique market-trend reversing feature.

This unique feature, together with subtle clues, the player’s daring and moral turpitude, all factor into the strategy of the fleeting moment. And each new round brings new headlines, clues, challenges, opportunities and new pitfalls

It is this multifaceted interplay that gives this game—like no other—that true-to-life fever and adrenalin rush. You are there, on the “Street” tuned to its indigenous beat, plunking down dollars, earned and borrowed, wheeling and dealing, winning and losing.

Do Interest Rates Really Fluctuate in This Game?

Important to the play of "Wall Street up/down" is its rewards and risks in credit financing. This feature adds more than the elements of daring, and suspense to the game’s play, it also teaches the risks of high leveraged financing. In the game, interest rates charged on borrowed funds “generally” rise and fall with stock prices. This result is obtained by combining general economic concepts, which factor down to: Fast rising stock prices tend to inflate, and inflated stock prices generally inflate interest rates.

Why In This Game, Does Bond Price Move Generally Contrary to Stock Prices?

The game’s buy/sell opportunities are enhanced by contrasting the price movement of bonds to the price moment of stocks. In the game, bond prices, as a “general” rule, tend to move contrary to interest rates and stock prices. This feature is founded in the merging of several psychological-social-economics principles: the flow of funds between markets, inflated stock prices and the principles of safe haven.

Is “Wall Street up/down” Educational?

It educates by demonstrating. In a fun way, market concepts, simplified and self-explaining , and market jargon are introduced to the game's players. "Wall Street up/down” is a must for every school and home in the 21^st century, an invaluable tool in teaching the fundamentals of the securities industry. It touches every market concept, even introduces the player to the basics of option play and “selling short”.

Is There an Advanced Version of Wall Street up/down?

Yes. "Wall Street up/down” does have an advance version. This advanced game—“THE 70s CLASSIC”—plays at three levels and features three animated markets—New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and the OVER-THE-COUNTER MARKET (NASDAQ); all three markets moving in sync, yet the game encapsulates the unique individuality of movement of each of these market’s. In addition to synchronized interplay of markets, the advanced game offers fully authentic "selling short" and "option play". When this advanced game has all concepts playing, it is wild. The advanced game is not for everyone. If your persona is “crisis”—can t sit still, watch three television shows simultaneously, etc., etc., and you have three friends just as hyper, then the advanced game is your cup of tea. Yes! Its advanced features will soon be made available as additions to the basic games.

What Can I Expect as to Quality of Play and Quality of Construction of “Wall Street up/down?

Like Monopoly, all versions of “Wall Street up/down” are novelty fun games steeped in the suspense and surprise that, at every turn, challenges each player’s daring and wit. A finely tooled educational game, “Wall Street up/down” has been warmly received and accepted in the homes of those who have purchased and played it over these past years. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said “Wall Street up/down” plays as well as or better than Monopoly.

In construction and finish, it is of the highest quality of workmanship and material.

Does “Wall Street up/down” Offer Guidance to Young Players?

Those players who engages in wild unplanned speculation, recklessly overlay themselves with debt, are ruthless and opportunistic, evince moral turpitudes—these overzealous players quickly learns of the policemen of the investment industry: the bite of "Government Agency Rulings", price paid at the "Bankruptcy Court" and the financial sting of the retributions of the other players' .

Is There More to This Game?

Yes! Each square you land on plays its own mini-game! To discover more click on our yellow brick road below.