The Beginner's Guide To The Neopian Stock Market

The stock market is a wonderful tool for Neopians who get bored of playing the same games every day and cannot restock to save their lives. “But what exactly is the stock market?” You may be asking. Really, it’s a virtual version of the real life stock market, only a little smaller in scale and much more fun, in my opinion. What happens is, you invest in, or buy, some shares of a company at a low point, and then sell off those shares when the company’s profit margin gets higher.

Now, when first starting off, you will need some NP. All it really takes is 15-16k, but if you’re real serious about playing, about 250k-300k is good. Since the maximum you can invest every day is one thousand shares, I would advise you to buy one thousand shares every day when a stock is at fifteen or sixteen, allowing you for maximum profits.

When I say every day, I mean every day. Stocks update every half hour (30 minutes). This may not mean much to you, but it certainly does if you’re looking to make a profit. For one thing, what if no stocks are at fifteen or sixteen, but you have about five at fourteen? Well, come back in a half an hour or more and maybe two of those have raised to your buy range. Same goes for selling. See a stock that’s +9 and on its way to your sell point? Keep refreshing every thirty minutes and, maybe after a few hours, you’ll have a nice bundle of NP in your hands.

I realize not everyone can be on Neopets all day long to refresh every half hour, but anytime you can check in, it’d be good to go and refresh your portfolio for the reasons listed above.

As you keep going, you may notice some of your stocks start to rise. It’s not only good that you are keeping an eye out for these kinds of things; this means you’re getting closer to a sale!

Now we’ll get into the whole idea of a sell point. Basically, a sell point is no more than the number at which you wish to sell your stocks at. If you like selling at a random number like 53, then go ahead! My number one rule for selling is this: When you sell, make sure your return is enough to finance another stock purchase. Meaning, if you buy at fifteen, and decide to sell at twenty-five, after deducting the cost of buying the stock (15k) you’re only left with 10k. So, in other words, you got a nice 10k profit, but what can you do with it? You’ll still have to reach into the bank to get that extra 5/6k to finance another purchase.

“But wait, when will I know when it’s time to sell?” you ask? Below are listed some of the more common sell points:

Selling at 35:

Bought at 15: Maximum profits of 20k.

Bought at 16: Maximum profits of 19k.

I would advise selling at 35 when you’re just starting out. Doing this allows you to build up a ‘self supporting’ portfolio. Meaning once your startup money has run out, you should be making enough money from your stocks to support your buying more stocks. Long story short: Selling at 35 ensures you won’t have to play games to nab that 15-16k a day once your startup money withers.

Selling at 45:

Bought at 15: Maximum profits of 30k.

Bought at 16: Maximum profits of 29k.

This sell point is slightly different than the last one, but only slightly. It gives an average of 10k more NP than the 35 sell point, which means you’ll be making a slight bit more profit that won’t necessarily go back into your stocks, but that’s only if you sell enough of that stock. I would only recommend this sell point if you have enough NP to keep investing that you don’t really need to sell at 35, or if you’re not yet ready to get to the higher sell points yet.

Selling at 60:

Bought at 15: Maximum profits of 45k.

Bought at 16: Maximum profits of 44k.

This is my sell point. I love selling at sixty. It’s a nice big round number that’s worth the wait. However, you have to have a lot of patience for this one. The only reason I can think of that you would want to sell at sixty is if you’ve made a killing off of selling and have a nice amount of NP stashed in the bank and can afford to wait that long.

Selling at 100:

Bought at 15: Maximum profits of 85k.

Bought at 17: Maximum profits of 84k.

Believe it or not, some do actually have this as a sell point. I don’t know any of them, but I’ve heard of it, so there have to be some people out there. Personally, I would never consider this as a sell point, as I’ve only ever seen a handful of stocks hit that number, but, If you’re that patient and have that much NP, then by all means. Just remember that the one hundred sell mark is for advanced players only.

Some stocks that I have in my portfolio have been there since the beginning, never hitting my magic number of sixty. If you find you have a large quantity of stocks that take forever, or seem to never rise to your sell point, you can either keep with the ‘patience is a virtue’ stance, or lower your sell point. Deciding which to do depends a lot on how much NP you have in the bank.

Now, onto another point of the stock market: DIVERSIFY!!!! I can’t say this enough. Do this especially when you’re first starting out. Instead of investing 200k into one stock only, spread that out amongst twelve or thirteen different ones. Imagine this: You’ve invested 200k into BOTT, and then it goes boom and goes bankrupt, meaning the company is no longer making any profits and is basically dead, what then? You’ve lost 200k and have nothing left to invest. Well, if you put that 200k into twelve unique stocks, you would have only lost roughly 15-16k, still leaving plenty of NP in your stocks.

As a side note, only eight stocks have gone bankrupt in the history of the stock market. Though bankruptcy doesn’t happen often, that’s no reason to hoard on one stock, so keep that in the back of your head when deciding which to purchase.

There are many different ways of playing the stock market, but this is just a beginner’s guide. And in case you’re wondering what my qualifications are for writing this guide are, I have been playing the stock market as my only source of income for a year now, and have earned roughly three million NP to date. My portfolio currently consists of 120k shares spread out over thirty-one companies and worth roughly two million NP. So, as you see, my accomplishments aren’t the greatest, as I have heard of portfolios nearly triple mine, but I think it does qualify me to write a guide to help other Neopians such as yourself amass great wealth from only 15k a day and some patience.

In conclusion, remember that, like Neopets as a whole, the Neopian Stock Market is just a game. If you find that the stock market is not for you, then, by all means, don’t play it. However, for those of you who find it an entertaining way to make NP, I’m glad this guide helped you pave the way to success. All you need is a little NP and a little patience. Good luck investing, Neopians!