Long Short (1982)

The game board shows price charts/tables for 6 commodities 2 each of 3 different price levels. Every player id dealt 10 commodity cards which change the price up or down of one or more of the commodities. Every player starts with $10,000 and the winner is the player who has the most money after everyone has played all ten of their cards.

On a players turn they can: 1 - enter or close out a contract (going either long - betting the price will go up; or short - betting the price will go down; 2- play a price movement card; 3 - roll the dice (usually either resulting in a commodity price movement or an action card draw (random event)).

The nature of the futures market is that you take positions based on whether you believe a commodity price will go up or down. If you think the price will rise, you buy or go 'long' of the commodity hoping that by the time the contract matures, you can sell them back at a profit. Conversely, if your hunch (or information) is that prices will fall, you sell or go 'short' thinking you can close out the deal at a lower price, again making money. So the logic is that whatever way the market moves, you can make profits - if you are right. The one thing that this game does is give each person at least one chance to sell a contract at any time - not just on your turn - so if you think it is the perfect time - you can interrupt another player's turn to sell to lock in your profits.

The game is over after everyone plays their last card - and no new contracts can be started during the last round (1 card left). There is still quite a bit of luck in the game, with wild swings possible in some commodity prices, but you start with all the cards you will have and therefore have a good bit of information about some price swing possibilities - all you need is some help and a bit of help from the random events.

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