The board game “Black Monday” is based on the historic event that occurred on October 19, 1987, known as Black Monday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by a staggering 22.6% in just one day, plunging investors into despair. It marked the worst single-day stock market crash in the history of the U.S. stock market.
Board Game “Black Monday”:
This board game revolves around stocks and stock prices, directly reflecting the activities in the stock market. Unlike actual stock markets, the game allows players to engage in activities such as “stock manipulation.”
Objective of the Game: Maximizing Profits in the Stock Market
The goal of Black Monday is simple: achieve more profits in the stock market than your competitors. The game comprises “stock cards” and “money.” Using these, players can buy and sell stocks, either making a profit or incurring losses.
Additionally, the game allows manipulation of stock prices, where players can raise or lower the stock prices.
Rules are Not Complicated, but the Game is Competitive
While the rules of the game are relatively straightforward, players, in turn, use the cards they hold to perform the following actions:
- Stock Trading (Buying and Selling):
- Players can buy stocks using a maximum of two cards per turn. However, a player cannot hold more than 1200 shares of a single stock.
- There are no restrictions on selling stocks. Players can sell all the stocks they own in a single turn.
- Stock Price Change:
- After trading stocks, players can change stock prices. They can place any desired card from their hand to initiate a stock price change. There are limitations on the maximum fluctuation allowed for each stock per turn. Players can perform a maximum of two stock price changes in a turn.
- Stock Card Exchange:
- Following stock price changes, players can exchange stock cards. They can discard between one and four cards from their hand, receiving new cards in return. One player can perform card exchanges only once per turn.
- Replenishment of Stock Cards:
- To trade stocks or change stock prices, players need to consume cards. At the end of a turn, players replenish the cards they spent from the deck. Each player must always have eight cards in hand.
Stock Delisting:
Some cards have the function of delisting stocks. They can either increase or decrease the stock price, and when delisted, the player holding those stocks must discard them all. The delisted stocks then receive a new price.
Game End:
The game concludes when the “Market Closed” card is drawn from the deck. In the first round, this card is not included, but in subsequent rounds, it is added. When a player draws the “Market Closed” card, the game ends immediately. Players calculate their wealth by combining cash and stocks, and the player with the highest total becomes the winner.