This is an idea for a stock exchange for use by those afflicted with the condition of knowing only the future and not the past, an unfortunate pickle, to be sure. Of course, this market is closed to all but those simultaneously suffering from both conditions - that goes for the brokers as well as investors. Let’s leave it to your imagination how to screen these people.
Stock performance results, garnered from the archives of the Wall Street journal, are posted daily, as are contemporaneous performance analyses (by amnesiac precogs only, of course), but in reverse chronological order. Dates posted will be real calendar dates, but information published thereunder will actually be manipulated to reflect activity moving backwards. It should go without saying that participants will be sequestered from normal daily life (so as not to ruin the market), as they probably would be anyway.
The clearinghouse compiles and generates this adjusted amnesiac / precog – friendly information. It’s a roller coaster ride in reverse. But only for “us.”
Example:
3/15: IBM at $51/share 3/16: IBM at $52/share 3/17: IBM at $53/share
3/16: A/P senses IBM will go up on 3/17. 3/17: actual results for 3/15 reported to A/P as 3/17 results. Amnesiac precogs furiously revise analysis and investment strategies, as they might in the “normal” stock market.
IPO’s = bankruptcy, and vice versa.
Caveat investor: “Future performance is no guarantee of past results.”-- snarfyguy, Feb 12 2003 I am going to seize on the 3/15 example given. The obvious response is: "Beware the Ides of March."-- jurist, Feb 13 2003 Two slight (?) problems:
Firstly, in the example you give, it seems as though there is a pivot date, around which you start posting results. on 18 Mar, do you post results for 14 Mar, and so on? When should this pivot date be?
Secondly, these people would be hopeless investors, as they would never remember whether they've actually bought any shares, or had any money, or where the hell they put that bit of paper, what bit of paper, what is this stock market thing anyway, what am I doing here, who am I...-- PeterSilly, Feb 13 2003 Pivot date, yeah. We'll make it the date of the opening of the exchange, I figure. The example's just that. I realize that the idea's probably not going to withstand intense logical scrutiny; you can't realistically expect to convince a whole segment of people that yesterday is tomorrow or whatever. Having said that, the investors could be reminded of their holdings & accounts through daily updates in their portfolio reports.-- snarfyguy, Feb 13 2003 is there such a condition as amnesiac precognate?
mind-boggling stuff-- po, Apr 19 2003 Amnesiac Precognates would trade like short sellers, selling first, then buying?-- ldischler, Apr 19 2003 random, halfbakery