You guys tell me if im wrong but i noticed the stock price of a company is not taking into consideration your cash & stock pile value. It only take into consideration your debt, buildings and maybe some other stuff im missing.
For me this make absolute none-sense!
When im reviewing a company on the NYSE stock exchange, im valuating the company ALSO for his cash and assets (commodity value in stock in your game).
I found it quite stupid to see my cash in hand going up and my stock price not going up in relation to it.
You could be taking into consideration the growth % of the company, it wouldnt be too hard to do this just by taking say the last minute growth %. So a company losing money would see his stock price going down faster as well since its earning or profit going down.
Also, i believe the buy out price should be higher in multiple of the company value. Currently being the first to buy out another sky rocket your chance to win the game.
I think your game should be less linear, i have never seen anybody selling another player company share. For me it does not make much sense either. The game should penalize players who make bad investment into another player company and force them to sell their share before they lose more value. Same goes with your own stocks, i dont see many players buy their own shares even if they know their profit will go up very soon.