Saturday, December 15, 2007

Happy Holidays Everyone! Merry Chrstimas, Happy New Year!

There's not much to say about the market this part of the year as it tends to get slow and sluggish as not to many people bother with their investments or tracking the market around the holidays.. at least, I don't. However, there's a lot to be said about the WSE which continues to generate controversy about the numbers that it posts concerning its own data and competitive stature.

As Aldon Hyne has so clearly pointed out, there's little chance that WSE now contains over 90% of the market volume. There's just too much trading on the other exchanges. I am concerned that the Dreamland Stock Exchange(DSE) may no longer be a valid investing exchange for Second Life. If they cannot get their PED to Linden transfer tool working once again, then there would be no way to buy some of the companies listed on their exchange or to convert PED investments into credit that would be usable in the Second Life world. Contacts with Support ACS of Anshe Chung Studios and the Dreamland Estate have resulted in consistent apologies for the lack of functionality and a promise for a return to normalcy as soon as can be provided. I have no choice but to wait patiently to see if the matter resolves, but hopefully they've learned from this and it's one more vulnerability they need not worry about being subject to in the future. I hope they're being honest with me, because I don't think Anshe could afford verifiable bad press concerning in game business ethics but would reap bounty from verifiable good will and solid business practices. The Support ACS personnel were even kind enough to offer to contact me soon as they know the converter was functional once more.

Intlibber's BNTF also continues to have me concerned. Their atms are consistently off and their web page is now employee access only. It's a very disappointing situation as I thought they would be able to maintain a far more stable interface for their clients given the size of their other operations. I mean, if we cannot trust BNTF, how do we trust ACE? They're owned and operated by the same person. I'm willing to be patient, but the question is, how patient must a depositor be for reliable account access. This is not the first time the bank and exchange combination above has had "interface problems." Sorry I'm so critical, Intlibber, my old friend; but I have to keep to the observance of the truth of the matter and truth is that this pattern is very worrisome to anyone who has funds in your institutions. Feel free to say something in comments about whatever progress or plans you have to remedy the situation to your defense if you like. Their web page is still down as of the posting of this blog, I will be checking their atms again later today. At this point, I have no intention of withdrawing from either institution; I am simply on edge.

I am hoping the holidays will start an influx of funds into the markets of Second Life and that part of those funds may see their way to the exchanges. The economy of Second Life is, after all, simply a derivative of the extra spending money of all the people who use it around the globe. Most users are probably from North America and the U.S. So it leaves hope for a slight boom of profitability.

Congratulations to CAPEX on exceeding the other exchanges in Market Volume dominance according to independently observed measures. Let us hope all exchanges continue to see growth, strength, and a continuing push towards good will towards investors.

Note to self, Login before you blog:

[12:14] Nancy ACS: (Saved Fri Dec 14 21:31:45 2007) Hello:)
[12:14] Nancy ACS: (Saved Fri Dec 14 21:54:26 2007) You can transfer PED into L$ in our website now
[12:14] Nancy ACS: (Saved Fri Dec 14 21:54:27 2007) :-)

DSE on the ball. Go Anshe? I feel so wierd saying that.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,
It seems that most people misunderstood the 95% WSE market share. It was measured by the amount of accounts(about 26,600, in the WSE's case), not by L$ volume nor by WIC$ volume.

Regards and happy holiays,

MouzurX

Maelstrom said...

Still makes me wonder the # of accounts that are active versus the ones reported.

You also have to account for how many accounts were generated when Ginko Defaulted and instantly fabricated bonds for all its depositers.

Anonymous said...

It seems as if the number of accounts is one of the least interesting ways of measuring market share. If most of the accounts are inactive, they don't really matter. So, a better understanding of the true market dynamics is the L$ volume, which is what my analysis was based on.

Another interesting statistic, that I think would be even more valuable is the net inflow of L$ into the exchanges. Most of them are pretty tight lipped about that number, but it is, in my book, almost as important as the L$ traded.

Maelstrom said...

Probably a good thing they're tight lipped though, the flow of capital tends to be a very critical subject that can literally sway the markets if investors come to knowledge of which way the money is going. That's one of the things that should be come to with self determinations and kept to ones self privately otherwise you end up accidentally breaking banks and institutions by causing runs. This market is so excessively fickle. One rumor rules the world.

Ian Bakewell said...

Mael,

How did you find the DSE's contact information? There is no support link I could find.

I went to go check my port there a few weeks ago, only to find my account was not able to be accesed. I get a message saying "please contact support" yet cant find a support list.

Probably mad at me for using them as a currencey exchange. putting $ into sl then into L$ to the dse, into ped, then into ent and back again. :P in my defence I did it before they said they didnt allow it (dumb on their part, they could make nice loot taxing those transactions)

anyhows, lemme know how to get in touch with someone there please.

Dimitri


---------------
Ian Bakewell
Work From Home Tipster.

Maelstrom said...

Dimitri: About your inquiry. I assumed that Anshe's standard dreamland customer service which is also located in dreamland would potentially cover the exchange and inquired with them. The most direct and effective responses I've gotten concerning inquiries into their system were directed to Support ACS or ACS Support. One of those two is the account name, forget which, but you can tell by profile and I believe the other avatar name does not yet exist. I found them surprisingly and appreciatively responsive for such a young operation. I guess Anshe has wisely integrated her customer service staff into exchange staff.