Some tips offered by gbentley concerning playing the TT stock market
Be wise with thy first money and ye shall prosper with much haste. Leverage greatly using thy overdraft allowed. Sow seeds into three-quarters of companies formed anew to reap a great financial harvest. The bank manager and several peasants did rejoice.
To make a large profit without running any vehicles or buying any property whatsoever - invest in a start-up business. As soon as a competitor forms a new company, pause the game, view their home base and see if they've started to build anything. You can then decide if you should buy or wait...
If it's a train, and it's not physically possible for them to connect their track together (or you just don't want them to) - do not invest at all.
If you do want them to make a new route, then wait until the track is complete before you invest (ideally before they purchase their first train). Their stock prices will go down as they build new track, saving you a few thousand in the process.
If it's a bus/truck depot they've started with, then invest right away. Same goes for airports - even if it's in a really open, badly chosen space.
The value of the plane itself will make the company shares go up. Just be careful that the player doesn't solely rely on planes for income (allow them to build railway lines - even if they're next to your routes).
If they are stuck with only planes and you think they aren't going to buy anything else, then cut your losses and sell right away.
Be warned however that I've had a game where the computer only bought one plane and soon was reported to be going bankrupt. I thought that was it so I immediately sold my shares, only for the computer to buy lots of trains.
This raised the overall company value by hundreds of thousands (which turned into over a million after a few years) which should have gone in my bank account.
It's a risky game playing the stocks, but in Transport Tycoon, you can be 95% certain of making a hefty amount each time you use this method.
When you do buy, buy 75% (or as much as you can afford). Buying 100% (total take-over) straight away occasionally makes the game crash for some reason, although if you wait a couple of months you can buy the remaining 25% without any problem.
After your investment, monitor competitor spending patterns approximately half-yearly. Find out what new things they're buying and try to judge (by landscape detail and subsidies) if and where they may build more.
The decision when to sell is yours, but there's usually only 3 situations where you'll need to do this:
1. When you desperately need the cash to build and you have used up all of your loan.
2. When computer has made such a mess that they're going to be bankrupt soon. (I don't know if you lose your investment when it crumbles - not tested that.
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3. You need the cash to invest in yet *another* new start-up. Even selling 25% from a 2 year old investment can sometimes enable you to buy 75% of a new one (usually about £75,000).
It's those first years that really count and you can stacks of money using this method alone.
So keep your investment as long as possible - never sell.
It makes life so much easier later on when you become annoyed by their property and vehicles. Simply buy your remaining 25% for a bargain cost.
Let the computer build all the fiddly bus and lorry routes while you concentrate on the bigger money. If you're not happy taking on bus/truck routes then just sell them right away. Remove all old collection bays too or it will affect your overall profit margins when you look at your graph statistics.
Remember that a total buy-out means you also take on all profits and debts, with the added advantage of not having to do any hard work. Pay off the debts when you can as it eats into your profit margins. Full buy-outs do take a lot of time as you always have to iron out the bad AI-routes the computer has made. Make sure you adjust their railway tracks and roads afterwards and remove competing routes to your previous network.
Thanks, gbentley.
I have never really played the stock market, apart from occasionally buying out a serious competitor to remove their irritating obstacles and to inherit their profitable routes. I quite enjoy fixing the competitors' horrible routes, actually. But please do, as gbentley mentions, check the victim's loan balance before buying the last 25% - you have to pay all their debts.
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