HOLLYWOOD STOCK EXCHANGE
THE ENTERTAINMENT MARKET
THE ENTERTAINMENT MARKET
1 Billion....finally made it.
I finally have a billion dollar port. For me, this is a big deal. I know a lot more HSX traders have made a lot more than I have (about 1200 of ‘em) – but I’ve never been a day trader, I run no algorithms, I don’t believe in technical analysis. I trade on the random vagaries of my gut instinct, what I read in boxofficeguru.com and Roger Ebert’s movie reviews, and whatever my buddy Alpamayo tells me he thinks has potential. Admittedly, I’ve taken stretches of months off (sometimes due to work, sometimes due to frustration, sometimes due to boredom) but I always come back to HSX. Admittedly I’ve made some pretty disastrous bets on some pretty bad hunches (‘Snakes on a Plane’ is a lock at 100 million dollars or more….doh…)
I started playing this game a long time ago… a long, long time ago…. In Early Spring 1998….Back when Max Broker and MacDaddy and the Twins were still on the FAQ page. I’m a Virtual Producer on the Shadow of a Vampire DVD. I bought an old-school black + silver HSX baseball cap. I won a t-shirt for being trader of the week. I won a Muppets DVD for a trivia contest.
I was around when you could only buy 12500 of stocks in concept, 25000 of stocks in development, 37500 of stocks in wrap, and 50000 of stocks in release. I used to read hsbr.org religiously, I frequently disagreed with BlueDuck’s film reviews. I remember when bonds had ratings like A, B, C, D. I was here before you could short stocks, for a while as Version 2.0 sputtered and got up to speed, I chatted with Bruce Nash about trying to go for a 1 billion dollar port (back when the biggest port was around 250 million). I’ve watched HSX try lots of different ways to get their product out there – and some really interesting failed experiments (like the Music Exchange). I was here before Holiday Warrants. I made a killing on Titanic and Blair Witch and the Matrix. I’ve been slaughtered on too many stocks to count. I was around before ugly orange Version 3.0.
I traded barbs with Treehard when he tried valiantly (but foolishly) to convince everyone the crappy orange debacle ‘new’ site was an ‘improvement’.
It was a really weird and kinda fun day when my port finally passed Bruce Nash on the leaderboards. He’s always been a hero of mine – really nice guy – and I admire his dedication, his smarts ironically made bonds less profitable for everyone since he figured them out. It’s a different world now with a billion dollars to my name. To paraphrase Gordin Gekko “I remember when 2 million dollars was all the money in the world…. Now it’s just a day’s pay….” Ain’t it the truth.
All that history, all those changes, all that came and went… a scary thought, eh? So thanks to everyone at HSX for a really fun decade. I’m not leaving or anything, I’ll keep chugging along, and I’ll brag again when I hit 2 billion – gimmie at least another decade…. ;)
1 Billion....finally made it. May 13, 07:16
Huzzah! {nm} May 13, 07:31
Welcome to the club! {nm} May 13, 07:34
Congrats. Very, very interesting post, btw {nm} May 13, 08:14
Excellent! Congrats {nm} May 13, 08:28
Congrats - Keep it up {nm} May 13, 09:19
Congratulations! Great post as well! {nm} May 13, 09:26
Congratulations, and ditto on your post. Very nice. May 13, 09:56
nice trading, I love that you posted your story and with writing so fluid I wish you would post more often! {nm} May 13, 10:00
woohoo!...congrat$! {nm} May 13, 10:09
Congratulations! {nm} May 13, 10:45
Congrats! {nm} May 13, 15:30