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1997-06-28
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USER INFO FILE (FILENAME "USERINFO.DOC")
----------------------------------------
┌─────────┐
┌─────┴───┐ │ (R)
──│ │o │──────────────────
│ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of
│ │ │─┘ Shareware
└───│ o │ Professionals
──────│ ║ │────────────────────
└────╨────┘ MEMBER
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SELECTION OF THE SHAREWARE PROGRAM
"WALL $TREET RAIDER." We think you will find that this
highly sophisticated simulation not only endlessly varied and
challenging (no two games are ever very similar), but that
getting it installed and a game started is exceptionally easy.
In terms of computer literacy, RAIDER is a no-brainer to use,
with all choices posed to you as menu selections, or as
questions.
While this is a shareware program, you may only legally use
it for a 30-day evaluation period. Any continued use beyond
30 days is a copyright infringement, and a violation of the
Federal copyright laws. You will find that the program is
completely uncrippled. There is no longer any "commercial"
or "registered" version of the program. This is the only
version extant. However, with registration, you will receive
a "Cheat Code" that lets you do a number of nefarious, slimy,
unethical, financially rewarding (but not entirely risk-free)
dirty tricks.
HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF THE GAME:
-----------------------------------
The program has been an almost lifelong project of the author,
begun while a student at Harvard in 1967, originally designed
as a board game, sort of a corporate version of Parker Brothers'
well known real estate board game (which they will sue us if
we dare mention by name).
After years of development as an ever more complex board game,
Raider (then called "Robber Baron") got so unwieldy and took so
many hours and even days to play, with players all using
electronic calculators, that we finally gave up on it as a
board game around 1975, and began, manically, filling up
notebooks with outlines and ideas of how it could be turned
into a highly sophisticated, easy-to-play computer game, if
someone would just HURRY UP and invent a cheap personal
computer! Fortunately, a few guys in garages did that, and
we began programming Wall $treet Raider in 1984 on our first
Kaypro II. After quitting our job as a tax lawyer, and
working at programming Raider for endless 90 to 100 hour weeks,
we finally delivered the first working version 2 years and one
ulcer later to our publisher, in 1986.
As a shrink-wrapped commercial program, it got rave reviews,
but only after both of our software publishers had let it die
of benign neglect, with almost zero marketing, by late 1988.
A small but hardcore and fanatical users around the country are
apparently still playing the old version, which many tell me
is still ahead of any simulations being done for today's much
faster, more powerful machines.
Since we got the rights to the program back, and decided
to convert it to shareware, we have added much, much more
underlying complexity and texture to the simulation, and we
still play it regularly ourselves. Because of the flexibility
of the program, it lends itself to multiple creative approaches
to solving any problem or reaching a particular financial goal
you may be trying to attain, such as taking control of a
particular company, or having your company become more profit-
able, or dominate its industry. Because it is so much like the
real stock market and the real world of corporate finance and
economics, the more you know and understand about how the real
financial world works, the better you will play Wall $treet
Raider -- and vice versa. It's a fun way to get the equivalent
of your MBA in finance.
While we don't expect a financial simulation of this nature to
appeal to everyone, or to ever make a lot of money on it, we
hope you will enjoy it as much as we do and will financially
support its further development. To do so, please register
your copy if you use and like the program, or order one of
our related products listed on the Registration/Order Form
the program will print out for you.
FILE CONTENTS:
--------------
The remainder of this file contains:
. a description of hardware requirements of the program;
. information about the Association of Shareware
Professionals "Ombudsman" program;
. general information about shareware;
. disclaimer and summary of terms of the license under
which this software is provided by the author; and
. information about the various registration options
and about ordering updates of the program, or ordering
the related books or the Professional Version of the
program;
For detailed instructions on using all the functions of
the program, see on-disk user manual which is provided
below, as part of this file, USERINFO.TXT.
PROGRAM LIMITATIONS--WALL $TREET RAIDER
---------------------------------------
The program is compatible with most MS/DOS PC/DOS systems,
monochrome or color, MDA, Hercules, CGA EGA or SVGA.
However, it will not run properly on some monochrome
monitors used with a color card.
You will need 640K of RAM and either a hard disk or a
floppy disk drive with at least 1.44mb capacity to run the
program. Because of occasional but extensive disk access,
running the program on a hard disk drive is highly
recommended.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
***│WALL $TREET RAIDER will NOT run on the IBM PCjr.│***
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
ASP OMBUDSMAN STATEMENT
-----------------------
"This program is produced by a member of the Association
of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure
that the shareware principle works for you. If you are
unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP
member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able
to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute
or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide tech-
nical support for members' products. Please write to the
ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or
send a CompuServe message, via CompuServe Mail to ASP
Ombudsman 70007,3536."
DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE
-----------------------
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software
before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and con-
tinue using it, you are expected to register. Individual
programs differ on details -- some request registration
while others require it, some specify a maximum trial
period. With registration, you get anything from the
simple right to continue using the software to an updated
program with printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial
software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with
a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors
are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors,
and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases,
there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference
is in the method of distribution. The author specifically
grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either
to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some
authors require written permission before a commercial disk
vendor may copy their Shareware.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software.
You should find software that suits your needs and pocket-
book, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware
system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try
before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are
low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee
-- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it.
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
----------------------
Users of WALL $TREET RAIDER must accept this disclaimer of
warranty:
"WALL $TREET RAIDER is supplied as is. The author
disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, includ-
ing, without limitation, the warranties of merchantabil-
ity and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes
no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which
may result from the use of WALL $TREET RAIDER."
WALL $TREET RAIDER is a "shareware program" and is provided
at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share
it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered
or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported"
software is to provide personal computer users with quality
software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for
programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find
this program useful and find that you are using WALL $TREET
RAIDER and continue to use WALL $TREET RAIDER after 30 days,
you must make a registration payment of $25 to the author and
publisher, Michael D. Jenkins (dba "RONIN SOFTWARE). The $25
registration fee will license one copy for use on any one
computer at any one time, and you will also receive all of the
foloowing, included in the $25 price:
(A) A copy of the latest update of the program (registered
version, with "cheat mode" activated); and
(B) A utility program, which lets you customize (change) the
names of the companies in the simulation, if you wish to
replace any of them with names of your own choosing, such
as companies in your own region or country.
>>> Include $5.00 shipping and handling charge <<<
>>> with overseas orders, or a total of $30.00. <<<
You must treat this software just like a book. An example is
that this software may be used by any number of people and may
be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long
as there is no possibility of it being used at one location
while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read
by two different persons at the same time.
Commercial users of WALL $TREET RAIDER must also register and
pay for their copies of WALL $TREET RAIDER within 30 days of
first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License
arrangements may be made by contacting the author at the
address given on-screen in the program.
Persons or organizations distributing WALL $TREET RAIDER
as shareware are not required to obtain our prior approval
to distribute the program. (However, MICHAEL D. JENKINS
should be advised that the program is being distibuted, so
that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest
versions of WALL $TREET RAIDER, as they are released.)
You are encouraged to pass a copy of WALL $TREET RAIDER along
to you friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to
register their copy if they find that they can use it.
Users who wish to register and receive an updated copy of
the program and the customization utility, plus 90 days of
technical support (by mail) may do so by using the facility
in the WALL $TREET RAIDER program that allows you to print
out an order form.
BENEFITS OF REGISTERING YOUR COPY OF WALL $TREET RAIDER:
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1. RIGHT TO CONTINUED USE OF PROGRAM (LEGALLY). As a regis-
tered user, you may continue to legally use your copy of the
Shareware version of WALL $TREET RAIDER indefinitely, after
the 30-day Evaluation Period has expired.
2. UPDATE OF PROGRAM. You will also receive a free copy of
the latest updated (registered) version of the program, which
you may prefer to use instead, as it allows you to play
games of up to 25 years in length, rather than the much
shorter games allowed in the shareware version after your
30-day license expires.
3. TECHNICAL SUPPORT. All REGISTERED users will receive
the right to 3 months of free technical support, by mail,
of the program, and we will, where feasible, remedy any
"bugs" or system incompatibilies that we can, or, if we are
unable to do so, or choose not to, we will fully and prompt-
ly refund your registration fee. When you register, you
will receive a written notice regarding the address to write
to for such service (if different from the address given in
this version of the program), and, if we have implemented
telephone technical support service by such time, we will
also give you the telephone number to call for technical
support.
4. CUSTOMIZATION UTILITY. If you register your copy of WALL
$TREET RAIDER, we will also send you a Customization Utility
program, which will let you customize the simulation by changing
the names and stock symbols of companies to names and stock
symbols you prefer, such as for companies in your region or
country.
QUESTION: HOW DO I PRINT OUT THE ORDER FORM?
---------
ANSWER: Simply enter "Y" when the program asks you if
------- you want to do so, at the start of a game, after
you have selected the number of players, etc.
Turn your printer on and follow the simple
on-screen instructions.
Then simply enter your name and address on the order form that
the program prints out for you, and mail it in, with a check for
$30 ($25 plus $5 shipping and handling for shipments outside
the U.S. or Canada), to:
MICHAEL D. JENKINS
RONIN SOFTWARE
3020 ISSAQUAH-PINE LAKE ROAD #36
ISSAQUAH, WA 98029-7255
NOTE REGARDING INTERNATIONAL ORDERS:
------------------------------------
Non-U.S. residents should send payment in the form of a Postal
Money Order, in U.S. DOLLARS (only). However, a check from a
major bank, in U.S. currency, is also acceptable. (We cannot
accept checks as payment in non-U.S. currencies, except for
Canadian dollar checks.) If you want to risk mailing currency,
we will accept either U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, or Swiss
francs currencies. We open all our own mail, so there is no
risk of theft at our end, only the risk of loss or theft by the
postal services. (Thus far, no international customers have
ever claimed to have sent us any currency that was lost in the
mail, in over 6 years.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY -
WE NO LONGER ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS.... SORRY....
You can download the registered version of Wall $treet Raider
(but without the "Customizer Utility" program) from atOnce
Download stores on the Internet, AOL, and Compuserve, for
only $7.95, and can pay atOnce by credit card, online. Point
your Web browser to the following Web site:
http://www.atonce.com/pages/ga-door.htm
Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order,
refunds, registration options, product details, technical
support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, non-
credit card orders, etc, must be directed to Michael D. Jenkins
at:
Email address: mdjenk@aol.com.
Telephone (voice): (425) 391-4036.
NOTE THAT THERE IS A $5.00 SHIPPING/HANDLING CHARGE FOR ALL ORDERS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
W A L L $ T R E E T R A I D E R
THE CORPORATE FINANCIAL SIMULATION
ON-DISK DOCUMENTATION
For the IBM (R) Personal Computer, XT, AT,
PS/2 and compatibles
Copyright (c) 1997 by Michael D. Jenkins
All rights reserved.
===========================================================
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
-----------------
Wall $treet Raider is practically a life-long project of
the author, who first developed it as a board game in
1967, while attending Harvard. Since it took a calculator
and about 12 hours to play a game with only 24 simple
corporations, sort of a corporate version of a certain
well known Parker Brothers no one dares even mention in
print (you know the real estate game we're talking about),
this board game remained strictly a weird hobby of the
author and a few crazed but addicted friends.
After many years of waiting, the personal computer finally
arrived, making it possible for us to reinvent Wall $treet
Raider as a computerized financial game that now bears
only a faint resemblance to the old board game version.
It also allowed the author to build in many more levels of
complexity and realism, with massive non-stop number
crunching done by the computer in the background, all with
no effort required on the part of the user, except to
remain highly alert and skeptical, do good research, and
make smart investment and management decisions in very
little time, based on limited information and good hunches.
Sort like the real Wall $treet, except that this is only
a simulation, so if you lose here, the downside won't
include droves of creditors pounding on your door at
2:00 a.m., seeking to repossess your car, your house,
and perhaps your first-born child.
Wall $treet Raider is a commercial program, but we permit
distributors who wish to do so to make copies of the program
and distribute or sell it as a shareware product, provided
they do not modify the program or any of the documentation
or other accompanying files in any way. However, no one may
copy the extensive book, "Take No Prisoners: Wall $treet
Raider -- Strategy and Tactics," a companion book of
approximately 100 pages, which we sell separately for $25.00.
This "Strategy Guide" goes into detailed discussions of
how to most effectively utilize each of the many W$R menu
commands. For example, the section on the "MG" (Merger)
command goes into a long "graveyard humor" discussion
about how mergers work, when to do them (and not to do
them), and various merger strategies and techniques. Game
strategies are explained in terms of real world strategies,
explaining the similarities between the real world and the
W$R simulation (and, in relatively few instances, differ-
ences between the simulation and the structure of financial
reality in the real world of corporate finagling).
This simulation reflects the author's extensive personal
knowledge of corporate finance, business law and the
securities business, having been an economics consultant,
a licensed stockbroker, a "Big 6" CPA, and, finally, a tax
lawyer with a major San Francisco law firm for 4 years.
W$R is constantly being improved and expanded. The orig-
inal version, released in 1986 by a California software
publisher, and so favorably reviewed in InfoWorld when a
copy of it eventually worked its way to the top of the pile
on computer columnist Jerry Pournelle's desk in 1989
(well after commercial publication of W$R had ceased--
Ouch!) came on one 360K disk and required only 256K RAM.
The current edition, with 250 companies, 36 industries,
and almost countless new features, new and interesting
things going on in the background, plus a half dozen major
new commands, requires nearly 640K of RAM.
REGISTRATION AND ORDERING INFORMATION
------------------------------------
You are granted a 30-day free license to evaluate the Wall
$treet Raider software program. After 30 days, you should
either register the program, or erase it. Continued use of
the program after expiration of your 30-day license is a
violation of Federal copyright law.
The program will print out for you an order form that you
can mail in with your registration or payment for other
items listed on the form. See above.
===========================================================
INSTALLATION. Wall $treet Raider ("W$R") is provided to
users in the form of two large, compressed files, with the
file names WSRFILES.EXE and DATFILES.EXE, which contain
the various program and data files, plus a file called
INSTALL.EXE and this documentation file. (However, if
you downloaded it from an on-line service or BBS, or found
it on a CD-ROM, it will probably be in a " .ZIP " file,
that you will need to unzip with a copy of PKZIP's
shareware program, PKUNZIP.EXE, v. 2.04 or later.)
To install W$R, other than the .ZIP file version, simply
type "INSTALL" and follow the simple on-screen instructions.
We suggest you delete the old version of the program from
your hard disk before you begin installation of this
version, if you already have an earlier version of the
program.
That's it. You need only to make sure that the drive on
which you are installing it has approximately 1.2MB of free
memory available, and that the default drive (for example,
floppy disk drive A) contains the W$R diskette with the
files INSTALL.EXE and WSRFILES.EXE.
The program will be installed on the drive you have
specified (C, in the above example) in about 30 to 60
seconds, while you relax. The program (file RAIDER.EXE)
will then be started automatically, and you will be asked
to enter your name, plus a couple of easy questions about
your computer system:
- Whether you are using a color monitor, and
- Whether you have graphics (which can be CGA,
Hercules, EGA, VGA, or SVGA). Even if you
have an old system without graphics
capability, the program will still run
with all features intact, provided you enter
"no" in response to this question.
After you have entered your name and answered the above
two "Yes/No" questions, the first game of W$R will be
started.
STARTING A GAME OF WALL $TREET RAIDER:
-------------------------------------
To start a game, type "RAIDER" from the DOS prompt.
Each time you start a game, you will be asked if the
current default system configuration data is correct
(whether you have color and graphics). You can
accept the current default settings for both, or you
can change the defaults at the start of any game, which
will automatically be saved to disk for future games.
You will then be asked a series of other questions,
including:
- whether you are starting a new game or continuing an
old game that was saved before it was completed;
- whether you want the computer to be one of the
players in the game;
- how many players will be playing the game you are
starting (2 to 4 players, one of whom can be the
computer);
- the names of each of the players (If the computer
is a player, you can also "personify" the computer,
by giving it a name. Thus, if you are playing
against the computer, you may want to name your
opponent after some leading corporate raider,
perhaps some infamous chap who is serving time in
the federal pen these days.);
- whether you want the players to each start off the
game with cash only, or to "inherit" a combination
of stock in a single company, government bonds, and
cash, less some amount of debt;
- In the shareware version of the program, each time you
start a game, you will be asked if you want to register
the program and order the latest registered version and
customizer utility, with "cheat mode" activated. If you
do, enter "Y" (for "YES") when asked, and the program
will print out a registration/order form on your printer.
After you answer questions about the above items, and
decide whether or not to register the program, Wall $treet
Raider will create a unique database for each game, and
the current game will begin, with the first player whose
turn it is selected at random.
USER COMMANDS:
--------------
Once a game is started, you may select transactions to
be executed or select other commands from two menus, the
Play Control Menu and the Main Menu (which consists of
five different submenus, one each for Operations, Research,
Acquiring/Selling, Financing, and Management).
To select an item from any menu, move the lighted bar
to the item, either by using the cursor keys (NUMLOCK KEY
CAN BE ON OR OFF), or the space bar, or + or - keys. (Or,
you may press the letter that corresponds to the first
letter of the menu item, and the lighted bar will move
directly to and highlight the item). Once the menu
selection in the menu box is highlighted, press <ENTER>
key when ready to execute it.
For some items, such as display of your balance sheet
(net worth statement), or to display economic statistics,
simply pressing <Enter> will fully execute the command.
For others, you will be asked to enter a company's stock
symbol (which you can look up by entering "L") or an
industry ID number (ID numbers will be displayed for all
36 industries on screen any time you are asked to select
one). You may also be asked to enter dollar amounts,
always in millions (enter 8.3, for example, if you wish
to borrow $8.3 million), or a percentage of the stock
of a company you wish to purchase (1% to 100%, entered
as a whole number from 1 to 100), or to respond to
other simple questions, or to make choices.
HELP -- Press the F1 function key at any time you are at
the Main Menu or Play Control Menu, for a description of
a particular menu item (the one currently highlighted).
F2 KEY -- Press the F2 function key at any time when you
are at the Main Menu, to change the currently active entity.
For example, if the currently active entity (name displayed
on the lower part of the screen when at Main Menu) is a
corporation you control, and you wish to personally buy some
government bonds, you would need to first press the F2 key
and select yourself (enter "P" for "player") as the active
entity. Once that is done, select the "BOND" menu item
from the Acquire/Sell Submenu and do your bond purchase.
F10 KEY -- Press the F10 function key at any time when you
are viewing the Main Menu (from any submenu), to end your
turn immediately. From the Play Control Menu, you can
press F10 if you wish to quit the game and exit the program.
(Or select the "QT" item from the Play Control Menu.)
PLAY CONTROL MENU:
-----------------
After each player takes a turn, the Play Control Menu
is displayed, which allows the player whose turn is
next to make any of several selections, such as
changing the stock ticker speed (which speeds up or
slows down the rate at which the game progresses --
you might want to select the slower speed as you are
learning the game), saving the game to disk at that
point, exiting the program, or starting that player's
turn.
The menu items on the Play Control Menu are as follows:
SP -- Start Play. This switches action to the Main Menu
and begins the player's turn. (The name of the player
whose turn it is is displayed next to this menu item.)
NX -- Next Player. This causes a skipping of the turn
for the player whose name is shown.
TI -- Change Ticker Speed. Select this item to change
the speed at which the stock ticker moves, from fast to
slow or to medium speed.
CH -- Toggle "Cheat Mode" ON or OFF. (Not possible to
turn on if you have not registered your copy of Wall
$treet Raider and obtained the "cheat code" for activating
"cheat mode.") Allows you to turn off cheat mode if
you want to play an "honest" game.
SV -- Save Game. Select this item to save the game on
disk, with all stock values, etc., exactly as they are
at the instant you save. You can then either quit, or
continue play until the game ends, and, if you don't
like the outcome (if the Computer beats you for the
40th straight time), you can re-play the game from
the point at which you saved it, and see if using a
different strategy works better.
QT -- Quit. This is the only point at which you may
end play and exit the program, except when a game is
completed.
TX -- Texture. This is a "toggle" command that changes
the the screen background from "textured" to "non-
textured." This command does not appear if you have
configured the program for a non-graphics environment.
MAIN MENU:
---------
The Main Menu consists of 5 different Submenus, one of
which is always displayed when a player is taking his or
her turn. The names of each of the 5 Submenus are shown
on menu a bar across the top of the screen. To move from
one Submenu to another (right to left, or left to right),
press the right or left cursor keys (with the NUMLOCK key
in the ON position), or else use the TAB key to move right
or the BACKSPACE key to move left on the menu bar.
The 5 Submenus are displayed like "drop-down" menus in
many other programs, with the difference being that in W$R
you DON'T have to select the item from the menu bar first,
and then use another keystroke to "pull down" the menu.
As soon as you move from one Submenu listed on the menu
bar to the next one, the next one is instantly displayed.
NOTE: There is no way to exit back to DOS from the Main
Menu. This will keep you from inadvertently losing a
game that you are an hour or two into. (Unless you turn
off your computer, or press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, of course.)
If you want to quit and return to DOS, you must select
the OPERATIONS SUBMENU, and the "END" item on that
submenu, which will end your turn and get you back to
the PLAY CONTROL MENU. From the Play Control Menu you
can exit to DOS by selecting the "QT" (QUIT) command.
The following is a brief description of each of the
menu items in the 5 submenus of the Main Menu.
During a player's turn at the Main Menu, he or she
may execute up to 5 major transactions. Only items
listed in the ACQUIRE/SELL, FINANCING, and MANAGEMENT
Submenus are counted as transactions. Thus, you can
use the commands in the OPERATIONS and RESEARCH
submenus as many times as you wish during a turn.
NOTE, however, that your number of remaining allowed
transactions decreases by one at the end of each
calendar quarter of play during your turn. Thus,
even if you do NO transactions, your turn will end
after a year and one-quarter (5 calendar quarters).
OPERATIONS SUBMENU
------------------
Use this submenu to check of the status of various
aspects of the financial situation, such as checking
on your net worth or stock portfolio, or to view
diagrams of any player's or company's stock portfolio,
or such miscellaneous functions as borrowing or
repaying on loans, or to end your current turn, and
return to the Play Control Menu.
BAL -- This item will display a "balance sheet" for the
player whose turn it is, showing cash, bonds, stocks,
which add up to Total Asset, and subtracting loans owed,
to arrive at the player's Net Worth.
PF -- Select this item to see a listing of your
stock portfolio, with current prices, dividend yield,
percentage of each company owned (rather than number of
shares -- in W$R, each company usually starts off with
100 million shares of stock issued, so each 1% you
own = 1 million shares of stock).
SUM -- Use this item to see a summary of your net worth
and of all the other players in this game, so you can
see at any moment who is winning (richest).
DIAG -- This will give you a diagram of stock ownership
holdings for any player or company. For a company, the
diagram will also show who its major stockholders are.
This diagram is displayed using text-based graphics, so
it is the same whether your system has a graphics card or
not.
TAPE -- Displays a full-page earnings report for whichever
company is reporting quarterly earnings at that instant.
Play stops while you are viewing any such earnings report.
LOAN -- Use this selection if you (or a company you
control) wishes to borrow money from a bank, or to make
an early repayment on an existing loan.
SYM -- Displays stock symbols, prompting you to enter a
letter from A to Z. This lookup routine will then show
you the company names and stock symbols for all companies
whose names or stock symbols begin with that letter. You
will rarely ever need to use this command, since any time
W$R prompts you to enter a stock symbol, it also allows
you to enter "L" to look up the stock symbol, using the
same lookup routine.
END -- End your turn, and return to the Play Control Menu,
from which you can either start the next player's turn
(if it is the Computer's turn, it will take its turn
automatically, and usually will tike only 10 seconds or
so), save the game, quit the program, or do any of the
other things listed above under the description of the
Play Control Menu commands.
RESEARCH SUBMENU
----------------
Use the selections in this submenu to look company,
industry, and national economic data, in order to help
you make informed decisions about when and which stocks
to buy or sell, whether to invest in or sell bonds, and
whether or not a company you control needs to increase
or cut back on investment in new facilities, or if it
is uncompetitive, whether you may need to change its
R & D spending levels or take drastic actions such as
firing corporate management, selling off business
assets, restructuring the company, or even getting out
of the business it's in and having the company go into
another industry.
RS -- This item instantly creates a full-page, up-to-the-
minute research report on any of the 250 corporations that
make up the W$R investment universe, including a "buy",
"sell" or "hold" (neutral) recommendation on its stock.
FIN -- Displays a full-page financial summary for any
of the 250 corporations that make up the W$R investment
universe, including such items as stock price, net worth,
net worth per share, credit rating, values of all assets
the company owns, including "business assets" (factories,
aircraft, etc., depending on the type of industry the
company is in), stocks owned in other companies, cash
holdings, government bond holdings, dividend yield and
percentage of earnings the company pays out as dividends,
and more.
IND -- For any of the 36 industries, except banking,
insurance, and holding companies, this command gives a
summary comparison of all companies in that industry,
showing each company's market share percentage, how fast
their business assets (and sales) are currently growing,
their projected profitability 6 months in the future, and
how fast demand is growing for that industry as a whole
(if all the companies in an industry are expanding their
assets faster than demand is growing, supply will exceed
demand, and industry profitability will decline, and
vice versa). Also shows what percent of sales each
company in the industry is spending on Research and
Development (R & D), where relevant. This item can
also give you an idea, when one company completely
dominates an industry, with a market share of 50% or
more, of a possible target for an antitrust lawsuit.
(See "AT" command below, under the discussion of the
Management Submenu.)
ISUM -- Gives a comparative financial summary of all
the companies in any of the 36 industry groups, showing
percent return on net worth (profitability), dividend
yield, net worth per share, and price per share.
OWN -- Displays a stock portfolio listing of all the
stocks owned by any player or company. If playing
against the computer, enter (instead of a stock symbol)
the number "251" to see the computer's stock portfolio.
For other players in the game, whether or not the
computer is a player, enter a number from 251 to 254
(each player in the game is assigned an ID# 251, 252,
and, if there are more than 2 players, 253 and 254 for
players 3 and 4.
SHR -- Displays a list of all the stockholders, and how
much they own, for any corporation. Shares not owned
by a player or by one of the other 250 corporations in
the W$R simulation are considered to be owned by "the
Public."
DB -- Database search command. Allows you to search
for attractive investments, based on any 1 or more of
4 criteria: Stock price, stock price as a percentage
of net worth, dividend yield, and P/E (price to earnings)
ratio. Type "GO" and press enter to begin the search,
once you are satisfied with the search paramaters you
have selected. (Enter -1 for any of the parameters you
wish to have the database search ignore.)
NEWS -- Select this item to see a list of news items,
with up to 15 headlines of recent events that have
occurred in the game being played, such as transactions
by any of the players, corporate takeovers, bankruptcies,
tax changes by Congress, changes in Federal Reserve
monetary policies, changes in banks' prime lending rates,
and many other significant events.
ECO -- Displays a full screen of current economic
statistics, such as rate of growth in GDP (Gross Domestic
Product), various interest rates, price of the 10%
government long-term bond, housing starts, oil prices,
current tax rates, and more.
ACQUIRE/SELL SUBMENU
--------------------
Use the selections on this submenu to acquire or sell
stocks of companies in various ways, or to buy or sell
government bonds (or buy back junk bonds issued by a
company you control), or to buy or sell business
assets (plant, equipment, etc.).
BUY -- This command allows you (or any corporation that
you control) to buy stock in corporations. You or your
controlled company may buy up to 15% of a company's stock
from "the Public" on the open market. Note that buying
stock on the open market will tend to run up the price of
that stock. The more you buy, the more you force the
price up.
Or you may buy ANY amount of stock from a company you
control that already owns the stock in question, at the
current market price. This type of buy transaction does
not affect the stock's market price.
SELL -- This menu command lets you (or any company that
you control) sell stock from your (or its) stock
portfolio. Note that the more stock you sell, the more
you will drive down the market price of that stock.
BOND -- Lets you buy 10% government bonds, in units of
$100 million face value. The price of government bonds,
say 103, represents the percentage of face value at
which the bonds are currently trading. Thus, to buy
1 unit of $100 million face value of bonds if the price
is 103, you would have to pay $103 million.
If you control a company that has issued its own IOU's,
called "junk bonds" in this simulation, you may also
use this command to have such a company buy back such
high-interest (15%) bonds at the current bond price
(which is assumed to the same as the price of 10%
government bonds), or at 105, whichever is less.
TO -- Tender Offer, or Takeover command. If you want
to buy more than a 15% interest in a company (you will
need at least 20% ownership if you want to "control"
the company and make decisions for it), you can use
the TO command to buy up to 100% of the company, all
at one price, up to 25% above the current market price.
LBO -- Leveraged Buyouts. If you control a company,
say 20% of it, which seems undervalued, you can use
this command to have the company use its own money
(or borrowed money) to buy back all its stock that
is owned by the Public. For instance, if the Public
owned the other 80%, the company could buy back all
80% of the Public stock, leaving you as the sole,
100% owner after the transaction. To raise the
money for such an LBO, it may often be necessary for
the corporation to borrow all it can from the bank,
and possibly even sell a lot of 15% junk bonds.
GM -- Greenmail. Similar to the LBO command above,
except that instead of buying back the stock owned
by the public, your controlled company can buy back
(sometimes) the stock of other corporations who own
a non-controlling block of its stock.
MG -- Mergers. If your company wants to take over
another company, but doesn't have the money (or can't
borrow enough) to do the takeover, you can instead
have it propose a stock-for-stock merger, in which
your company will issue new shares to all the
stockholders of the "target" company, which it will
then acquire as a wholly-owned subsidiary (or become
a wholly-owned subsidiary of, in certain cases,
called "reverse mergers"). A merger will usually
dilute your ownership of the "parent" company, so
that you will wind up with a smaller percentage
interest in a larger, combined, enterprise, which
will usually be worth just about the same as your
stock in the one company an instant before the
merger took place.
AC -- Acquire assets. This selection allows a
company you own to increase its investment in business
assets (new airplanes for an airline, new trains
and rail line for a railroad, new plants for most kinds
of industrial companies, etc.). It can either invest
in new assets (which increases the supply for the
industry as a whole) or simply acquire assets from
another company that you also control. Use this
command also to have a company sell off business
assets, on which it will usually take a loss if those
assets are not currently earning a satisfactory rate
of return.
FINANCING SUBMENU
-----------------
Use the choices on this submenu to raise money in
any of a variety of ways, either to keep a company
you control "liquid" enough to stay out of trouble,
or to enable it to make investments, pay out large
dividends, or to shore up a company's finances if
it is too heavily in debt, by issuing new stock.
PO -- Public Offering. Allows you to have a company
(that you control) issue new stock to the Public, to raise
cash and improve its balance sheet, which may result in an
improved credit rating and, as a result, a lower interest
rate on its bank loan.
WK -- White Knight offering. Allows your controlled
company to seek out a large, "neutral" company that will
buy newly-issued stock in your company. Effect is same as
a Public Offering (above), except that you may not want
too many share of stock in Public hands, if you are
concerned that another player might be able to buy up
enough Public stock to wrest control of the company from
you. This is a way to "park" the newly-issued stock in
the hands of a friendly (or at least neutral) "White
Knight" shareholder, where they can't be bought by
another player. The "White Knight" company will always
vote its stock with your stock, against any merger
attempt, too, in the event that another player attempts
to take over your company by means of a stock-for-stock
merger.
JB -- Junk Bonds. Allows your company (if its credit is
not TOO bad) to issue high-interest (15% of face value)
"junk bonds" to the Public, at the current bond price,
up to a maximum price of 105% of face value (105). This
is a way to borrow some more, when the bank won't lend
your company any more money, either because your company
has too poor a credit rating, or because an opposing
player controls the lending bank, which shuts off your
company's line of credit from the bank. Issuing junk
bonds is risky, because you have to pay such high
interest. If you can't earn at least a 15% return on
the borrowed money, it will usually be a losing
proposition, unless there are special tax considerations.
CC -- Capital Contribution. This selection allows you,
or a company you control, to contribute cash to a company
you own at least 80% of the stock of. This might come in
handy if, for example, you own a small company that has
almost gone bankrupt, in an industry dominated by a
rapacious competitor, whom you think your little company
might be able to successfully sue in an antitrust case --
if only your company had enough cash to pay for good
lawyers -- up front, of course. Thus, you might drop
a few hundred million for legal fees into the company,
if you owned 80 to 100% of its stock, so it could pay
the lawyers and file the antitrust suit.
XD -- Extraordinary Dividend. This is sort of the
opposite of a capital contribution (CC command, above).
Here, instead of putting money INTO a company you control,
you take a big chunk of money out of it all at once, up to
30% of its net worth. (You must own 51% or more of the
company's stock to have it make an XD distribution).
Note that any such extraordinary dividend is taxable, the
same as any other dividend. (Fully taxable to an
individual player; only 20% of the dividend is subject to
tax if paid to a 20%-or-over corporate shareholder, or
only 30% is taxable to a less-than-20% corporate
shareholder.)
MANAGEMENT SUBMENU
------------------
Use this menu to set various management policies for a
company you control, or for such rather drastic measures
as firing existing management, "restructuring" the
company, or filing an antitrust lawsuit against another
company in the same industry.
CM -- Change Management. Just what it sounds like. If it
appears your company isn't competitive with other companies
in its industry, in terms of its return on business assets
(see IND command for a comparison of all the companies in
an industry), you can fire existing management. A few
months later (watch the teletype news ticker, and check
the NEWS command occasionally), you will usually learn if
your new management is turning the company around, or is
no better than the old, or is a complete disaster.
GROW -- Growth rate. Lets you set the annual rate of
growth in business assets (capital spending) for a company
you control. The more a company expands, relative to the
other companies in its industry, the larger its "market
share" becomes, and, in W$R, higher market share increases
relative profitability, all other things being equal (they
never are). If things really look gloomy, as in a
Depression, you can set you company's growth rate at as
low as -10%, which means that, instead of it putting money
INTO new plant and equipment, it is simply converting 10%
of its business assets into cash each year, by letting
them depreciate, without any new net capital spending.
Conversely, if industry prospects are booming, you will
want to build more plants, buy more airplanes or ships,
or whatever, so you may increase the growth rate to as
much as 30%. (NOTE: Fast-growing companies will tend
to trade at higher price-to-earnings ratios than slower-
growing companies in this simulation, as in the real
world, so in the short run you may be able to give a
boost to your company's stock price by creating a flurry
of expansion -- assuming the company has the financial
wherewithal to make such capital investments.)
DVD -- Dividend payout. Lets you set the percentage
of annual earnings that a company (that you control)
pays out to shareholders as dividends. You can set
this percentage at anywhere from 0% to 100% of the
prior year's annual earnings. There are various
pros and cons of high or low dividend payouts in
W$R, as in the real world. See our Strategy and
Tactics book for a discussion of the pros and
cons of either high or low payouts.
RD -- R & D Spending. For companies in certain high-
tech industries, you may spend anywhere from 0% to 30%
of annual sales on Research and Development (R & D),
in an attempt to improve profitability. The more you
spend, the more you cut into your company's current
profits, but the more likely you are to come up with
major increases in its long-term level of profitability.
The choice of whether to spend a lot or a little on
R & D is always a tough one. In the short term, you
may make a company's earnings look a lot better by
slashing its R & D budget, but the company will usually
suffer a year or two down the road, particularly if all
its competitors are spending heavily on R & D and are
become more profitable than it is.
LQ -- Liquidation. This command lets you "liquidate"
a wholly-owned company into a parent company in the
same industry (or if either company is a "holding
company," with no business assets invested in any
industry). In a liquidation, the "liquidated" sub-
sidiary goes out of existence temporarily (it will
soon resurface as a small, publicly-owned company
with cash, but not business assets), and all of its
assets are transferred, tax-free, to the parent
corporation. Thus, if you have 2 companies in an
industry, one with a 15% market share, and the
other with a 25% market share, and you liquidate
one company into the other, the surviving company
will have a 40% market share, which may make it
a formidable competitor, much more profitable
than either of the two companies were before the
liquidation. Also, if one of the two companies
has unused tax "net operating loss carryovers,"
those will carry over to the surviving company,
and can be used to shelter the earnings of the
combined enterprise from taxes until taxable
earnings offset all of the tax loss carryover,
which may mean several years of paying no taxes,
in an ideal situation.
AT -- Antitrust lawsuit. Any company in an industry
(other than financial companies, such as banks, insurance
companies and holding companies) may sue any other
company in that industry for anti-trust violations (and
may be countersued if the claim is frivolous). In W$R,
the best evidence of antitrust violations is when a
company has a very large market share percentage in its
industry, such as over 50%. In general, the higher the
defendant company's market share, the more likely you
are to win an antitrust suit (for up to $5 BILLION in
damages against it). When every other attempt to
manage your company has failed to make it very profitable,
an antitrust suit against a successful competitor in its
industry (particular if the competitor is owned by another
player) can be a longshot way of winning a large windfall
and possibly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
In short, if you can't beat 'em fairly, sue 'em.
REST -- Restructure. This is a new command, just added to
the last version of the program. This command allows you
to have a company you control "restructure" its business
by laying off thousands of employees, paying them large
severance or early retirement bonuses, and writing off
(scrapping) large portions of its business assets, up to
50% of assets, in some cases. The immediate effect,
depending on how large a restructuring charge-off you
decide to take, it to clobber your company's net worth,
as well as creating a loss (or sharply reduced net
income) for that quarter. The gamble is that this
re-structuring of the company will greatly increase
the profitability of the remaining business asset
base, by getting rid of redundant employees and
unproductive plant and equipment, so that future
earnings will be sharply increased.
PRES -- Elect your self president of a company you
control. This command allows you, by selecting it,
to elect yourself president of the currently active
entity you have selected (if any). If you have not
yet selected an "active entity" (company) at the
moment, the program will give you a list of companies
you control to choose from. You must control a
company before you can be elected president, and as
soon as you lose control, you will be fired as its
president. You can only be president of any one
company at a time. The advantage of electing yourself
as president of a company is that you will draw a
large annual salary (payable quarterly) -- the larger
the company, the larger the salary. (Of course, the
salary you take will decrease the company's pre-tax
earnings.)
CHEAT SUBMENU
-------------
(NOTE: This Submenu may not be visible all the time,
or usable, in the unregistered version of the game,
after your 30 day use period has expired.
CALL -- This "cheat" command allows you, if you control
a particular bank, to call in part of the loan owed to
that bank by any other player or corporation. This can
be devastating and demoralizing to an opposing player,
especially if he or she is highly leveraged and has
little cash on hand, and is thus forced to immediately
sell off stocks or bonds to raise enough cash to meet
the accelerated loan payment demanded. Don't EVER use
this command if you are playing against your spouse, if
you value your marriage!
LIST -- This is a sneaky command, where you bribe the
employees of a particular bank to see what the bank's
loan portfolio looks like. This is handy information
that you could never get you hands on legally. It can
be very helpful when you want to take over a bank and
use the CALL command above to terrorize some of your
opponents or their companies. Also helpful, if you
are considering investing in a bank, to have a look
at the health of its loan portfolio before you buy its
stock. This listing not only shows who has borrowed
how much from the bank in question, but also shows
the current current rating of each such borrower and
who (if anyone) controls the borrower company.
LAWS -- Nuisance lawsuits. This is about as low as you
can sink. Use this if you are a rich, fat cat, and your
competitor's company is in weak or vulnerable financial
condition. All you do with this is file a frivolous law-
suit against somebody else's corporation, run up a lot of
legal fees (which you can afford, but the opposition can't),
and hopefully put them out of business. Think of it as
kicking the crutches out from under a financial cripple.
Nice guys finish last, remember. Particularly on Wall
Street. (Of course, if you make a habit of this, your
target may eventually hammer you with a countersuit for
malicious prosecution, but that won't matter if you've
already eliminated them from the game by financially
ruining a company they own stock in.
RUMR -- Rumor-mongering. Can we sink any lower than
phony, frivolous nuisance lawsuits? You bet we can, and
this is it. Start a nasty, scurrilous rumor about an
opponent's company, and watch its stock dive and its
business go bad as well, sometimes. Very, very nasty.
Of course, they may return the favor by badmouthing one
of your companies as payback. So think twice about using
this kind of whispering campaign. It's cheap to get
started, but can get expensive if the opposition responds
in kind. "What goes around...."
NAME -- While you can permanently customize the names of
all the companies (except certain Japanese companies) in
the Wall $treet Raider simulation, if you have registered
and obtained our "CUSTOMIZER" utility, the "NAME" command
also allows you to temporarily change the name of a company
you control, for the rest of the current game. Thus, if
you take over United Airlines, and liquidate all its airlines
assets, to go into the semiconductor industry, you might want
to change the name of the company to "United Semiconductors,"
or, if your name is Jones, to "Jones Semiconductor" or "Jones
Industries," or the like.
FREZ -- This command lets you, if you control a bank, "freeze"
that bank's lending to all competing players and all companies
controlled by other players in the game. This, needless to
say, can sometimes put quite a crimp in the style of your
competitors, if their companies borrow from a bank or banks
you control. Also use this command to UNfreeze lines of
credit you have previously frozen. (You can also use the
CALL command to call in 50% of the loans, individually, of
competing players or of any corporation.)
COMMENTS ON STRATEGIES AND TACTICS:
-----------------------------------
In Wall $treet Raider, as on the real Wall Street, the
name of the game is success, and the way you keep score
is with money. You can either try to be smart, work hard
and do a lot of good research, manage your companies well
and get rich slow, or you can take large gambles (by
floating lots of junk bonds or doing LBOs, for example) or
play dirty (suing your competitors, trading on "insider"
tips, etc.) and try to make a ton of loot in a hurry, by
fair means or financial sleight of hand and trickery.
This simulation is deliberately created to allow for a
great deal of flexibility and free-form, creative financial
manipulation, as much like the real world of high finance
as we can imagine and make it. Thus, the more you play
W$R, the more creative gimmicks you are likely to come up
with, in terms of ways to manipulate stock prices, keep
down your company's taxes, savage the competing players
and their companies, improve your companies' profitability,
and so on and on.
While W$R isn't an exact replica of the real world, in
terms of tax and SEC laws, accounting conventions, or
business dynamics, it does build in a great deal of
reality, and with it, a lot of the same type of tough
decision-making processes, and we have a hunch that if
you play it long enough, you will get a much better gut-
level understanding of how financial markets work, and
what tends to make stock prices go up or down. We know
that creating this game, going back to 1967, has done a
great deal to teach US about the stock market, and has
been almost (but not quite) as good a learning tool over
the years as actually trading stocks and bonds, and
working to help put together billion dollar corporate
takeovers and mergers in the '70s and '80s, both as a
tax lawyer and as a CPA in a giant accounting firm (with
a brief spell as a consulting economist and a licensed
stockbroker, to boot).
Of course, if you're the impatient type, who doesn't
like learning by trial and error, and gets tired of losing
games of Wall $treet Raider to the computer or to human
opponents, there is always a shortcut....Our book, "Take
No Prisoners: Wall $treet Raider -- Strategy and Tactics,"
not part of the basic registration, is available for $25 if
you wish to order it from us. It's nearly 100 pages of
pithy advice and detailed description of the inner workings
of Raider, and how to play it most ruthlessly and effectively.
To order it, send us your check for $25 for the book, at the
following address:
Michael D. Jenkins
RONIN SOFTWARE
3020 Issaquah-Pine Lake Rd.
Suite #36
Issaquah, WA 98029
Email: INTERNET - mdjenk@aol.com
AOL - mdjenk
