The Rules (Short Version): Between
Thanksgiving and the
nominations,
players bid on all Oscar-eligible movies. Dime to open, dime to raise.
The high
bidders of nominated movies split half the pot; the other half starts
the new
pot for the Oscar winner. Between nominations and the awards, ten
shares of
each nominated movie are traded; each share of the Oscar-winner is
worth 1/10
of the pot. Interested? email me.
The Rules (Long Version): actually, this goes on for a bit.
Before we start: I will announce the categories at some point, depending on how many players there are. All the rules below take the Best Picture category as the example; I expect to at least have four categories: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress. Each category is playing for a separate pot. Players can pick as many movies (directors, actors, etc.) as they please; each choice costs a dime. If more than one player chooses a movie, I will randomly choose which player gets the bid. The dime goes in the pot whether you are the chosen player or not. If that's unclear, see the example.
First phase: Thanksgiving until nominations announced on January 25.Any movie that does not already have a high bidder
is still
open for a dime, just as it was before Thanksgiving. Once a movie has
been
started, you can bid any movie up one dime more than its last price
(you can
only raise one dime per day, so after seven days the highest bid for a
movie
could be $0.80. If there’s a bid every day, a movie could get to $6.30
by the
24th of January). Players email me their bids. If there
is more
than one bid on a movie, I choose between them randomly. You can send
me a bid
on as many movies as you like, on as many days as you like. There’s a
cost to bidding, though; at the time of
nomination, you pay into the pot half of your highest (successful) bid.
If that's unclear, see the example.
Phase II: the five films, January 25-February 26.
At nominations, half the pot is divided evenly between the holders of the five movies, the other half stays in the pot for the eventual winner. The holder of each nominated movie is given ten shares of that movie to keep or sell as she pleases (via the Bargaining Mechanism). Selling is frozen on the day of the Awards. When the award is given, each shareholder of the winner gets 1/10 of the pot for each share held. If that's unclear, see the example.
Bargaining Mechanism: Any player can choose
to post
(via email to me) a buying price and a maximum number of shares, which
will be
posted on the web page. It’s up to the owner(s) to accept or refuse
that price
for however many shares she chooses up to the maximum. Once the player
posts
the buying price, if any owner takes him up on it in the next day, the
transaction is done, and the player pays that price. After a day, the
offer is
considered withdrawn; the prospective buyer can resubmit the same offer
or a
different one. The owner can also choose to post (via an email to me) a
selling
price, which will be posted on the web page. That price is considered a
guideline, and isn’t binding (unlike the buyer’s price). Oh, and the
buyer
can’t specify an owner, only a price. If more than one owner accepts
that
price, I’ll roll the dice. If that transaction leaves shares above the
minimum,
another owner can accept the offer for those shares. Any transaction
costs
$0.10 (per share) into the pot, paid by the buyer. It may be easier to
look at the example.
Still have questions? Try the details
page.